This is a fascinating topic

I published a chapter on gold mining and Minas Gerais geopark which is the most important site of mineral exploitation of Brazil which reached extracted unimaginable amounts of gold for Portugal to pay the debts with England. Take a look: Mining tourism in Ouro Preto, Brazil: Opportunities and challenges and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Gold_Rush. I am interest in chapter or manuscript review.

Chapter Mining tourism in Ouro Preto, Brazi: opportunities and challenges

Very interesting. 

Laurion (Greece): With the general name Lavrio mines are a number of mines and mining facilities that exist in the area of Lavrion and were exploited for about 5000 years. There are mainly lead and silver ores.  The mines in Lavrion area is one of the oldest mines in Greece. The mining activity in these dating from 3000 BC but the systematic exploitation begins with the birth of Athenian democracy in 508 BC by Cleisthenes. The workers were mainly slaves.

Herodotos wrote that because of that mines, the Athenians were able to to build 200 boats, that they used in the naval battle of Salamis 480 BC, against the Persian Empire, which resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Greeks. One of the most important battles in the history of West civilization in my opinion.

I believe that Herodotus is a very important source, for your research.

Dear Robert,

As you know the history of Iran is dated back to more than 6000 years ago. So during this long period we have lots of evidence regarding mining. Iranian were able to mine different kinds of metals such as Copper, Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc, Iron, etc. We have lots of places in Iran which are mined in ancient times. Recently I have published a book entitled "Economic Geology of Iran" by Springer, 2013. In Chapter 3, I have described the historical aspect of mining in Iran.

Now I am interested to having bilateral research projects regarding this issue. There are lots of things to do. Let me know if you are interested too.

Truly Yours,

Mansour

Hello Robert,

Excellent topic!

May I add to the comprehensive account by Kyriaki at the Lavrion site, there is a small museum with displays of the abundance of the minerals found in the area. Local tourist shops also carry numerous mineral samples. I don't think there are underground tours, but there is an abundance of adits in the area, most notably at the ancient theatre. 

There are tours for the metallurgical processes used by the ancients in many places, such as separation of sulphides from other minerals and remains of furnaces. There are local guides that can explain the above ( I took a tour of these not long ago).  Another attraction of the area is a collapsed, crater-like area called "chaos", maybe from caving due to underground works.

I would be happy to review chapters, manuscripts.

Hello Robert,

don´t forget about the historical Czech influence in ore mining. Ius regale montanorum (King's miners law fromKing Vaclav II.) or world record in reaching 1000 m depth in Pribram (Vojtech Mine, 8th May 1875). In short, we can say that the deposits of world importance in the Czech Republic were Pribram (silver, lead, uranium), Kutna Hora (silver), Jachymov (silver, uranium). If you can, I can help with review chapter, add information about studied sites etc.

Regards

Radovan

Dear Dr. Healy, first congratulations for the very interesting topic you choosed. I appreciate that you included Almadén since a great part of my Ph. Dissertation is based on the soil microbial activity in Almadén. Therefore I know the area and I am aware that tourism is one of the main economic activities after mining and metallurgical work ceased. I think that MAYASA, the company in charge of a part of the heritage of the mining and metallurgical activities in Almadén, as well as the municipality of Almadén, are making efforts to improve the tourism in the Almadén mining district.

These are all very well known mining areas. Such horrific stories. Mining had been going on in North America for copper in the Michigan area before colonization. Its interesting how each of the areas has a history of its own, whether for anthropology, native american history, the history of greece, etc..  It should be an interesting read.

Dear Robert,

Extremely interesting topic. From the South American perspective you shoud consider Chuquicamata

https://www.codelco.com/prontus_codelco/site/edic/base/port/chuquicamata.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuquicamata

I wrote my phd thesis on mining and institutions (taxation) and included a chapter about mining history in Argentina (not a very succesful industry). 

In your book, a chapter on institutions, investment and productivity of the mines should help to understand the dynamic of the prices of the minerals. Moreover, a comparison between the technologies applied should be very useful.  

