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Mines/Greece

Laurion silver mines

Laurion silver mines, Greece, mining silver, lead.

Why Laurion silver mines is famous

Attic silver-lead mining district tied to Classical Athens. Wikidata gives the mines and a Lavrio archaeological site. Output, dates and depth are not verified; the earlier agent noted that published figures differ by orders of magnitude.1

Story cards

Laurion silver mines today

Where silver is mined todayWhere lead is mined todayMining in Greece

Where next

Mines

An example ofCerro Rico de PotosiLaurion silver funded the Athenian fleet. Potosi's silver flowed to Seville.3An example ofBunker Hill Mine (Coeur d'Alene)Silver-lead paid for Athenian ships. Coeur d'Alene silver-lead left 62 Mt of tailings in streams.4ExamplesRammelsberg mineRammelsberg was mined from the 3rd century BC. Laurion's silver funded the Athenian fleet.5

Places

Located inLavrionLaurion silver mines sits at Lavrion.1Located inLaurion mining regionLaurion silver mines sits at Laurion mining region.1

Trade routes

Shipped through hereLaurion silver to AthensThe route touches Laurion silver mines.2

Sources

  1. Wikidata item Q3314937 (Mines of Laurium) Wikidata (CC0)
  2. Davis G., Blichert-Toft J., Gentelli L., Albarede F., Tyrants, democrats and the first silver 'owl' coins of Athens Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (via Europe PMC)
  3. Potosi entry Encyclopedia.com
  4. Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex US Environmental Protection Agency
  5. Rammelsberg Ore Mine and the historic town of Goslar, evaluation No 623 UNESCO World Heritage Centre / ICOMOS advisory body evaluation

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: Cerro Rico over Potosí by Jbmurray, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Potosi, Bolivia, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).