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Catavi is a tin mine in Bolivia, near the city of Llallagua in the province of Bustillos, Potosí Department. Along with the Siglo XX mine, it is part of a mining complex in the area.

History [link]

Catavi was generally used as the name for the mining region or complex. After the Nationalization of mines of 1952, the company was known as Catavi Mining Co. (Empresa Minera Catavi); it was the largest mining company of the national corporation, COMIBOL.

    By the late 1920's, after Patiño bought the Chilean Llallagua mining company, the region was still called Llallagua - a name that was retained by the large town next to the mining concession. Under Patiño, those facilities grew, since he consolidated the operations of his Salvadora mine and mills he had in Uncia (a few miles away), and of the other mines he acquired in the region. The main mine in the Llallagua mountain has been known as Siglo XX since then. But, folklore has mixed up the use of names for that large mining complex.
   What is clear  is that there never was a mine named Catavi. Catavi was the name of the large complex of mills, administrative buildings, warehouses, repair shops, etc. In addition, there were some large housing camps, church, school, hospital and other facilities that served the mining population. 
   Patiño's  first struck it rich in his La Salvadora mine, on the far SW side of the Llallagua mountain complex; that mine allowed him to buy other mines in the area, capping his efforts with the Llallagua purchase in the mid-1920s. After that, Simón Iturri Patiño was dubbed the "King of Tin." The Catavi-Siglo XX comples was the site of continual labor strife since the early 1940s, and its mineworkers were active in the Union Federation of Bolivian Mine Workers (FSTMB). 

The mine was nationalized following the "Bolivian National Revolution" of 1952, when the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) and its allies overthrew the military junta. Catavi and other mines were placed under the control of a new state agency, the Corporación Minera de Bolivia (COMIBOL). The Catavi-Siglo XX complex became the largest component of COMIBOL, employing up to more than 5,000 workers.

On June 24, 1967, government troops under the orders of General René Barrientos and a new military junta marched on the mine and committed the largest massacre of workers in Bolivian history. The massacre occurred on St John the Baptist's Day, an indigenous holiday.^{[citation needed]}

Over the following decades, the grade of the tin ores decayed, mines got deeper and production costs made it unprofitable. In 1987, as part of an economic restructuring deal with the IMF and World Bank, the government shut down production at Catavi.

Coordinates: 18°25′00″S 66°38′00″W / 18.4166666667°S 66.6333333333°W / -18.4166666667; -66.6333333333

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