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During and after the Conquest, the working of the metal by the indigenous was disrupted. Many of the villages of the Pátzcuaro area were abandoned in large part due to the abuses by conquistador Nuño de Guzmán. The Spanish were soon aware of the copper deposits of this region and the indigenous’ ability to work it.
Copper products for sale in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán. While copper was worked in some parts of Mesoamerica, modern Mexican tradition is Spanish in origin. [29] Copper working was initially ignored by the Spanish conquistadors as they were looking for gold and silver. It was not shipped to Spain as much as the other two.
A tumbaga pectoral girdle of the Quimbaya culture; 300–1600 AD. Tumbaga is the name given by Spanish Conquistadors for a non-specific alloy of gold and copper, and metals composed of these elements. Pieces made of tumbaga were widely found in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica in North America and South America.
The earliest known powder metallurgy, and earliest working of platinum in the world, was apparently developed by the cultures of Esmeraldas (northwest Ecuador) before the Spanish conquest [17] Beginning with the La Tolita culture (600 BC – 200 CE), Ecuadorian cultures mastered the soldering of platinum grains through alloying with copper ...
Copper bells, axe heads and ornaments from various parts of Chiapas (1200–1500) on display at the Regional Museum in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas.. The emergence of metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica occurred relatively late in the region's history, with distinctive works of metal apparent in West Mexico by roughly 800 CE, and perhaps as early as 600 CE. [1]
Metal-bearing ores were discovered by the Spanish colonists in Cuba, who thought at first that they had found gold. [6] El Cobre was the first copper mine to be opened by the Spanish colonists, starting operations in 1544. [2] This was the first open pit copper mine in the Americas. [5]
Copper mining in the area began late in the Spanish colonial period, but it was not until 1803 that Franscisco Manuel Elguea, a Chihuahua banker and businessman, founded the town of Santa Rita. He named it Santa Rita del Cobre (Saint Rita of the Copper), after Saint Rita of Cascia and the existing mine.
Guanín objects made by the Taínos excavated in Cuba.. Guanín is an alloy of copper, gold and silver, similar to red gold, used in pre-Columbian central America. [1] The name guanín is taken from the language of the Taíno people, who prized it for its reddish color, brilliant shine, and unique smell, and associated it with both worldly and supernatural power.