Dear Robert,

If you plan to enrich your book with illustrations, I can make from my collection of historic mining postcards some interesting designs available. I have from the following mining districts historic photo and graphic documents:

Rio Tinto, Freiberg, Almaden, Potosi, Michigan, South Africa

As an example of the importance of visitors mines I have added two copies of tickets from the years 1890 and 1913 (with front and back) of the famous mining town of Freiberg in Saxony (Erzgebirge).

If you are interested in viewing additional photo documents, so do not hesitate to ask me about it.

Best regards,

Guenter

Dear Robert,

it would be interesting to add the famous Rammelsberg Mine in Germany which was operative for more than 1000 years, now a museum

And don't forget the world's most prominent platinum deposits of the Bushveld in South Africa, discovered in 1924. I would have some literature and photos from the field.

Thomas.

 that the mines both silver and gold in the vice royalties of Spain deserve to be included as they had enormous social and political impact in all of Europe.

Dear colleagues--

Many thanks for your interest in my mining book project and your many helpful suggestions and offers of help.  I don't know if Research Gate has a protocol for one-to-one communication, but I should be able to find most of you with a simple Web search.  (My own personal contact information is easily found by searching for Robert Healy, Duke University.

I think, however, that it may also be worthwhile to share some of my reactions to comments with the group as a whole.  So here are some initial thoughts:

(1) I'm delighted to find some people with knowledge of Laurion/Lavrion.  It is one of two sites I have not yet visited.  The Laurion story is remarkable.  It provided the silver to build the Parthenon, and (as mentioned) the Athenian fleet.  Also, it is said that during the Peloponnesian War, 10,000 slaves escaped from the mine!

(2) I find that I can access a copy of Dr. Ghorbani's very interesting book on Iran.  My book is limited by its case study/tourism approach so that I can't cover some extremely important mining locations (China and Egypt, for example).  But the narrative that links the case will deal with general history and I am well aware that many of the early mining techniques came from the Near East and Middle East before spreading to Western Europe.

(3) Of course I will deal with the Spanish mines in the New World, indeed important for Europe as well as the Americas.  Potosi is one of my case sites, and I will also discuss the silver mines of Mexico.  The mercury amalgamation process for freeing silver from its ore (based on the mercury at Almaden) was perfected at Real de Montes in Mexico.  And there is a very interesting 19th century connection between Cornwall and Mexico.  I probably won't say much about Brazil, but I'm very interested in the tourism aspect of Ouro Preto.

(4) Many thanks for the offer of photos.  I intend to use many illustrations in the book, though it is early to do more than make a file of key things that I find.

(5) Yes, the history of mining, especially for silver (and much later for uranium) in the Czech Republic is very important.  My conception of the Erzgebirge includes Joachimsthal/Jacymov.  Among other things, I MUST include Agricola (and also Johannes Mathesius,author of mining sermons and mining songs.)

(6) As you can perhaps infer from what I've written, my book will be for a general audience and will not be a work of original scholarship.  I find that there are tens of thousands of books on specific mines, minerals and countries, but virtually none that give the big picture over the long sweep of history.   I hope to correspond with several of you individually.  And I will post some of the material I've already written in case you wish to comment, or simply enjoy the amazing story of man's quest for metals over the millennia.

vaste sujet ! il existe des centaines de sites touristiques miniers, on peut y voir le meilleur et le pire. Qu'allez-vous privilégier ? : l'importance historique du site, la qualité et l'authenticité des vestiges accessibles au public, la fréquentation et la réussite commerciale, la didactique, l'interaction entre la recherche scientifique et la valorisation, etc.

vast subject! there are hundreds of mining attractions, the best and the worst one can see it. What will you choose? : The historical importance of the site, the quality and authenticity of the remains accessible to the public, attendance and business success, didactics, interaction between scientific research and héritage management, etc.

