Gold Occurrences in Haiti

Coat of Arms of Haiti

When he was asked to describe what kind of land was to be found in Haiti Christopher Columbus picked up a piece of paper crumpled it and dropped it on the table. This was the kind of land they had in Haiti he told them it is extremely mountainous as well as the land in the Dominican Republic where just over the border from Haiti they actually have mountain peaks that are more than 10,000 feet high. The Gold occurrences in Haiti have been mainly discovered in the northern mountains of not only Haiti but the entire island of Hispaniola that also includes the Dominican Republic.

The rocks and the entire island of Hispaniola are no older than the Cretaceous Period although on and off laying island from the main island there are some rocks that are arguably from the Paleozoic era.  First gold mines on the island were established by the Spaniards in 1520. It was these gold mines that led to the extinction of the Arawak Indians on the island because the Spaniards used them as slaves to work the mines. The very name Haiti is one of the few words that have survived the Arawak Indians, it means mountainous place.

Once the Spaniards discovered the tremendous amounts of gold to be had in Mexico Gold mining operations in Haiti came to an ending and for centuries Gold Mining almost ceased on the island. Gold was recently rediscovered in Haiti along with other base metals in booting copper and zinc. These deposits are now being explored by many prospectors and mining companies from the US and Canada.

Since the gold mining industry has reestablished itself in Haiti there has been a growth of artisanal mining throughout the country. And there are gold buyers that make you regular circuit of the country buying gold from the miners in what has been described as a circus atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of a flea market. There are many places where gold has been found in hard rock deposits, but there are many places where it can also be found as placer gold.

One of these deposits located at Grand Bois is estimated to contain over 4,000,000 tonnes of ore that averages 1.9 g per tonne. The gold is found in the oxidized zone near the surface of the earth making it extremely amenable to open pit mining. There are other deposits of gold found throughout the northern part of the island, but Grand Bois is the largest. Most of the gold of his been discovered is in the vicinity of where two fault lines intersect. Copper is another metal that his been found on the island in considerable amount that may prove to be more monetarily rewarding then the gold deposits.

Gold Mining Practices under the Roman Empire

Roman gold was of this sort
Photo by Alaska Mining

Minerals brought great wealth to the Roman Empire as they were used most often as payments for imports. The Romans were using a sluicing whereby broken rock was washed through channels containing prickly shrubs, which caught the gold. This extraction technology was being taught all over Europe in mining schools, yet the majority of the individuals working the mines were slaves who were subjected to atrocious working conditions and incurred a high mortality rate.

In 22BC, Publius Carisius, in charge of the Ulterior Army, succeeded in securing several gold mining areas, while he advanced northwards through the Pajares and Manzanal passes. By the middle of the first century AD, Rome’s gold supplies were being maintained in Spain and Dalmatia.

At the end of the First Dacian War in Autumn 106, Dacia was incorporated as a province with a garrison of two or three legions, and stationed at Apulum. Dacian gold mining was exploited at Sarmizegethusa, a colony founded there, and workmen were brought in from Dalmatia. The process of Roman gold mining allowed for Romanization to occur.

Roman Gold Mining in Britain

The only evidence of Roman gold mining in Britain is at the Dolaucothi Gold Mines situated near Pumsaint, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Washing the gravels from the river Cothi was the most elementary method of gold extraction by the Romans. These unique gold mines are set amid wooded hillsides overlooking the beautiful Cothi Valley. 2,000 years ago, the powerful Romans left behind a glimpse of gold-mining methods. The harsh mining environment continued in the 19th and 20th centuries, ending in 1938.

Dolaucothi Gold Mine in Wales that has been mined since the days of the Romans
Photo by David Smith

Types of Romans Gold Mining

The Romans used several different methods for mining gold and extraction, the first being hydraulic mining. This process was also used by the Spaniards. Gold would be stored in large tanks or vessels and when the water was released into a water source or river, the sediments would wash away, leaving veins in the earth and particles of gold. Pliny the Elder gives an account of hydraulic Roman gold mining, made possible by his observations in Spain.

The Romans also utilized deep mining techniques which allowed surveyors to track the veins with shafts and tunnels underground. The remains of Roman dewatering machines were found during the 1880s and the 1920s when the Rio Tinto mines in Spain were being mined by opencast methods (a large tank contains smaller reservoirs below it. It is likely that this complex was used for washing powdered ore to collect the gold dust). Rio Tinto was one of the principal Roman gold mining settlements, having produced more than 2,000,000 tons of silver ore in antiquity.

The Romans also used trip hammers to crush the ore. However, after the Roman occupation, the Carreg Pumsaint was discovered; a block of stone erected many years ago after the Romans had left the site. These types of crushing stones have been found at other ancient Roman mines in Europe, and the hollows in the block were formed by a trip hammer probably worked by a water wheel or a "water lever"

With the decline of the Roman Empire, mining activity was halted until its revival once again in the 11th century. Mining made its emergence in Harz, in what is now eastern Germany, and by the 15th century, amalgamation and retorting processes were widely used in gold extraction.

Author Bio

Lauren Axelrod is a fulltime archaeology student and owner of the website Ancient Digger at: http://www.ancientdigger.com

Archaeology. Her articles have been featured on Treehugger, India Times, Independent.uk, and USAToday. Ancient Digger is also featured on the Discovery News Blogroll under Archaeology.

1. The chemistry of gold extraction. John Marsden, Iain House

2. Roman Spain. By S. J. Keay

3. The Roman Empire. By Colin Michael Wells

4. Money and Government in the Roman Empire. By Richard Duncan-Jones

5. National Trust: Dolaucothi Gold Mines. Quote

6. Gold Nugget Photo

7. Dolaucothi Gold Mines Photo