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GeneralOldest mines

10th Jun 2016 15:21 UTCHans Kloster

Rock and Minerals, March 1970: 43.000-Year-Old Mine Discovered in Swaziland. It was iron-ore.

Jerome O. Nriagu, Science 11. sept. 1998 write about lead: It was the first metal to be extracted from its ore, and with this discovery, humankind awakened to metal technology...A breakthrough for extracting silver from lead ores, called cupellation, appeared around 3500 B.C and greatly enhanced the popularity of silver...The Greek mines at Laurium operation well before 3000 B.C.

The Bronze age is more difficult to handle. I have seen a note, that Bronze was invented in India 5.000 BC. The oldest copper-mine in Cyprus in from about 4000 BC and Crete imported copper and bronze from Cyprus in 2500 BC.

Geological Survey of Israel, Sept. 1996: During the Early Bronze age (3200-2400 B.C.E.) bronze artifacts in the Levant were composed largely of copper and arsenic...The ore sources of the tin are still unknown although one suggested tin mine is in Kestel, southern Turkey (Yener et al, 1989, Yener and Vandiver, 1993). I think the arsenic came from auripigment and and tin from cassiterite. The mineral Muschistonite contain copper and tin, but it is very rare.Litvinskij, USSR wrote in 1950, that tin was operated in Karnab, Uzbekistan and Muschiston in Tadsjikistan and sold to Mesopotamia and other. Wikipedia write about tin from Cornwall and Devon, that tin was sold to European countries about 1600 B.C. and the Glockenbecker-leute (Beaker) was the first in about 2500 BC to processing metal and about 2150 B.C. produced they bronze. The bronze heavenslice from Mittelberg near Nebra in Deutschland is from about 1600 BC.

Dietrich Ankner: Naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen an den Metallen der Vorgeschichte. Ausgrabungen in Deutschland. Teil 3, Monographien Band 1,3. Bonn. 2002. Writes about bronze, gold, silver, lead, tin and antimon. Ankner writes, that gold was knowm from late Bronze age in several countries.

10th Jun 2016 16:19 UTCMichael C. Michayluk

Here is evidence of ancient copper mining I don't often see talked about

Evidence of Ancient Copper Mining in Lake Superior

10th Jun 2016 16:44 UTCHendrik van Oss

The so-called Lion Cave on Bomvu Ridge in Swaziland is a small excavation--the "cave" only goes in perhaps 20 ft, if memory serves (I visited it in 1994), and is on the natural hillslope side of part of the Ngwenya iron mine highwall--the mining company left some of the high grade iron ore intact so as not to threaten the Lion Cave site. I believe the host rock is part of the Fig Tree series (Archaean).

While the now closed Ngwenya Mine was worked for iron ore (very small total tonnage cf. most iron ore mines), the Lion Cave itself was worked (43,000 years ago) for ochre for body paint, not for iron ore, per se.

Hendrik van Oss

10th Jun 2016 17:40 UTCNathalie Brandes 🌟 Manager

Mining actually has quite a long history. Early mines (in the Palaeolithic) extracted chert/flint and minerals used for pigments. In the Nile Valley, trenches were dug as early as ~37,000 years ago. Actual underground mining dates back to about 35,000 years ago. A nice example of an underground mine at this time is Nazlet Khater, where miners worked in bell pits with 2 m shafts, extracting rock using hammerstones and gazelle and hartebeest horn picks.

In the Neolithic, mining was still done with stone, bone and antler tools. A nice example of a Neolithic mine is Spiennes, Belgium. This is a chert/flint mine that operated from 4400 BC to 2000 BC. It covers ~100 ha and has shafts 8-16 m with drifts 2-5 m.

During the Chalcolithic (Copper Age), mining technology advanced. Metals began to be extracted and miners could work in harder rocks due to the development of firesetting. People also began to smelt ore during this time.

The Bronze Age saw mining and metallurgy expand even more.

In the ancient world, the Romans had very advanced mining industry. They used opencast, underground, and hydraulic mining methods. Underground mines were accessed through shafts and adits. Ore was broken using firesetting, iron gad bar, iron picks, and iron battering rams. In underground mines, Romans were known to use the room and pillar method and timbering in areas. To raise ore to the surface, baskets or buckets were used. Because many Roman mines were underground, they developed methods of lighting, ventilation, and dewatering. Oil lamps were used for illumination. Diodorus even wrote that some lamps were worn on the head. Romans also used oil lamps for checking air quality. To get decent air circulation in mines, they sometimes would dig ventilation shafts. Dewatering was accomplished using French drains, bailing buckets, screw pumps, and waterwheels.

