Enigma of Alluvial Gold Mining in Pre-Contact Peru—The Present Is Key to the Past

Peru has produced metals for thousands of years and is the leading gold producer in Latin America today; however, indigenous mining technology used to produce industrial amounts pre-contact thus far been undescribed. Industrial are only two ways: 1) gravity separation/mercury (amalgamation), 2) cyanide. Therefore, an understanding present-day methods key past. For example, 2018, Peru’s large-scale open-pit mines 123,767 kg using cyanide 18,875 were from small-scale alluvial that separation mercury. Since was not until 1880s, mercury amalgamation must be critiqued as prodigious sources Peru.