Have any of you read this?

[Justincase]

Probably my absolute favourite text on metallurgy.
Not because it is particularly useful, but it just shows people like us have been doing the exact same thing for quite a long time.
What I would give to break bread and share a few good bottles of wine with Georgius Agricola.

 

[4metals]

I love this part, there have been con men associated with our profession since it began!

No less a fraud, warranting capital punishment, is committed by a third sort of alchemists; these throw into a crucible a small piece of gold or silver hidden in a coal, and after mixing there with fluxes which have the power of extracting it, pretend to be making gold from orpiment, or silver from tin and like substances. But concerning the art of alchemy, if it be an art, I will speak further elsewhere. I will now return to the art of mining.

 

[orvi]

Agricola was the special guy out there. Because he was a great listener and espetially one who can write. And draw good sketches of equipment. His books were gamechanger in that time, pooling all known knowledge about mining and refining of metals.

I always felt the history in quite unique way, when I visited places like Banska Stiavnica in Slovakia - where he spend some good amount of time getting together experience and craftmanship of local miners. This small town (now) was the mining capital of the 15-16th century world. Half of the world production of copper was made here in that time. And production of silver and gold was not far behind.

In 12-14th century, miners from areas of today´s Austria, north Italy and Germany were travelling to these places, because in their homeland, too much competition was already present and grades of ore were getting lower. They settled nearby local mountains and searched for precious metals. Their activity was heavily subsidized by the local knights or kings, since they were orders of magnitude more capable and successful than local guys. In the course of few centuries, they become incredibly wealthy people, controlling nearly all ore resources and capital flow around them, and had immense power on decisionmaking of kings and rulers of these times.

 

[SRM]

And the text was translated into English by Herbert and Lou Henry Hoover which got them inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame (US). They are more famous as President and First Lady.