Mining Operations found by Europeans when they reached the New World
(a) Location of Mines
(i) Australia
Gold; silver; copper; quartz crystals; pure white ceramic clay; limestone; antimony (Gympie); lead, uranium (Arnhem Land) (B. Green evidence).
(ii) Fiji
Copper (Lasawa).
(iii) Arctic
Smelted bronze, iron, copper (Devon Island and Bathhurst Island).
(iv) North America
Coal (Newport Island to Greenland); St Peter’s River (Minnay Sotor); Cherokee country east coast, Chinese miners (Scott McLean); central Virginia – “fire holes” of Nottoway River; mortar holes in exposed bedrock, Keefer Flat, CA
Blastless Demolition – A possibility for the cause of the curious grooves found on stones at the Miami Ship canal, Fort Lauderdale and Watertown is that they resulted from the use of a blastless demolition agent. This entails the application of unique Chinese chemicals to fracture rocks – when water is applied, Calcium Alumino Sulfate forms etringnite crystals that swell by about 30 % in volume, with an expansive force approaching 30,000psi – Harry Francis
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula – Pre-Columbian copper excavations. This specific copper has been found all the way to Mexico and in places in between. These old copper diggings are in Michigan’s upper peninsula near Lake Superior, where the Ojibwa still live today.
Chinese in Barstow California from 1100 A.D – Silver mines dug by ancient Chinese at a site near Barstow, as well as what could possibly be Chinese petroglyphs. These Chinese were tall (7 feet) and many spoke, or at least wrote Latin. Only the tall were permitted to have wives. They were Catholic Christians. They wrote by scratching on the desert varnish with seashells and the dates were translated from Latin. An orphan that was brought up by Jesuits and taught Latin shorthand translated these writings to English in the 1940s and we have a copy. Father Azura de Amata, a third order Franciscan who traveled with the Chinese, provided much of the history that was scratched into the desert varnish. It appears that the settlement began in 1102 (according to Amata’s history). There are some writings from 1222. It appears that Tenachee Matikki was also there before Columbus in 1466. The Chinese returned in 1530 – a Ling Foo Ming. The last writings are from 1910 mentioning Arch-Bishop Aloysius Stanislaus, 3rd Rev. We will begin a diligent search for definitive proof of the Chinese community that started in 1102 A.D. in one month – Bob Cribbs
Research into peat cores at Clinton, Connecticut, has revealed a huge pre-Columbian spike in copper that appears across the entire Clinton marsh over a distance of two miles. The phenomenon is referred to as the “mystery copper spike”. It has copper concentrations well beyond any pollution additions that occurred in the last two centuries and differs from industrial age pollution in that it is not associated with high zinc concentrations. Copper concentrations are 116 and 168 ppm while copper in the last two centuries had maximum values of 40-70 ppm. Short-lived values this high are unlikely to have a natural cause, the most likely explanation being a nearby source of copper pollution related to copper mining and production, i.e. an anthropogenic source. The “mystery copper spike” is placed in time, based on averaged radiocarbon ages at two sites, at 1350 AD. At one site a radiocarbon age at the base of the copper spike horizon is calibrated to 1398 AD (2 sigma range of 1290-1439). With some minor downward leaching of copper or a very slight error in the radiocarbon analysis, the copper spike could easily represent 1400-1450 AD. At another site peat samples at the copper interval date from 1302 AD (2 sigma range of 1248-1422). Right now there is no information to directly link the copper spike to Chinese explorer/settlers on the Connecticut coast, but one thing does appear to be certain: the simplest and best explanation to date is that there appear to have been people on the coast of Connecticut capable of producing a huge pollution source of copper 50-200 years prior to Columbus arriving in the New World. To our knowledge Native Americans did not mine and process copper – (Jack Ridge)
Evidence of copper mining long ago in Northern Michigan on the Keewanau peninsula at Calumet. Smelting done by plunging ore into cold water. The tools and process was suddenly abandoned. No one knows why. Bruce Catton, in his book Michigan, writes about this. (Kathleen Stocking)
(v) Mexico
Copper and gold.
A 1905 book on mining in Mexico that questions when and how the use of iron implements started in early Mexico. The Aztecs used hardened copper. From time to time tools have been found in what seem to be ancient workings, which support the idea of their knowledge of iron at the time (i.e. pre-European). ….”In the little mining town of Copala, Sinaloa, in a chamber in one of the old mines, a number of antique tools were found…The type is quite different to any now in use… That the tools were of Spanish origin may be supposed, but the Spaniards could hardly have commenced mining in remote western districts immediately on their occupation of the country from the Gulf side, nor for many years afterwards, if they did so at all. The chamber had evidently been filled with water at some time, and had dried out, as the encrustation on the tools indicated a long period of submersion. And again the implements may prove the Asian origin of the west coast population, and the importation of their arts from the Transpacific continent, in which case the instruments may possibly come from China or Japan, or the Malayan Archipelago, like so many of the customs and tribal languages of the Western Mexican Indians.” – Hans von Michaelis
(vi) Canada
Jadeite (British Columbia).
(vii) New Zealand
Antimony, iron and gold (Cedric Bell). (See Annex XIII.)
Rock face at Whangape, New Zealand – appears to have been modified by man 500 years ago (Robert Buchanan) – More research needed
(viii) South Africa
Namal tribal leaders, presentation of copper ore to early Dutch settlers, 1681
(J. Parkinson).
(b) A typical Chinese ore crusher and smelter
This example is found on New Zealand’s South Island; its slag has been dated pre-Tasman. Aqueducts and sluices feed a lake made by a dam used to impound water. Funnels lead the water into water wheels (impellers) which in their turn power combustion air bellows made of fabric. The bellows are fed by a separate air duct. The water wheels provide power for ore crushers. Refined metal was placed on a stone platform and the slag in another heap. There are six similar smelters/separators on New Zealand. Iron ore contents 7.8 to 9.7%.
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