Benito Arias Montano (Benedictus Arias Montanus), Orbis tabula (Antwerp, 1571). JCB #08989.

global flows of precious metals

Olivier van Noort, Beschryvinghe van de voyagie(Rotterdam & Amsterdam, 1602), in Theodore De Bry, Additamentum nonae partisAmericae (Frankfurt, 1601).JCB 09187.http://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/a8u6qs

Image derived from De Bry: Das Silber Bergwerck Potosi in Peru (Braunschweig, 1727). JCB 74-162. http://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/ys7an2

“un pueblo levantado tumultariamente por la codicia al pie de la riqueza quedescurbrió una casualidad”, Manrique de Lara, qtd. in Historia de la Villa Imperial de Potosí (1737)

Arnoldus Montanus, De Nieuwe En Onbekende Weereld(Amsterdam, 1671). JCB 01631. http://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/im5x9x

Erasmus Francisci, “Sinischer Drachen = und Tiger Feltz; Das Sibler Bergwerct Potosi in Peru,” Ost-und West-indischer wie auch sinesischer Lust-und Stats-Garten ... (Nuremberg, 1688), plate 40, inserted after p. 1072. JCB 03581.http://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/q9h1dz

Francisco Quevedo, “Silva a una mina”

¿Qué tierra tan extrañano te obligó a besar del mar la saña?¿Cuál alarbe, cuál scita, turco o moro,mientras al viento y agua obedecías,por señor no temías?

Mucho te debe el orosi, después que saliste,pobre reliquia, del naufragio triste,en vez de descansar del mar seguro,a tu codicia hidrópica obediente,con villano azadón, del cerro durosangras las venas del metal luciente.

Francisco López de Gómara, Historia de las Indias(Constantinople: Ibrahim Mutafarrika, at the Imperial Press, 1142 [1730]), p. 25. JCB 04407. http://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/32co83

Ignatius von Born, Ueber das anquicken der gold und silberhältigen(Vienna, 1786), p. 85.

JCB 08-94. http://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/6dw44t

Richard Johnson, “Slaves at Work in the Silver Mines of Peru,” History of South America (London, 1789), p. 126. JCB 35592. http://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/mm713g

Peter Schmidtmeyer, “Silver and Copper Works.” Travels into Chile (London, 1824), p. 272. JCB 69-206.http://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/l508x3

Barba, Arte de los metales, p. 80v; photo of outdoor refining oven, Potosí, 2010

The biggest difference between amalgamation in Europe and the Americas was the scale and kinds of ores that were amalgamated. European refiners used on partially-processed gold and silver that they recovered from slag heaps. In small batches, they mixed Ag & Hg and pressed the amalgams through cheesecloth. The process was so expensive that it was only justified on the highest-quality ores. In contrast, the ten-step method that colonial refiners developed in Pachuca, Mexico, was practiced on an industrial scale, and it was so efficient that extracting 1 ounce of silver from 100 pounds of material was cost-effective.

Bartolomé de Medina, México, 1550s:1. trituración/molienda/crushing to obtain harina/powder2. montones/piles (18-35 quintales left to dry on a patio)3. ensalmorado/salting (2.5-3 pounds salt per quintal)4. curtido/hardening (8-12 pounds magistral per pile)5. incorporo/incorporation (10-12 lbs mercury per pile)6. repasos/stompings7. lavado/washing8. separación de pella/separation of amalgamated mass (make piñas)9. desazogado/removal of mercury10. fundición y apartado/heat and final removal (1st use of heat: the only other source was sunlight)

Álvaro Alonso Barba, Perú, 1590s:3-5. cozo y cozimiento: heat-based application of copper (magistral), mercury, and boiling water (plus salt, alum powder (alumbre), or iron sulfate/vitriol/caparrosa for complex mixtures). Had to use heat in more stages – and more of it – to account for colder temperatures of the Andes.

Sources: Modesto Bargalló, La minería y la metalurgia en la américa española durante la época colonial, pp. 127-129; Peter Bakewell, Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico, p. 138, and my students in the Cerro Colorado copper mine, Jorge Hidalgo and Mario Vallejos.

Mines of Espíritu Santo: hooded entrance to protect against the wind (L) and near-vertical shafts drilled into bedrock (R). Photo credits: Kris Lane.

Church of Espíritu Santo. Photo credit: Kris Lane.