Oldest Mine in the Americas Found

According to a new research paper, archaeologists recently discovered the oldest mine in the Americas. The iron oxide mine has been found in Chile, and initial studies estimate its age at around 12,000 years.

Details of the discovery were listed in a report published in the June issue of the journal Current Anthropology. These are the earliest tracks of organized mining activities in the Americas, experts say.

Universidad de Chile expert Diego Salazar led the Chilean team that discovered the trench-like mine near the coastal town of Taltal, in the northern parts of the country. The trench is about 40 feet (12 meters) in length.

All evidence collected from the site until now indicate that the structure was most likely dug and used by the Huentelauquen people, which was the first human population to arrive in those parts.

These people used the iron oxide they extracted from the makeshift mine to produce pigments. They then used the chemicals to paint various instruments, their own bodies, and some of their clothes.

But these ancient people apparently entertained a higher degree of culture and civilizations than archaeologists first discovered. Testifying to this are remarkable duration and extent of the operations carried out at the mine.

“It shows that [mining] was a labor-intensive activity demanding specific technical skills and some level of social cooperation transmitted through generations,” Salazar and his team write in the study.

Measurements conducted at the site indicate that as much as 2,000 tons of rocks were removed from the mine, accounting for about 700 cubic feet of material. Exploitations were conducted at the location between 12,000 and 10,500 years ago.

“The regular exploitation of [the site] for more than a millennium […] indicates that knowledge about the location of the mine, the properties of its iron oxides, and the techniques required to exploit and process these minerals were transmitted over generations within the Huentelauquen Cultural Complex, thereby consolidating the first mining tradition yet known in America,” the team explains.

This discovery extends the mining records of the Americas by several millennia. The Huentelauquen people was mining iron oxide at a time when other populations were grasping the basic concepts of agriculture and farming, Science Blog reports.