Abstract
The development of the mercury (Hg) amalgamation process in the mid-sixteenth century triggered the onset of large-scale Hg mining in both the Old and New Worlds. However, ancient Hg emissions associated with amalgamation and earlier mining efforts remain poorly constrained. Using a geochemical time-series generated from lake sediments near Cerro Rico de Potosí, once the world’s largest silver deposit, we demonstrate that pre-Colonial smelting of Andean silver ores generated substantial Hg emissions as early as the twelfth century. Peak sediment Hg concentrations and fluxes are associated with smelting and exceed background values by approximately 20-fold and 22-fold, respectively. The sediment inventory of this early Hg pollution more than doubles that associated with extensive amalgamation following Spanish control of the mine (1574–1900 AD). Global measurements of [Hg] from economic ores sampled world-wide indicate that the phenomenon of Hg enrichment in non-ferrous ores is widespread. The results presented here imply that indigenous smelting constitutes a previously unrecognized source of early Hg pollution, given naturally elevated [Hg] in economic silver deposits.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbott, M.B., G.O. Seltzer, K.R. Kelts, and J. Southon. 1997. Holocene paleohydrology of the tropical Andes from lake records. Quaternary Research 47: 70–80.
Abbott, M.B., and A.P. Wolfe. 2003. Intensive pre-Incan metallurgy recorded by lake sediments from the Bolivian Andes. Science 301: 1893–1895.
Bakewell, P. 1984. Miners of the red mountain: Indian labor at Potosí, 1545–1650, 213. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Bartos, P.J. 2000. The pallacos of Cerro Rico de Potosi, Bolivia: A new deposit type. Economic Geology 95: 645–654.
Brännvall, M.-L., R. Bindler, O. Emteryd, and I. Renberg. 2001. Four thousand years of atmospheric lead pollution in northern Europe: a summary from Swedish lake sediments. Journal of Paleolimnology 25: 421–435.
Cooke, C.A., M.B. Abbott, and A.P. Wolfe. 2008. Late-Holocene atmospheric lead deposition in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes. The Holocene 18: 353–359.
Cooke, C.A., M.B. Abbott, A.P. Wolfe, and J.L. Kittleson. 2007. A millennium of metallurgy recorded by lake sediments from Morococha, Peruvian Andes. Environmental Science & Technology 41: 3469–3474.
Cooke, C.A., P.H. Balcom, H. Biester, and A.P. Wolfe. 2009a. Over three millennia of mercury pollution in the Peruvian Andes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106: 8830–8834.
Cooke, C.A., A.P. Wolfe, and W.O. Hobbs. 2009b. Lake-sediment geochemistry reveals 1400 years of evolving extractive metallurgy at Cerro de Pasco, Peruvian Andes. Geology 37: 1019–1022.
Craig, A.K. 1989. Mining ordenanzas and silver production at Potosí: The Toledo reforms. In Precious metals, coinage, and the changes in monetary structures in Latin America, Europe, and Asia, ed. E. van Cauwenberghe, 159–183. Leuven, Netherlands: Leuven University Press.
EPA. 1998. Mercury in solids and solutions by thermal decomposition, amalgamation, and atomic absorption spectrophotometry, in EPA Method 7473 Report. Washington, DC: Environmental Protection Agency.
Fisher, J.R. 1977. Silver mines and silver miners in colonial Peru, 1776–1824, 150. Liverpool: Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool.
Hong, S., J.-P. Candelone, C.C. Patterson, and C.F. Boutron. 1994. Greenland ice evidence of hemispheric lead pollution two millennia ago by Greek and Roman Civilizations. Science 265: 1841–1843.
Hudson-Edwards, K.A., M.G. Macklin, J.R. Miller, and P.J. Lechler. 2001. Sources, distribution and storage of heavy metals in the Río Pilcomayo, Bolivia. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 72: 229–250.
