Buried Treasure: The Earth Yields Up its Secrets

Abstract

Mines, especially the more fabled ones, have long held an air of mystery for the armchair traveler and history buff. They came into being when ancient peoples realized that there was more to Earth than what it revealed on its surface. People began to extract buried commodities from deliberately constructed mines: salt, slate, coal, precious stones, iron and other metal-bearing ores and minerals. Later, they found some uninteresting-looking rocks that contained exotic elements and other surprises. Although mineral pigments were not high on the list of major commercial resources, the same technologies were used to extract and process them. One of these pigments, when put to a different use, became the economic mainstay of the Spanish colonies of the New World. Another element that came from the mines in what is now the Czech Republic found no use except for coloring glass. Two of its peculiar properties, discovered much later, launched the world into the nuclear age.