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<p>[QUOTE="quick dog, post: 92430, member: 4093"]That's interesting.</p><p><br /></p><p>Be advised that there are only two world-class natural mercury deposits in the world. Idria, Spain and deposits throughout the northen California Coast Range (Coalinga to Calistoga). Mercury often occurs as a sulfide (cinnabar, etc) and would therefore require smelting for significant recovery. The alluvial gold of northern Spain would not require smelting. The rough gold would be recovered by gravity methods, and probably further refined by amalgamation. A lot of mercury would be released to the atmosphere during the amalgamation process.</p><p><br /></p><p>The lead component is interesting. I would guess that <b>if</b> the basemetals tied up in ice caps are derived from ore smelting, then it would probably have to be copper, zinc, silver, cobalt, nickel, or lead smelting. These metals typically occur as sulfide and oxides which would require smelting. I suspect that people were smelting base metals in other spots on the earth (Asia, central Europe, England, and the Middle East).</p><p><br /></p><p>Regarding deaths attributed to mining a smelting, the dangerous mining operations were mercury and cobalt. Women in the German cobalt mining areas would typically go through several husbands. Cobalt was very nasty indeed. Miners died relatively quickly and often.</p><p><br /></p><p>There may also be natural sources of basemetals and sulfourous gases. Volcanic activity produces basemetal sulfides and associated noxious gases. However, there is a popular trend to assign various global contaminants and environmental problems to the activities of man. I suspect that some of these attributions are in fact unfounded. These stories sell.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="quick dog, post: 92430, member: 4093"]That's interesting. Be advised that there are only two world-class natural mercury deposits in the world. Idria, Spain and deposits throughout the northen California Coast Range (Coalinga to Calistoga). Mercury often occurs as a sulfide (cinnabar, etc) and would therefore require smelting for significant recovery. The alluvial gold of northern Spain would not require smelting. The rough gold would be recovered by gravity methods, and probably further refined by amalgamation. A lot of mercury would be released to the atmosphere during the amalgamation process. The lead component is interesting. I would guess that [B]if[/B] the basemetals tied up in ice caps are derived from ore smelting, then it would probably have to be copper, zinc, silver, cobalt, nickel, or lead smelting. These metals typically occur as sulfide and oxides which would require smelting. I suspect that people were smelting base metals in other spots on the earth (Asia, central Europe, England, and the Middle East). Regarding deaths attributed to mining a smelting, the dangerous mining operations were mercury and cobalt. Women in the German cobalt mining areas would typically go through several husbands. Cobalt was very nasty indeed. Miners died relatively quickly and often. There may also be natural sources of basemetals and sulfourous gases. Volcanic activity produces basemetal sulfides and associated noxious gases. However, there is a popular trend to assign various global contaminants and environmental problems to the activities of man. I suspect that some of these attributions are in fact unfounded. These stories sell.[/QUOTE]
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