Simón Iturri Patiño
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Simón Iturri Patiño (Santivañez, Bolivia 1 June 1860- Buenos Aires, Argentina 20 April 1947) was a Bolivian tin miner, industrialist and entrepreneur
Patiño started his career at a mining supplies trading company in Oruro. He then acquired a mining concession in Llallagua, that allegedly was a payment on a bad debt. The turning point in his fortune came in 1900 when he found in the mountain a very rich vein, later called "La Salvadora" (The Savior). Over the next 10 years he built up the control of nearby mines and other important mines in Bolivia, including Catavi, Siglo XX, Uncia and Huanuni. By the 1920s he had also bought out Chilean interests in his mining company and went on to buy tin smelters in England and Germany. By the 1940s he controlled the international tin market and was one of the wealthiest men on the world, hence his "title" King of Tin (Rey del Estaño).
He had been living between Europe and Bolivia since around 1912 and after a heart attack in 1924 he moved definitely abroad, first to Paris, then to New York and finally to Buenos Aires where he died.
His large wealth made him a heavyweight in Bolivian politics and was locally both admired and hated.
The Bolivian Revolution of 1952 nationalised the Patiño Mines and it is claimed that his heir Antenor Patiño had his hand in the military coup that deposed the leader of the revolution, then President Victor Paz Estenssoro, in the 1960s.
