The document discusses various historical texts and illustrations regarding silver mining in the Americas, particularly the methods used in Potosí, Peru, and Pachuca, Mexico. It highlights the differences in amalgamation processes between European and colonial American miners, emphasizing the efficiency of the ten-step method developed in Mexico. Additionally, it references sources and contributors to the understanding of mining techniques and the socio-economic impacts of silver mining during the colonial era.

1. Benito Arias Montano (Benedictus Arias Montanus), Orbis tabula (Antwerp, 1571). JCB #08989.
global flows of precious metals

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

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

4. “un pueblo levantado tumultariamente por la codicia al pie de la riqueza que
descurbrió 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

5. 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

6. Francisco Quevedo, “Silva a una mina”
¿Qué tierra tan extraña
no 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 oro
si, 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 duro
sangras 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

7. Ignatius von Born,
Ueber das
anquicken der
gold und
silberhältigen
(Vienna, 1786),
p. 85.
JCB 08-94. http://
jcb.lunaimaging.com/
luna/servlet/s/6dw44
t

8. 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

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

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

11. 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/powder
2. 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/stompings
7. lavado/washing
8. separación de pella/separation of amalgamated mass (make piñas)
9. desazogado/removal of mercury
10. 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.

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

13. Church of Espíritu Santo. Photo credit: Kris Lane.