In 1895 Simon Patino was a shop clerk in a remote town on the Bolivian Altiplano. Twenty years later he was the world's fifth richest man, richer even than the Astors and the Rothschilds. Mike Gonzalez tells Patino's extraordinary story and the parallel story of the miners whose labour made his immense fortune.

Bolivian miners have always been at the heart of the country's history since the days of the silver boom in the 16th century. Patino drew people from the local Indian communities to his mines, and many of these people still work them today in conditions little different to 100 years ago. Gonzalez visits Patino's extravagant mansions in Cochabamba and Oruru, as well as going deep into the heart of his last working mine, to discover the histories of the "Tin Man" and his miners.