Patio process

The patio process was a process used to extract silver ore. It was developed by Bartolomé Medina in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico in 1557 for the Pachuca-Real del Monte mines. The patio process was the first process to use mercury amalgamation to recover silver from ore. Other amalgamation processes were later developed, most importantly the pan amalgamation …

Bartolomé de Medina | Inquisition, Dominican Friar, …

Bartolomé de Medina was a Spanish Dominican theologian who developed the patio process for extracting silver from ore. Medina developed the patio process, an intricate amalgamation process utilizing mercury, while mining in Pachuca, Mex., in 1557. The process proved especially useful in America,

Patio process

The patio process was a process used to extract silver from ore.The process was invented by Bartolomé de Medina in Pachuca, Mexico, in 1554. The patio process was the first process to use mercury amalgamation to recover silver from ore. It replaced smelting as the primary method of extracting silver from ore at Spanish colonies in the Americas.

Mining and Minerals Education Foundation

Inventor of the Patio Process Bartolomé de Medina was a successful Spanish businessman who became fascinated with solving the challenge of decreasing silver yields and increasing …

Mexican Paper

This Mexican amalgamation-process, invented in 1557, at Pachuca, by Bartolome de Medina, has been widely discussed in America and Europe, but thus far there is no universal agreement as to all the chemical reactions involved. Having been, after many trials, the first to succeed in effecting the amalgamation of silver-ores by the same mechanical means, but doing without one of the …

A brief history of early: silver mining in Spanish America.

The Spanish discovery of the cinnabar deposit at Huancavelica, Peru around 1560 proved vital for the prosperity of silver mining in the New World because the "patio process" for the amalgamation of silver ores (invented in Pachuca by Bartholome Medina in 1554 and used widely in the New World thereafter; see later) required mercury.

Silver Mining & Metallurgy – Antique Jewelry University

This process is better known as the Patio Process, later improved to become the Pan Amalgamation Process. Silver Mining Bronze-Age – Turkey & Armenia. When silver mining truly started isn't known exactly but slag heaps in modern-day Turkey and Armenia indicate that some silver extraction from lead ores must have occurred here as early as ...

Contribution of Spanish–American silver mines …

The industrial application of the patio amalgamation process in Spanish–American silver mines was first made at Pachuca mines, New Spain (now Mexico), in 1554 by the Spaniard Bartolome de Medina (Brading and Cross, 1972; Bethell, 1984; Puche et al., 1996), being later introduced in the silver mines of Peru and Bolivia.By the beginning of the 17th century most …

Society of American Silversmiths

For the recovery of New World silver, the Patio process was employed. Silver-bearing ore was ground and then mixed with salt, roasted copper ore, and mercury. The mixing was accomplished by tethering mules to a central post on a paved patio (hence the name of the process) and compelling them to walk in a circle through the mixture.

Global mercury emissions from gold and silver mining

Mercury has been used m gold and silver mining since Roman times. With the invention of the "patio" process in Spanish colonial America, silver and gold were produced in large scale, mostly in the Americas but also in Australia, Southeast Asia and even m England. Mercury released to the biosphere due to this activity may have reached over 260,000 t from 1550 to 1930, when …

The Wet Refining Process: The Chemistry of the patio …

The roots of the patio process, that relied on the action of mercury to extract silver from ores that did not contain lead, lie in alchemy and European metallurgy, two areas that …

Mercury pollution from the past mining of gold and …

Mercury pollution from the past mining of gold and silver in the Americas Jerome O. Nriagu Department of Environmental and Industrial Health, School of Public Health, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. ... patio process supplied the silver that fueled the global economy, it also left an unparalleled legacy of massive mercury ...

1 The Use of Mercury Amalgamation in Gold and Silver …

the "Patio" amalgamation process by Bartolomeu de Medina in 1554 in Spa­ nish Mexico, and its later introduction to silver mines in Mexico, Peru and Bolivia, mercury amalgamation reached its peak. The "Patio" process con­ sists of spreading silver- …

Peruvian Silver Refining | Mining our Past

The Patio Process. By the end of the 16th century, most high-quality silver ore had been mined out of the region. The Spanish had to find new ways to extract silver from the lower-quality ore left behind. In AD 1554, a new technique …

Silver Mining & Metallurgy – Antique Jewelry …

An Albumen Print of the Patio Process at the Gould & Curry Mill at the Comstock Lode, Nevada, 1866. The general process of mining-crushing-roasting-reducing-cupelling lead-silver ores remained the main method of silver extraction for …

Patio Process

Patio Process - Definition, Etymology, and Historical Significance in Metallurgy Definition: The Patio Process is a method used to extract silver from its ore by amalgamation with mercury. It was widely used in Spanish America from the 16th century onwards.