Dear Robert,

May I draw your attention to a brand new publication that deals specifically with the history of the silver mining district around Freiberg in Saxony. This was published in 'The Mineralogical Record' May-June 2015, Volume 46, Number 3, entitled: 'Mines, Minerals, History & Museums' written by Andreas Massanek et al., pages 311-372.

Best regards,

Guenter

See if you can cover Stora Kopparberg too. It's reportedly not only a 1000-year old running mine but also an oldest joint stock company too (now StoraEnso). And definitely add Magnitka Mount in Urals that used to be a focal point of Urals industrial steel works for a while. Nickel is not on your list but you might also add a history of discovery of Norilsk deposit that is 25% of world nickel and 55% of world palladium reserve.

A response to Bruno and Yuri.  I selected the case studies on the basis of (1) producing metals that humans have sought for many centuries (2) places that can be visited today for education and enjoyment (museums, underground tours, interpretation)  (3) places that have something important to contribute to a narrative on the history of metal mining, with an emphasis on organization and conditions of labor and technologies used in mining, old and new.

I think that Norilsk is amazing.  But nickel has only been an important metal for perhaps 150 years, mostly in relation to steel (another metal I am not covering on the basis that for most of history mines served mainly local areas).  Also, Norilsk does not, as far as I can tell, have formal tourism based on its mining history.

Stora Kopparberg, also known as the Falun Mine, is very tempting.  It was Europe's leading source of copper (one of my target metals) for centuries,  And it does have interpretive and tourism facilities,  Trouble is, I now have 10 cases, and that may be the limit.  I'm thinking on this,

I'm deeply grateful for all the good suggestions.

Dear Robert,

it would be interesting to add the Mercury mines from Azogues, Province of Azuay, Ecuador. Its value is extraordinary due to the history behind those labors. The mercury from these mines were used to set the first process plants in Ecuador to concentrate the gold from Zaruma which is known because of its richness.

Regards

Thanks, Jorge.  What happened is that for much of the 1500s, mercury had to be imported from Almaden, Spain, to process (patio process) the silver ores of Potosi and Mexico.  There was a great fleet sailing annually from Cadiz carrying the mercury as heavily guarded cargo.  Later, mercury was discovered at Huancavelica, Peru and at Azogues (and even later at New Almaden, California) so that this long distance shipping was no longer necessary.  An interesting  side light was that Almaden was owned by the King of Spain, who marked up the price as an extra profit center,  Best regards.

I understand that this research targets the major mining sites that have greatly influenced the economies and techniques. Unfortunately, I often notice that such sites have been operated for long periods, the most recent deteriorating or destroying older. Also, we rarely had the chance to find intact and accessible large portions of older works (as in Rosia Montana). The reputation of some sites is very old, but only the very recent part is shown to visitors. As against, using for long archaeological campaigns, many smaller sites have delivered old mines well preserved and well representative, perfectly illustrating the mining techniques of a period. Some of these underground sites have been fitted to the public, with the help of archaeologists / historians. In France, there are : Saint-Louis Eisenthür (Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines) ; Fournel (Argentière-La Bessée) ; Vallauria (Tende) ; Hautes-Mynes (the Thillot)

Bruno--Your comment is very perceptive and points to one of the largest problems I have had in finding suitable sites,  The wonderful and extensive pre-19th century workings at Rio Tinto, for example, have been largely wiped out by later open cast mining and reworking of old spoil heaps.  I am trying in the book to tie each site primarily to a single time period, while often mentioning it in passing as an example of earlier or later mining activity.  I will follow up on your list of illustrative lesser known French sites.  It may be possible to mention them in the manuscript.  I would be grateful if other contributors to this discussion could suggest similar "small and focused" places in the UK, Spain or Germany.  Necessities are:  a good museum, an underground tour and the potential for a high quality visitor experience for the general public.  Thanks again!

