In quest of mineral wealth : aboriginal and colonial mining and metallurgy in Spanish America / edited by Alan K. Craig and Robert C. West.

Includes bibl. references. - Contents: Part 1, Aboriginal. Aboriginal metallurgy and metalworking in Spanish America / R.C. West; Observations on ancient mining within the northwestern regions of the Mesoamerican civilization, with emphasis on turquoise / P.C. Weigand; Pre-Hispanic metallurgy and mining in the Andes / I. Shimada; Copper smelting in the Atacama: ancient metaallurgy at the Ramaditas Site, Chile / G. Graffam, M. Rivera, A. Carevic; Ethnohistorical dimensions of mining and metallurgy in 16th century northern Peru / S.E. Ramírez; Part 2, Colonial. Black legends and silver mountains / Otis E. Young, jr.; Early silver mining in New Spain, 1531-1555 / R.C. West; Technology of mining in colonial Mexico / R. Sánchez Flores; The territorial organization of metallic mining in New Spain / A. Sánchez-Crispin; Agricultural colonization and mining colonization: the area of Chihuahua during the first half of the 18th century / Salvador Alvarez; American mining and European mining 1750-1820 / J. Sánchez Gómez, G.M. Delli-Zotti; Labor force and mercury production in Almadén, Spain, 1759-1808 / R. Dobado González; The reception of modern scientific mining in an enlightened Mexico / J. Luis Peset; Processes in the advance and retreat of the mining frontier in southwestern Columbia during the colonial period / M.C. Ramírez de Jara; Spanish colonial silver beneficiation at Potosí / A.K. Craig; The first refining mills in Potosí / P. Bakewell; Silver mining at Huantajaya, Viceroyalty of Peru / Kendall W. Brown, A.K. Craig; Attempted technological innovation in the late colonial Peruvian mining industry, 1766-1824 / John R. Fisher; Early petroleum extraction and tar-boiling in coastal Ecuador / K. Stothert.