As far as the Copper Culture in North America, which Mr. Michayluk referred to, that is not my expertise in archaeology, but I can tell you what little I do know. The Copper Culture was active from~5000 BC to protohistoric (just before Europeans show up). Until ~1500 BC, copper was used for tools, but after ~1500 BC copper mostly used for ornamental objects. Copper Culture people first exploited float copper, the large masses that were carried by glaciers and deposited on the land. Later they quarried using hammerstones and firesetting. There is no evidence of smelting or casting. Copper was shaped with hot and cold hammering. Annealing must have been known, meaning copper was heated to at least 405°C. (Otherwise stress fractures would have developed in the copper.) Some researchers suggest that some artefacts were shaped using swaging.

I presented a paper at the 2014 New Mexico Mineral Symposium on Mining in the Ancient World. You can find the abstract at this link: http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/museum/minsymp/abstracts/view.cfml?aid=470

I also recently wrote an article on Rio Tinto, which is a very historic mine. That can be found here: https://www.mindat.org/article.php/2909/Rio+Tinto+and+the+Iberian+Pyrite+Belt

I hope this provides a bit more information about the long and fascinating history of mining. And I hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Nat

10th Jun 2016 18:03 UTCRolf Luetcke Expert

Here in the SW US, Arizona to be more specific, I have often read of the native peoples using various products for their lives. Flint and various similar materials were actively mined for making arrowheads. Good places were used for trading to distant peoples where the material was not easily found.

In Arizona they found some of the turquoise discoveries had ancient diggings where one could still see the primitive methods used to chip out the blue turquoise.

In cliff dwellings I have found pieces of hematite that had been used by the native peoples for coloring agents. I found tiny pieces where they had been rubbed on stone surfaces to produce powder for the coloring they used on their pottery, cave painting and more.

I think primitive mining goes back to the earliest peoples to walk upright where they gathered stones for use in places they were abundant.

In Arizona there is evidence of the use of products they had to dig out in numerous places.

Don't know if that fits into the earliest mining thread but it is one small piece in the story.

10th Jun 2016 18:31 UTCUwe Kolitsch Manager

The oldest copper mines in (Eastern) Europe:

Aibunar, Stara Zagora, Stara Zagora Oblast, Bulgaria

Stone age copper mine (~4000 year B.C.).

One of the earliest evidence of European copper mining and metallurgy.

Source of most of the copper objects (axes etc.) originating from that time and found in eastern Europe.

Rudna Glava Mine, Bor-Majdanpek District, Serbia

Stone age copper mine (5000 year B.C.).

Early (and perhaps the earliest) evidence of European copper mining and metallurgy.

Studied between between 1968 and 1989, and excavated as part of the "Old Mining and Metallurgy of the Central Balkan" project.

Most of the copper objects (artefacts) from this time come, however, from Aibunar in Bulgaria.

Majdanpek Mine, Bor-Majdanpek District, Serbia

Porphyry and replacement type (skarns, mantos) Cu-Au deposit.

Prehistoric mining, already approx. 5000 years before present (E. Pernicka, talk at NHM Vienna in September 2011).

10th Jun 2016 19:33 UTCPavel Kartashov Manager

Native copper of Arylakh deposit on Taimyr peninsula http://www.mindat.org/loc-210380.html was base for metallurgic center, produced arsenic bronze (auripigment deposit located in 250 km aside of copper diggins), about 2500-3000 years ago. It is the oldest metallurgic center over the Polar Circle.

10th Jun 2016 19:53 UTCRob Woodside 🌟 Manager

Lapis from Sar-e-Sang, Afghanistan was being mined by 7,000 BC. Ochre mines must be the oldest real mines. It wouldn't surprise me if Australopithicines (pre humans!) were associated with early worked stone. When would picking up and keeping a pretty or useful stone become mining?

10th Jun 2016 21:56 UTCNathalie Brandes 🌟 Manager

Rob,

A recently published paper in Nature (Harmand et al., 2015) dates the earliest stone tool manufacture at 3.3 Ma. This date suggests that the earliest tools were likely shaped by an Australopithecine.

