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  • Silver Veins, Dusty Lungs: Mining, Water, and Public Health in Zacatecas, 1835–1946 by Rocio Gomez
  • Saul Guerrero (bio)
Silver Veins, Dusty Lungs: Mining, Water, and Public Health in Zacatecas, 1835–1946 By Rocio Gomez. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020. Pp. 294.

Water was indispensable for refining silver ores using mercury. It provided energy for the mills to grind the ores and the aqueous medium for the complex chemical reactions during refining. Furthermore, it washed away reagents and mineral waste from the haciendas. Thus, the title of this book catches the attention of those interested in Mexico's history of silver. [End Page 1197]

Set in Zacatecas, Mexico, between 1835 and 1946, it reviews the water management problems in a town caught between the aridity of its environment and its dependence on the silver industry. The book's arguments are presented in three themes through the lens of extraction ecology. The first is the author's version of the processes of mining and refining silver with mercury and their environmental impact (ch. 1). The second covers the occupational hazards of mining (chs. 3 and 5). The third reviews the access to clean water, public health issues, and the contamination of water sources (chs. 2 and 4). The common thread is not water, but the deemed detrimental role of the mining/refining industry on the environment, workers' health, and local communities' access to water supplies.

Readers should first explore Burkart's 1861 map of Zacatecas. It shows the locations of rivers, streams, reservoirs, and the main mines and silver refining haciendas (among them Bernárdez, Sauceda, and Buen Suceso, as well as the behemoth of all haciendas in Fresnillo, well away from the town). The map does not support the following assertion: "Spilling down from the surrounding hills, rivulets of mercury and other metals went into waterways" (p. 132). This description is unnecessary and misleading, ignoring the geography, the location of the haciendas, and the chemical reactions that converted most of the mercury used for refining into solid calomel. The ecotoxicological consequences of mining and refining silver ores are well established, so a straightforward exposition of the chemical and physical facts makes a compelling case study that needs no embellishment. Furthermore, the author has not mastered the history and technology of refining silver as practiced in Mexico, and the text contains many factual errors. To cite but a few: "Mexican silver production relied largely on German amalgamation methods" (p. 40). This is not true. The Born process (based on Alonso Barba's innovation) remained a fringe application due to cost and other drawbacks, plus the technology and silver processing recipes in Mexico were developed in the New World. The author's statement that "the silver ore mingled with mercury by way of carbon" makes no chemical sense and trivializes an early example of hydrometallurgical chloride leaching (Johnson and Whittle, "Chemistry of the Hispanic-American Amalgamation Process," 1999) (p. 42). Cyanidation and floating are not "two new amalgamation processes" (p. 130). The book lacks hard data regarding the available water supply from natural sources or as a by-product from the drainage of mines, the town's needs (compare with Alfaro Rodriguez, "El abastecimiento de agua Zacatecas," 2013), or the steps taken by haciendas to cope with restricted water supply (Lyon, Journal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of Mexico, 1828; Santoyo Alonso, "Agua para mi molino," 2014). No comparison is made with Guanajuato, which in stark contrast to Zacatecas did have silver refining haciendas in its midst, and how it coped with the mineral waste they generated (Reza, Guanajuato y sus miasmas, 2001). [End Page 1198]

The second theme of the book addresses work-related risks to miners—a well-known topic. The argument then spreads to technology, mercury, and rabies in animals triggered by drought. The narrative focuses on how labor organizations struggled to have silicosis/tuberculosis acknowledged as an occupational disease. The third theme follows the track record of local authorities and legislation in protecting and controlling access to clean water, with a discussion on public health, typhus, and diphtheria (Ruíz Pérez et al., "Salubridad en México," 2017), where the culprits...

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