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Mines/Peru

Huancavelica mercury mine

Huancavelica mercury mine, Peru. Closed, underground, mining mercury.

Why Huancavelica mercury mine is famous

Cinnabar mining and refining began in 1564, supplying the mercury used to amalgamate silver. About 17,000 t of mercury was emitted 1564 to 1810. The mita there was two months and the population never exceeded 15,000. Coordinates left blank because no Wikidata point was found.1,2

Story cards

Huancavelica mercury mine today

Mining in Peru

Where next

Mines

FinancedCerro Rico de PotosiHuancavelica's mercury, mined from 1564, was needed to amalgamate Potosi's silver.1ExamplesIdrija mercury mineIdrija counts mining from 1490. Huancavelica began in 1564 and fed Potosi.3ExamplesAlmaden mercury minesAlmaden was worked for about two thousand years. Huancavelica's mercury began in 1564.4

Places

Located inHuancavelicaHuancavelica mercury mine sits at Huancavelica.1

Sources

  1. Robins and Hagan (2012) mercury and silver in Spanish America PubMed Central
  2. Wikidata item Q1000333 (Huancavelica city) Wikidata (CC0)
  3. Top 10 attractions, item 6054 (mercury, red dye) Mestni muzej Idrija (Idrija and Cerkno museums)
  4. The Almaden mines, a World Heritage Site marked by Islamic heritage Fundacion Cultura Islamica (funci.org)

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Ball mills and SAG mills by photosmith2011, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0; Froth flotation and tailings by Nina111955, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Potosi, Bolivia, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).