Nat

10th Jun 2016 22:23 UTCRob Woodside 🌟 Manager

Thanks Nat, I'll check that out. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v521/n7552/abs/nature14464.html It really is amazing how the search for what makes homo sapiens so special and separate from the rest of the animal kingdom has has failed so miserably in the past century. We aren't the only tool making animal, nor the only bipedal ape, and now we aren't the only stone working ape.

11th Jun 2016 05:40 UTCPaul Stephen Cyr

I don't have a source right now, but I have read that the Tamayama gold mine in the Tohoku Region of Japan is very old, I am going to say at least 2000 BC. This mine also produced some very find quartz crystals.

11th Jun 2016 08:27 UTCBruce Cairncross Expert

One of the early excavations in South Africa is at Blinkklipkop near Postmasburg in the Northern Cape Province. The name translates to "shiny stone hill"' It's an historic specularite mine, that dates back to at least AD800 - see http://www.jstor.org/stable/3888211?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Here's a photo of it I took several years ago. The hematite is hosted in the same iron-formations associated with the major iron ore and manganese ores in the region.

11th Jun 2016 11:00 UTCjeff yadunno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrNePATOwoc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekWRhMS-494

check out this guy's youtube channel

neat thread!

27th Nov 2016 13:06 UTCjeff yadunno

there are more uploads from the latest conference on Todd Rongstad's youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/PAIexperience/videos?view=0&shelf_id=0&sort=dd

27th Nov 2016 13:16 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

On another twist what is the oldest documented mineral specimen still in existence?

27th Nov 2016 13:29 UTCBob Harman

I don't know what the "oldest" mineral specimen might be, but including gold and unfacetted gem stones used in ancient jewelry, there are many colored gemstones and gold specimens about 5000 years old as part of Egyptian archeological sites. Probably some even considerably older so I would start this study by looking at the earliest civilizations, Egyptian and other, then look at their use of jewelry and gold as mineral artifacts. Many of these would still be in their natural state as the gemstones were largely used as they were found. I believe they would be the oldest mineral specimens. CHEERS......BOB

27th Nov 2016 13:40 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

I don't consider cut stones as mineral specimens that is a whole different subject. I am talking about specimens in their natural state collected with the intention of keeping them that way.

27th Nov 2016 14:00 UTCBob Harman

REINER, If you reread my posting you will see that I specifically mentioned colored gemstones used in their natural found state!!! Egyptians and most other ancient civilizations did NOT have the technology to facet or cut the stones. They were used as jewelry as they were found. Hence, they qualify as "mineral specimens", Even look at the earlier medieval crowns of the Czars and English Kings and Queens etc. The stones in their crowns were used as found, neither cut nor facetted. CHEERS.....BOB

27th Nov 2016 14:10 UTCDavid Von Bargen Manager

I would expect it to be some gold nugget or maybe a quartz crystal that ended up in some shaman's medicine pouch.

27th Nov 2016 14:14 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

I guess there is a fine line between "specimens in their natural state collected with the intention of keeping them that way." and minerals that are in their natural state because they weren't able to cut them. So let me clarify. I mean specimens that where not collected for personal adornment so that would exclude uncut stones used as jewelry. I would also exclude minerals used in the adornment of buildings or objects such as swords, scepters, shields, chariots etc.

27th Nov 2016 14:17 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

"would expect it to be some gold nugget or maybe a quartz crystal that ended up in some shaman's medicine pouch" In my mind that would qualify as a mineral specimen much to the joy of the healy-feely crowd. However it would have to be documented and I don't think too many shamen kept labels for their specimens. :-D

27th Nov 2016 14:23 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

I think the oldest specimen would probably be in some European museum. It would be interesting to know what it is, when it was collected and by whom?

27th Nov 2016 14:25 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager

There is a Roman collection of alpine quartz crystals in some museum in Europe (Austria?), so perhaps around 2,000 years ago?

27th Nov 2016 14:31 UTCWayne Corwin

In the "Old Days", they didn't put their specimens on a shelf with a label to show them off,, they kept them in jewelry, swords, scepters, shields, rings or even a pouch,,, that was the way they showed off their specimens, and they would Proudly say what each was and where they came from.

They kept their best "specimens" with them at all times, it wasn't safe leaving them home.

