How was silver/gold mining done in colonial Americas?
Upvote:3
Mining practices were relatively sophisticated by the 1500s in Europe, especially in Germany. The same technologies used in Europe were installed in early colonial mines.
An excellent reference on 1500s era mining is De Re Metallica by Agricola, wriiten in 1556. The techniques shown here were highly relevant until the early 1800s.
Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_re_metallica (links to free versions of the text, in article). Note the illustrations with various mechanical linkages and techniques for extraction and processing.
P.s. An interesting history factoid is that the premier translation of Agricola's book from the Latin was done by (future) President Herbert Hoover and his wife in 1912.
Upvote:6
Silver was extracted mainly from large, deep mines. The largest of these was at Potosi in modern day Bolivia. It employed nearly 60,000 people. Rain was not much of a problem because it was located in high, arid mountains.
Two things made the system work. The first was a system of forced, tribute labor. These laborers (less than 10%) of the work force, had the unpleasant, dangerous jobs of transporting the ore to the surface. The other, relatively "safe" jobs of digging the ore were filled mainly by wage workers. The second was the concurrent discovery of the Patio process, the first "amalgamation" process, for extracting ore, that was a major improvement over existing processes.
Upvote:7
Gold was usually found in low places, in the middle of rain forests. Even though there were gold mines in Buriticá y Remedios (Nueva Granada), the usual method was finding alluvial gold, dragged by sand in the rivers.
Silver was extracted only from mines. In the Altiplano (Andean Plateau), the natives used an "explosive technique" that was adopted by the Spanish: they filled cracks in the rocks with water, which broke the rocks when freezing at night. At the beginning they used hand mills, replaced after by hydraulic mills. To refine the silver there were two methods used, foundry and amalgamation.
Hand mill:
Hydraulic mill:
Huayra used in foundry:
Amalgamation:
More post
- 📝 How many people were beheaded by the Guillotine in France during the French Revolution (1789-1794)?
- 📝 Before European influence circa 1600, did any Chinese believe the Earth was spherical, and did they ever try to measure it?
- 📝 Were any of the historical figures of the American Civil War close at West Point?
- 📝 Where do the terms Red Team and Blue Team come from?
- 📝 What do these terms in Caesar's Gallic Wars mean?
- 📝 How did Napoleon I succeed in France despite his shortcomings in French?
- 📝 Why were the military and civil powers split in the Late Roman Empire?
- 📝 How did the ruling class in the Muslim world react to the discovery and colonization of the Americas?
- 📝 Which culture used no personal names?
- 📝 From 1936-45 what was the prescribed punishment in Nazi Germany for failing to join or participate in the Hitler Youth?
- 📝 What caused the rise of international anti-semitism during the early 20th century?
- 📝 Did early northern Europeans drink alcohol?
- 📝 What is under the Great Sphinx of Giza?
- 📝 English society in the early 19th century: Was aristocracy including royal members?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this (circa 1841) uniform?
- 📝 Which is the first culinary book ever written?
- 📝 How widely were Ramadan observed among Muslim slaves in pre-civil war America?
- 📝 Why is the English name of the country "Russia" not spelled "Rossia" (with the letter o)?
- 📝 Real-life examples of finding long-lost treasure?
- 📝 Was it ever deemed illegal to translate the Qu'ran?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union have multiple airplane manufacturers?
- 📝 Which Nazi functionary is shown here?
- 📝 Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas and the Science
- 📝 What was American anti-tank doctrine during WWII on paper, and how did it differ from in practice?
- 📝 What were levels of insular migration like in pre-Industrial Britain (1650-1780)?
- 📝 Would Lauri Törni have recieved the Waffen-SS blood type tattoo?
- 📝 Why was immigration from France to the United States lower than from some other countries?
- 📝 Why did India use Soviet military hardware during the Cold War?
- 📝 How common are major cities not built by abundant water?
- 📝 What is the most important historical theme of Bronze age society
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How was silver/gold mining done in colonial Americas?
- 📝 How did gold come to symbolize lower ranks than silver in the United States Air Force?
- 📝 Before the Land Bridge Theory, how was human presence in the Americas explained?
- 📝 In the first half of 20th century, how was gold inspected for authenticity?
- 📝 In Viking combat, how much damage was done using the shield?
- 📝 How was library classification done in English-speaking libraries prior to the 19th century?
- 📝 How was planning done before computers?
- 📝 At the end of the Seven Years War, what was the total amount of gold and silver in Britain?
- 📝 How was law enforcement handled in large US cities before professional police?
- 📝 How was Germany able to hold itself together, while Austria-Hungary could not?
- 📝 How serious was Fermat's statement about the ancients?
- 📝 How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
- 📝 When was Silver ever more valuable than Gold?
- 📝 How was the United States able to produce excellent tanks in 1942?
- 📝 How long was a sea journey from England to East Africa 1868-1877?
- 📝 How did medieval manors handle population growth? Was there room for more fields to be ploughed?
- 📝 How prevalent was pork in Arabia before Arabs conversion to Islam?
- 📝 How popular was the Soviet Union?
- 📝 How could Jews integrate into Western modern society back when Saturday was a normal working day?
- 📝 How was titanium transported from Soviet Union to Area 51 for Oxcart?
- 📝 How difficult was to escape from a naval battle after engaging into one during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How likely is it that any non-Celtic language was spoken in the British Isles when the Romans invaded?
- 📝 How did the gold of the new world cause the Spanish Empire to collapse?
- 📝 How significant was the Fall of Constantinople as an event leading to the Age of Exploration?
- 📝 How and why was the boundary between West and East Berlin decided to be where it was?
- 📝 How difficult was it to spoof the sender of a telegram in 1890-1920's in USA?
- 📝 How was the modern geographic boundary between Europe and Asia decided?
- 📝 How were diplomats and their staffs treated when World War II was declared?
- 📝 How was the Luftwaffe able to destroy nearly 4000 Soviet aircraft in 3 days of operation Barbarossa?
- 📝 How common was smoking in first half of the 20th century?