Colonial Mexican Silver Mining: Techniques, Labor, and …

The initial phases of silver mining in colonial Mexico began shortly after the Spanish conquest, particularly in 1521 when Hernán Cortés and his men took control of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital. ... Additionally, the introduction of the patio process in the late 16th century revolutionized the approach to refining silver ore by using ...

Colorado Paper

SAN DIMAS, in the State of Durango, Mexico, on the frontier of the State of Sinaloa, is the centre of an extensive and rich mining region, which has been exploited for over a hundred years; and the patio process for working silver ores has there attained the highest perfection of which it is capable. Local modifications have been engrafted upon the underlying principles of the …

Potosi

mining men, he insisted that the "patio process" be employed in the reduction of silver ore. Invented in Pachuca, Mexico, in 1557, ·this process consisted of crushing the ore to a fine slime, then mixing it with salt, bluestone and mercury and spreading the mass over a courtyard. After horses or mules had tramped over the

Amalgamation Patio Process

II. The Patio Process. Subsequently, I had occasion to occupy myself with the treatment of ores by the patio process. The ores consisted of a quartz mass, carrying a mixture in variable proportions of miargyrite, polybasito, silver-glance, pyrites, oxides of iron and manganese, and finally some native silver and calcite; zinc blende was ...

Patio Process

The process involves triturating silver ore, sorting it, mixing it with water, salt, copper sulfate, and mercury, and then allowing the interaction between silver and mercury to occur, which …

Potosi Silver Mine History | Rock & Gem Magazine

But Spanish smelter workers in Mexico had just developed the so-called "patio process" by spreading crushed, low-grade silver ore on cobblestone patios (hence the name) and mixing it with mercury, salt, and copper sulfate. The ensuing chemical reaction reduced the ore to metallic silver which formed an amalgam with the mercury.

Global mercury emissions from gold and silver mining

Mercury has been used m gold and silver mining since Roman times. With the invention of the "patio" process in Spanish colonial America, silver and gold were produced in large scale, mostly in the Americas but also in Australia, Southeast Asia and even m England. Mercury released to the biosphere due to this activity may have reached over 260,000 t from …

Patio process

The patio process was a process used to extract silver ore. It was developed by Bartolomé Medina in Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico in 1557 for the Pachuca-Real del Monte mines. The patio …

Chapter 3: What Goes Around, Comes Around …

This patio process made mines in the Americas, which contained large amounts of low-quality silver ore, much more profitable for Spanish colonialists, and this societal flow and use of mercury powered Spanish …

Patio Process

The patio process was the first process to use mercury amalgamation to recover silver from ore. The patio process, dating back to the 16th century, was a crude chemical method for the recovery of silver by amalgamation in low heaps with the aid of salt and copper sulfate (magistral).

The Ancient Origins of Silver Mining and Refining

A glimpse into the history of silver mining provides a deeper understanding of the white metal's role as an investment vehicle and store of wealth. Read on. Gold $2,640 ... coinage, established silver as the world's standard of value. One notable silver production advancement was the Patio Process in 1554, using mercury and salt on a wide ...

Identifying metallurgical practices at a colonial silver …

The Puno Bay saw a second resurgence in silver mining in 1744 at the Cancharani mine adjacent to Laicacota, which lasted until the end of the 18th century. During this period, the Laicacota Conflict in the Puno Bay had ended, and many laborers eagerly came to work at the mines. ... This study identified the use of the patio process silver ...

Mining and Minerals Education Foundation

2024 Inductees from Mining's Past. 2024 Special Citation. 2024 Industry Partnership. 2023 Inductee. ... Inventor of the Patio Process. ... The process involved first crushing silver ores to a fine slime, then mixed with salt, water, magistral (impure copper sulfate), mercury and then spread in a 1 to 2 foot thick layer in a shallow-walled open ...

OneTunnel | Historical Notes on the Patio Process

FROM AN OLD MANUSCRIPT THE text for this contribution to the history of the Patio process is a page taken from a Spanish manuscript of Bartholomé Arzaj Sanches y Uela, now in the possession of the library of Brown University (see Figure 1). I owe the photographic print to the courtesy of the librarian. The date, as will be seen, is 1577. The subject is the treatment of …

Patio process facts for kids

The patio process is a process for extracting silver from ore. Smelting, or refining, is most often necessary because silver does not very frequently occur in the nature by itself as a native element mineral like some metals nobler than the redox couple 2 H + + 2 e − ⇌ H 2 (gold, mercury, ...).Instead, it is made up of a larger ore body. Thus, smelting, or refining, is necessary to …

Silver mining monopolies and money relations in the 'Asian …

Silver mining enterprises, flourishing everywhere 'the benevolent hand of Nature' planted ore veins, immediately developed the monopoly forms and functions that fed the dense and rich mosaic of money and trade relations of the times ... The patio process was the silver-recuperation method used in the colonies. It was the greatest metallurgical ...