Kerfoot, W.C., J. Jeong, and J.A. Robbins. 2009. Lake Superior mining and the proposed mercury zero-discharge region for Lake Superior. In State of Lake Superior, ed. M. Munawar and I.F. Munawar, 153–216. Burlington, Canada: Ecovision World Monograph Series, Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management Society.
Kerfoot, W.C., S.L. Harting, J. Jeong, J.A. Robbins, and R. Rossmann. 2004. Local, regional, and global Implications of elemental mercury in metal (copper, silver, gold, and zinc) ores: Insights from Lake Superior sediments. Journal of Great Lakes Research 30: 162–184.
Kerfoot, W.C., S.L. Harting, R. Rossmann, and J.A. Robbins. 2002. Elemental mercury in copper, silver and gold ores: an unexpected contribution to Lake Superior sediments with global implications. Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis 2: 185–202.
Lacerda, L.D. 1997. Global mercury emissions from gold and silver mining. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution 97: 209–221.
Lacerda, L.D. 2003. Updating global Hg emissions from small-scale gold mining and assessing its environmental impacts. Environmental Geology 43: 308–314.
Lee, C.S.L., S.-h. Qi, G. Zhang, C.-l. Luo, L.Y.L. Zhao, and X.-d. Li. 2008. Seven thousand years of records on the mining and utilization of metals from lake sediments in central China. Environmental Science & Technology 42: 4732–4738.
Martínez-Cortizas, A., E. García-Rodeja, X. Pontevedra Pombal, J.C. Nóvoa Muñoz, D. Weiss, and A. Cheburkin. 2002. Atmospheric Pb deposition in Spain during the last 4600 years recorded by two ombrotrophic peat bogs and implications for the use of peat as archive. Science of the Total Environment 292: 33–44.
Martínez-Cortizas, A., X. Pontevedra-Pombal, E. García-Rodeja, J.C. Nóvoa-Muñoz, and W. Shotyk. 1999. Mercury in a Spanish peat bog: Archive of climate change and atmospheric metal deposition. Science 284: 939–942.
Monna, F., C. Petit, J.P. Guillaumet, I. Jouffroy-Bapicot, C. Blanchot, J. Dominik, R. Losno, H. Richard, et al. 2004. History and environmental impact of mining activity in celtic aeduan territory recorded in a peat bog (Morvan, France). Environmental Science & Technology 38: 665–673.
Nriagu, J.O. 1993. Legacy of mercury pollution. Nature 363: 589.
Nriagu, J.O. 1994. Mercury pollution from the past mining of gold and silver in the Americas. Science of the Total Environment 149: 167–181.
Pfeiffer, W.C., and L.D. Lacerda. 1988. Mercury inputs into the Amazon region, Brazil. Environmental Technology Letters 9: 325–330.
Pirrone, N., S. Cinnirella, X. Feng, R.B. Finkelman, H.R. Friedli, J. Leaner, R. Mason, A.B. Mukherjee, et al. 2009. Global mercury emissions to the atmosphere from natural and anthropogenic sources In Mercury fate and transport in the global atmosphere, ed. N. Pirrone and R. Mason, 3–49. New York: Springer.
Renberg, I., M.W. Persson, and O. Emteryd. 1994. Pre-industrial atmospheric lead contamination detected in Swedish lake sediments. Nature 368: 323–326.
Schwartz, M.O. 1997. Mercury in zinc deposits: economic geology of a pollution element. International Geology Review 39: 905–923.
van Straaten, P. 2000. Mercury contamination associated with small-scale gold mining in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Science of the Total Environment 259: 105–113.
Wedepohl, K.H. 1995. The composition of the continental crust. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 59: 1217–1232.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to journal reviewers and the editor for their time and efforts. Funding for this research was provided by the US National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cooke, C.A., Balcom, P.H., Kerfoot, C. et al. Pre-Colombian Mercury Pollution Associated with the Smelting of Argentiferous Ores in the Bolivian Andes. AMBIO 40, 18–25 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0086-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0086-4