The Mexican state of San Luis Potosí has an area of 24,266 square miles (62,849 km˛). It is in the north-central part of the Mexican republic, It borders Coahuila to the north, Nuevo Leon to the north-east, Tamaulipas to the east, Veracruz to the east, Hidalgo, Queretaro, and Guanajuato to the south,and Zacatecas to the north-west. At the 2005 census the population was 2,410,414. The largest University in the State is the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP).
The native peoples of the state are among the tallest in Mexico and include the Huastecs and Pame people. In addition to the state capital San Luis Potosí, the state's largest cities include Ciudad Valles,
Matehuala, and Rioverde. The state is at the center of an international ecological scandal, due to the illegal operation of Minera San Xavier, a subsidiary of Metallica Resources at the town of
its foundation, Cerro de San Pedro, just 20 kilometers away from the state capital, with a known poisonous technique banned in first world countries, open pit mining leaching by cyanide.