Bruno--Your comment is very perceptive and points to one of the largest problems I have had in finding suitable sites,  The wonderful and extensive pre-19th century workings at Rio Tinto, for example, have been largely wiped out by later open cast mining and reworking of old spoil heaps.  I am trying in the book to tie each site primarily to a single time period, while often mentioning it in passing as an example of earlier or later mining activity.  I will follow up on your list of illustrative lesser known French sites.  It may be possible to mention them in the manuscript.  I would be grateful if other contributors to this discussion could suggest similar "small and focused" places in the UK, Spain or Germany.  Necessities are:  a good museum, an underground tour and the potential for a high quality visitor experience for the general public.  Thanks again!

Bruno--Your comment is very perceptive and points to one of the largest problems I have had in finding suitable sites,  The wonderful and extensive pre-19th century workings at Rio Tinto, for example, have been largely wiped out by later open cast mining and reworking of old spoil heaps.  I am trying in the book to tie each site primarily to a single time period, while often mentioning it in passing as an example of earlier or later mining activity.  I will follow up on your list of illustrative lesser known French sites.  It may be possible to mention them in the manuscript.  I would be grateful if other contributors to this discussion could suggest similar "small and focused" places in the UK, Spain or Germany.  Necessities are:  a good museum, an underground tour and the potential for a high quality visitor experience for the general public.  Thanks again!

Bruno--Your comment is very perceptive and points to one of the largest problems I have had in finding suitable sites,  The wonderful and extensive pre-19th century workings at Rio Tinto, for example, have been largely wiped out by later open cast mining and reworking of old spoil heaps.  I am trying in the book to tie each site primarily to a single time period, while often mentioning it in passing as an example of earlier or later mining activity.  I will follow up on your list of illustrative lesser known French sites.  It may be possible to mention them in the manuscript.  I would be grateful if other contributors to this discussion could suggest similar "small and focused" places in the UK, Spain or Germany.  Necessities are:  a good museum, an underground tour and the potential for a high quality visitor experience for the general public.  Thanks again!javascript:

Bruno--Your comment is very perceptive and points to one of the largest problems I have had in finding suitable sites,  The wonderful and extensive pre-19th century workings at Rio Tinto, for example, have been largely wiped out by later open cast mining and reworking of old spoil heaps.  I am trying in the book to tie each site primarily to a single time period, while often mentioning it in passing as an example of earlier or later mining activity.  I will follow up on your list of illustrative lesser known French sites.  It may be possible to mention them in the manuscript.  I would be grateful if other contributors to this discussion could suggest similar "small and focused" places in the UK, Spain or Germany.  Necessities are:  a good museum, an underground tour and the potential for a high quality visitor experience for the general public.  Thanks again!javascript:

Interesting project! I live in a mining area, the Skelleftea river basin in Northern Sweden. Main company is Boliden Mineral producing copper, gold, silver, selen,  arsenik, etc and the ore is different copper polymetallics. We have a historical visit mine with museum in Varuträsk, 20 km from Skellefteå. Not old at all, closed 1947, but very interesting and mineral-rich small mine started by a peasant. Pegmatite, with about 50 minerals and one unique, Varulit. Nice place, a mine shaft with perhaps 100 meter of mine tunnels open, and you can see most of these minerals in the mine walls, naturally. In Boliden concentration facility close to the original gold mine, which is close, there is also a mining museum, seldom open now though. In the very North of Sweden, in Kiruna, there is also a big and nice underground exhibition about this insanely rich iron mine in Kirunavaara-Loussavaara mountain. 

Best mining museum in Sweden is perhaps the Copper mine in Falun in mid Sweden. Big mine, much naturally salt preserved wood pitprops and constructions stiil in good shape after hundreds of years. A little similar to RioTinto area where I have been as well - very much spontaneous bioleaching and the typical red colour..(.I once planned and bought the production of a documentary on bioleaching within the EC FP6 Biomine project 2004-2008 about biohydrometallurgy - search for "Invisible Miners" on Youtube, about 35 minutes. A nice HD TV film filmed in 4 countries, also on historical sites. I have papers on my profile about the project as well. A huge wiki produced in the project too, only on bacteria and minerals search "Biominewiki").

