Mining ancient

Boron is mined as borax and kernite, Na2B407-xH20, with x = 10 and 4, respectively. Large deposits from ancient hot springs are found in volcanic regions, such as the Mojave Desert region of California. In the extraction process, the ore is converted into boron oxide with acid and then reduced with magnesium to an impure brown, amorphous form of boron ... 

The element phosphorus, like nitrogen, is essential to plant and animal life. Although phosphorus was not identified and isolated until 1669, phosphorus-containing materials have been used as fertilizers since ancient times, usually from bird droppings, fish, and bone. The first phosphoric acid was made by treating bone ashes with sulfuric acid. This marked the beginning of the commercial fertilizer industry. Eventually, mined phosphate rock, a poor fertilizer by itself, was substituted for bones as a raw material for phosphoric acid in the mid-1880s. 

Shepherd, R. (1993), Ancient Mining, Chapman Hall, London. 

It is clearly important to have a good knowledge of the ore geology of the area before isotopic provenancing is undertaken. Unfortunately, ancient mining is often in regions no longer considered economically viable, and the... 

Pollard, A. M. (in press a). What a long strange trip it s been lead isotopes in archaeology. In From Mine to Microscope - analysing ancient technology, eds. Shortland, A., Freestone, I., and Rehren, T. 

ORIGIN OF NAME The name manganese is derived from the mineral magnesite (or dolomite, a compound of magnesium carbonate), which was mined in the region of Magnesia of ancient Greece. 

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