:-D

27th Nov 2016 15:02 UTCBob Harman

So let me continue as this has become an interesting discussion, if only due to semantics.

A current day collector with limited financial means goes to a local show and finds a small pencil tourmaline or aquamarine etc (the specific stone does not matter). The specimen might be whole or broken, but not cut or facetted. The specimen might have been cleaned or oiled but that is all. The collector buys the example as a "mineral specimen". I think we would all agree that this example does qualify as a "mineral specimen".

At an ancient archeology site a similar stone is part of a jewelry ornament. It might be intact or broken, but neither cut nor facetted. It probably was cleaned or oiled to bring out luster, but that was it. It was used as found 5000+ years ago. So is it not still a "mineral specimen" that found its use as jewelry 5000 years ago?

If that stone used as jewelry had been removed from its ancient setting and found its way to the dealers table at the rock show, it would have been sold as a "mineral specimen" with no argument. So whether the stone was recently found and sold at a show or used 5000 years ago in jewelry in its original state should not matter. It should qualify as a ancient mineral specimen originally used in jewelry.

However more thought on this subject lends me to think that certain copper tools from about 20,000 to maybe 30,000 years ago were used as found. Would we consider copper tools using pieces of copper exactly as found with no alteration as old mineral specimens? We could take that example and put it onto a dealers table and sell it as a chunk of native copper; a mineral specimen! Whether for collection or use should not matter; a 30,000 y.o. copper tool (used in its original found state) vs a similar copper chunk in a mineral collection, both should qualify as specimens with one finding its original use as a tool. CHEERS.....BOB

27th Nov 2016 15:11 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

"would we consider copper tools using pieces of copper exactly as found with no alteration as old mineral specimens?"They would if they had documentation aka a label. However the only use for an as found piece of copper that I can imagine would be a paperweight. I am sure the temptation to change it's shape to something more useful would be great.

27th Nov 2016 15:26 UTCRob Woodside 🌟 Manager

Before Cu smelting which only began about 8,500 years ago in Serbia native Cu could be hammered into things, but was sufficiently rare that it was used decoratively. There was enough native Cu in Michigan to hammer it into tools, but this was quite late. There are no known Cu tools or ornaments dating to the mesolithic.

27th Nov 2016 15:37 UTCRob Woodside 🌟 Manager

The idea of collecting minerals for intellectual purposes possibly dates to the Greeks. Aristotle asked Alexander to send him back plant specimens, so it would not be a stretch to do the same with rocks. Pliny probably had such a collection. It wasn't until the 18th century in Europe that the curiosity cabinets began collecting natural history objects in earnest. Lumps of ore were probably kept from a much earlier date to show the miners what to look for.

27th Nov 2016 16:10 UTCChristian Auer 🌟 Expert

Much earlier Rob, 16th century in form of so called Handsteine in Europe.

See this (in German) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handstein

27th Nov 2016 16:21 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

Have moved this to a new thread: http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,6,399245,399249#msg-399249

27th Nov 2016 16:47 UTCRob Woodside 🌟 Manager

Thanks Christian Here's a translation of your article:

"A handstone (of hand-stone), not to be confused with handpiece, is a term from mineralogy and was originally a particularly beautifully crystallized mineral or ore stage, which the miner could bring to the daylight because of its handy size as a viewing object, as for example Piece from "Rotgültiger" (Proustit or Pyrargyrit).

As a result, the term "handstone" is used for artistically worked ore grades, which are attached to silver-plated or gilded pedestals. Mountain scenes are also depicted with the involvement of religious symbols.

The hand-stones, which were created in the 16th century in the late Renaissance and especially in Mannerism, combine nature and art, creating bizarre and precious minerals and crystals. These were collected by wealthy citizens or princes and exhibited in their art and miracle chambers. The production site is St. Joachimsthal in the Czech Republic with Caspar Ulich, who manufactured handstones there in the third quarter of the 16th century.

Precious handstone, decorated with z.T. Gilded silver, made around 1740 in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia); Exhibited at the German Mining Museum Bochum

In the eighteenth century handstone production experienced a revival, which was characterized by the use of many different materials. The handstones were used, among other things, as a table top, and continue to represent mining and mining technology at the time. There are known hand-made gents in Slovakia from around 1730.

