Mines and Minerals of Mexico, vol. 6: Taxco, Refugio, Cerro de Mercado, Del Rio

Hardcover, 112 pages
1 edition, 2011
Published by Mineralogical Record, Inc.
Dimensions 8.2 x 11.2 (inches)
Price $49.00

Mines and Minerals of Mexico, vol. 6: Taxco, Refugio, Cerro de Mercado, Del Rio

by J. des Rivieres, D. Beals, W. E. Wilson, E. Ferry

MEXICO-VI

This book, the sixth volume in our series on the mines and minerals of Mexico, was originally issued as vol. 42, no. 5 of The Mineralogical Record. It deals entirely with the famous mines of Taxco in Guerrero state, The Refugio mine in Sinaloa, and the Cerro de Mercado in Durango, plus a biography of Mexico’s most famous mineralogist, Andrés Manuel del Río, and a look at Mexico City’s famous and historic Palace of Mines.

Taxco de Alarcón is among the earliest Spanish silver mining districts in Mexico. After nearly 500 years of silver mining at more than 270 mines, the Taxco mining district produced significant quantities of primary minerals. The past 40 years of underground operations have yielded specimens of barite, rhodochrosite, quartz, calcite, sphalerite, galena, fluorite and sulfosalts.

The Refugio mine (“Mina El Refugio”) has been the sole source of fine botryoidal smithsonite from Mexico since the early 1970s. The bright, silken luster and attractive range of colors, including a deep pink, make for handsome specimens. Unfortunately the mine is now exhausted of secondary zinc ores, and specimen collecting there has ceased.

The mountain of hematite called Cerro de Mercado (“Mercado’s Hill”) was discovered in 1552 by some of the first Spaniards to explore Mexico, but it was not mined until the late 1800s. Mixed in with the iron ore are veins containing beautiful, gemmy yellow crystals of fluorapatite in such abundance that during the mid-20th century they were sold by the bucketful to visiting mineral collectors and dealers. The mine is still operating today, and continues to yield crystals occasionally.

Andrés Manuel Del Río was one of the most famous and influential early mineralogists in the Americas. He published the first mineralogy text in North America, taught the first formal mineralogy courses in North America, developed one of the first academic mineral collections in North America, and discovered the first new element (vanadium) ever found in North America.

For over 300 years since the landing of the Conquistadors in New Spain, mining was the principal engineering industry of what is today Mexico. Work to establish a Royal Mining Seminary was begun in 1792, for the ultimate purpose of training candidates in the techniques of mining and metallurgy. The result was a flowering of the study and practice of mineralogy in Mexico. The Palacio de Minería (“Palace of Mining”), built especially for the mining college, took years to complete, but was and still is an architectural jewel of marble and French design,

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