Vermilion, a bright red pigment used in ancient rituals in the Andes and as an adornment to ‘gold and silver ceremonial objects in ancient burials of kings and nobles in South America,’ held the proof of the main reason behind large-scale mercury mining in the Andes as early as 1400 B.C. This finding refutes the earlier and more widely-accepted notion that mercury started to be produced only in industrial times.
Scientists analyzed the pollution brought about by mercury mining in sediment cores from ‘lakebeds near old mines in Huancavelica, Peru, a city of 40,000 located 140 miles (225 kilometers) southeast of Lima, and the world’s second largest mercury deposit after Almadén, Spain.’
Presented in a paper published in the May 19 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, research findings on radiocarbon-dating of the cores revealed that mercury production went as far back as even before 2,000 years ago.
As to mercury’s sustained and continued production, ‘historical records kept by colonists from Spain, which ruled Peru from the 16th to 19th centuries, show that, by the late 16th century, liquid mercury was widely used to extract silver—one of the colonial economy’s mainstays—from ore in the Andes.’
Mercury mining at Huancavelica has lasted over three millennia, according to these scientists. Its colonial history that spanned 450 years earned the place the moniker of Mina de la Muerte (Mine of Death), proof that the central Peruvian highland region has had a long history of poisonous legacy.
Posted by GSerrano on May 26, 2009 in Environment, Green News · 0 Comment