So if interested in Sweden, I could perhaps give some advice. I really like historical mines, have visited the Britannica mine museum close to Vancouver as well - also that bioleaching-related. 

Dear Prof. Healy,

That is a great idea to write a book about mining history. I really like it!

Basically Erzgebirge is linked to the City of Freiberg (not Freiburg). In Freiberg (Saxony) is also the world-famous Mining Academy, where Generations of American Mining Engineers had studied, particularly before the American Civil War such as Rossiter Raymond, John Hays Hammond, Alexis Jannin and several hundred more.

In terms of mercury mining, there were plenty of middle size and larger mines in the South of the US such as in California and Texas. The most important type of natural mercury deposits is called the ‘Almadén type’ (cinnabar and metacinnabar) and was mined in Spain in Almadén / Sierra Morena, in Almeria/Andalusia and in Brañalamosa / Asturias , but also in today’s Italy such as in Montamietta (Monte Amiate/Tuscany) and in Vallalta/Venetia.

Some of the oldest mercury mining areas in the world are located in today’s Turkey near Konya, Karaburun and Ödemiş, where cinnabar already was mined in the pre-bronze age about 8000 years ago. In the early 20th century modern Turkey started again mining activities in the old mercury mining areas and after introduction of the rotary furnace the output increased and reached 1974 about 5% of the world production[i]. Environmental impacts on ground water and sediments from Karaburun district were reported just recently[ii].

Cinnabar was also extracted from mines in Idrija (Krain) close to Ljubljana (in today’s Slovenia), in Avalaberg, Beograd (Serbia) and starting in the early 19th century also from the Californian Quicksilver Mines in New Almaden (San Francisco Bay Area) but also in New Idria (San Benito County). Here the cinnabar  as the principal mercury-bearing mineral is typically associated either to chalkstone or to trachyte but also it was found related to pyrite, quartz, calcite, chalcedony and even to bituminous material[iii].

Some mercury ore deposits in Nevada are closely related to blanket opalite bodies, where the cinnabar and sometimes corderoite, a mercury chloride (bromide) sulfide is associated to opalized tuff. Since the ore is located nearby the surface it is mined mostly in open pits such as in the B and B mine in Esmeralda County [iv] and in particular the McDermitt open pit mercury mine in the opalite district of Humboldt County, which was the largest North American mercury producer during operations from 1975-1989.

[i]    Yildiz, M. And Bailey, E.H.: Mercury Deposits in Turkey, Geological Survey Bulletin 1456, US Gov. Print. Office, Washington, 1987

[ii] Gemici, Ü. and Oyman, T.: The influence of abandoned Kalecik Hg mine on water and stream sediments (Karaburun, Izmir, Turkey), The Science of the Total Environm. 312, pp. 155-166, 2003

[iii]   Bedford, R.H. and Ricker, S.: Investigation of  the New Almaden Mercury Mine, Santa Clara County, Calif., Bureau of Mines, Report of Investigations 4697, December 1956

[iv]   Benson, W.T.: Investigation on Mercury Deposits in Nevada and in Malheur County, Oreg., Bureau of Mines, Report of Investigations 5285, May 1950

Kind regards and Glueck Auf!

Ruediger Richter

Have you considered adding the Britannia Mine Museum north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada?

http://www.bcmm.ca/

It is an excellent museum, complete with an underground mine tour. The setting on the "Sea to Sky" Highway is spectacular.

Cheers........... Ben Whiting, P.Geo.  (Professional Geoscientist)

Hello, 

Sierra Gorda, in Queretaro (Mexico) is a great example of mining archaeology, with a history of more than tow thousand years. Surrounded by mountains, it is a wonderful destination for its geological, ecological, archaeological, anthropological and historical wealth. Queretaro was the largest producer and exporter of mercury (cinnabar) in Mesoamerica. Many of the old mines are still working. 

I am graduate student and I am interested in the environmental and historical studies os mercury mining in Sierra Gorda.

Regards, Axel.