On the basis of analyzes of the minerals used, handstones from the 18th century were able to be attributed to their origins, especially those around Kremnitz and Neusohl in today's Slovakia. The filling or adhesive material between the minerals was also examined and gave tree resin."

These were more decorative and impressive displays of wealth than intellectual pursuits. There's a huge decorated block of Argentite in the Hermitage at St Petersberg that If I remember dates from the 14th Century and from Joachimstal.

27th Nov 2016 16:54 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

"There's a huge decorated block of Argentite in the Hermitage at St Petersberg that If I remember dates from the 14th Century and from Joachimstal." Is there a picture of it available? I would love to see that.

27th Nov 2016 17:03 UTCRob Woodside 🌟 Manager

I tried to find one but no success. I'm not sure what to google. Sadly I'm no photographer.

27th Nov 2016 18:31 UTCGregg Little 🌟

In this thread I think Bob Harman's nod to semantics is the most definitive so far. Mineral and rocks have been picked up since the earliest times. Purposes range from simplistic to complex through man's uses as adornment and societal stature to spiritual to tool using to amateur and scientific inquiry. The archaeology surrounding these artifacts is critical in determining the objects purpose and use as it fits into the framework of human advancement.

Most of the enthusiasts visiting this site I would assume fall into the category of laymen scientists with a strong appreciation of the aesthetics. I myself am a trained geologist with a career in supervising drilling operations in the mining and oil industries. The bulk of my time is spent microscopically and analytically observing the drill cuttings and core in the pursuit of natural resources. I have also collected rocks, minerals and fossils since my youth firstly for curiosity and beauty but later as a applied science career, although the fascination for the beauty has never left me. Even the mundane has beauty when it shows a geological process.

The appreciation of nature's beauty is still ingrained in us even though man's use of nature resources has become grandiose, complex and fanciful as seen in the Mayan ruins, Large Hadron Collider and skyscraper buildings. Although the march is ever so towards scientific inquiry we still carry with us that early eye for the beauty of minerals. I would venture that we subconsciously demonstrate that appreciation through our works, one of which is seen in the picture of this Calgary, Alberta skyscraper complex.

27th Nov 2016 22:57 UTCGuy Davis (2)

There is a Neolithic surface trench behind my friend's parents' house that worked a vein of near optical-grade massive quartz in Western North Carolina. We know it was Native American activity and not more recent prospecting because of the spalls and partially worked chips found around the trench. The property owner also found two nearly flawless Woodland era arrowheads while tilling his garden, so maybe 3,000 B.C in the Southeat U.S.

28th Nov 2016 00:37 UTCD. Peck

Lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines,[1] in Shortugai and in other mines in the Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan as early as the 7th millennium BC.[2] ...... Wikipedia

28th Nov 2016 02:12 UTCBen Grguric Expert

The Wilga Mia limonite/hematite ochre mines in Western Australia are at least 40,000 years old according to Wikipedia.

Grimes Graves flint mines in Norfolk, England were mined from 3000BC and included shafts and drives.

28th Nov 2016 11:49 UTCReiner Mielke Expert

This brings up an interesting point and that is what kind and amount of activity qualifies something as a mine? There are lots of prospectors and collectors that have sunk pits in search of minerals but we don't call them mines. In fact where I live dozens of shafts were sunk in the search for silver and they usually found lots of minerals but no silver. However we don't call them mines.

29th Nov 2016 13:38 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

We usually call it a mine if it was registered as such with the local Mines Dept and has recorded production, else its just a prospect. Of course thats not much help with workings thousands of years old, unless you find the clay tablets with the government records!

31st Aug 2019 09:25 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager

https://www.mindat.org/loc-238676.html

Undergound mining for flint in the Netherlands 5,300 years ago.

5th Sep 2019 05:40 UTCMark Heintzelman 🌟 Expert

Silver

St Georg Mine, Schneeberg, Erzgebirgskreis, Saxony, Germany

Back to oldest mineral specimen for just a moment . . . there is this one, of two samples saved from the "silver Table" which confidently dates to a 1477 recovery date. From the St Georg Mine, Schneeberg District, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany.

5th Sep 2019 07:46 UTCMark Heintzelman 🌟 Expert

also this:

https://www.mindat.org/loc-26980.html

Reportedly worked for lithic tool production since 8000 BC and was still in use by the Lenape until European colonization in the 1680's

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