Roman lead silver smelting at Rio Tinto : the case study of Corta Lago
The Rio Tinto area is famous for the presence there of a rich concentration of several metals, in particular copper, silver and manganese, which were exploited from the Bronze Age up to few decades ago. The modern mining industry has been responsible for both bringing to light and destroying signs of past exploitation of the mines and metal production there. The Corta Lago site owes its discovery to the open cast exploitation that reduced the whole mount of Cerro Colorado to an artificial canyon. This exploitation left behind sections of antique metallurgical debris as well as revealing the old underground workings. The Corta Lago site dates from the Bronze Age up to the 2nd century AD, consisting mainly of silver and copper production slag, but also including litharge cakes, tuyĂ©res and pottery. The project focused on the study of silver production slag from different periods using petrograhical and chemical techniques, such as Optical Microscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, X-Ray Fluorescence, Scanning Electron Microscopy associated to Energy Dispersive Spectrometry and Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. The aim of the project was to reconstruct the metallurgical processes of the different
Anguilano, L.
Roman lead silver smelting at Rio Tinto : the case study of Corta Lago. The Rio Tinto area is famous for the presence there of a rich concentration of several metals, in particular copper, silver and manganese, which were exploited from the Bronze Age up to few decades ago. The modern mining industry has been responsible for both bringing to light and destroying signs of past exploitation of the mines and metal production there. The Corta Lago site owes its discovery to the open cast exploitation that reduced the whole mount of Cerro Colorado to an artificial canyon. This exploitation left behind sections of antique metallurgical debris as well as revealing the old underground workings. The Corta Lago site dates from the Bronze Age up to the 2nd century AD, consisting mainly of silver and copper production slag, but also including litharge cakes, tuyĂ©res and pottery. The project focused on the study of silver production slag from different periods using petrograhical and chemical techniques, such as Optical Microscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, X-Ray Fluorescence, Scanning Electron Microscopy associated to Energy Dispersive Spectrometry and Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. The aim of the project was to reconstruct the metallurgical processes of the different
roman lead silver smelt case_study area famous presence rich concentration several metal particular copper silver exploited modern mining_industry responsible bring_light destroy sign past exploitation mine metal_production there site owe discovery open cast exploitation reduce whole mount artificial exploitation leave behind section antique metallurgical_debris well reveal old underground working site date consist mainly silver copper_production slag also_include res pottery project_focus study silver production slag different_period use chemical technique optical_microscopy diffraction x_ray_fluorescence scanning electron_microscopy associate energy dispersive spectrometry multi collector inductively_coupled plasma mass_spectrometry aim_project reconstruct metallurgical process different