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The Spanish conquest of South America led to the discovery of Peruvian mountains rich in gold and silver. In April, 1545, high up in the Andes, an Indian named Diego Gualapa climbed a distinctively shaped conical peak in search of a rumoured Indian shrine. Such shrines frequently contained some gold or silver relics suitable for plunder. The peak was located at an altitude of 4,824 metres (15,287 ft.)…

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Daniel Guggenheim was sent to Switzerland as a young man to study the Swiss lace and embroidery business, and to serve as a buyer for his father's import firm. The discovery of high-grade silver-lead ore in the Guggenheim mines in Leadville, Colorado in 1881 became the foundation for the Guggenheim fortune in mining. In 1884, Daniel returned to the US to help manage…

Meyer Guggenheim was born in Lengnau, Aargau, Switzerland on February 1, 1828. He was of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry and emigrated to the United States in 1847. He started out in the importing business, but made his and his family's fortune (which was one of the largest fortunes of the 19th century) in mining and smelting. Guggenheim invested in silver mines of the Leadville mining district of Colorado.…

Born in Vermont, Hayward moved to Canton, New York early in his life. He studied law in New York, but also pursued lumber and lead mining interests. His experience in Michigan vein mining proved invaluable after his move to California in the Gold Rush of 1850. After buying an interest in the Eureka Mine in Amador County, Hayward made new investments and successfully extracted gold where others had…

George Hearst, of Scots-Irish origin, was born near present-day Sullivan, Missouri, to William G. Hearst and Elizabeth Collins. Hearst was raised in a log cabin on his family's farm in rural Franklin County. His father operated three small farms, all of which were mortgaged, with slave labor. William Hearst sold his products in his own local general store. George Hearst grew up before public education…

Tom Hebert, a French-Canadian working on the railroad being pushed through northern Ontario, prevailed on the geologist, Willett Miller, to examine a vein Hebert had found in the face of a cliff. Miller, Ontario's first government geologist was in the area looking into the discoveries of James McKinley and Alfred Larose. Miller reported:...“silver was lying in profusion at the base of the cliff.”…

Silver Thursday was an event that occurred in the United States silver commodity markets on Thursday, March 27, 1980, following the attempt by brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt, William Herbert Hunt and Lamar Hunt to corner the silver market. A subsequent steep fall in silver prices led to panic on commodity and futures exchanges. Background Nelson Bunker Hunt, Lamar Hunt, and William Herbert Hunt, the sons…

Judas Iscariot (/ˈdʒuːdəs ɪˈskærɪət/; Biblical Hebrew: יהודה איש-קריות‎, romanized: Yehûdâh Ish-Kerayot; Greek: Ὶούδας Ὶσκαριώτης) (died c. 30 – c. 33 AD) was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane by kissing him and…

In 1526 Tarnowskie Góry in Silesia (southern Poland) was awarded the status of a free mining town, and in 1528, John II the Good, Duke of Opole, issued an ordinance known as the Ordunek Górny, granting the town a series of mining privileges. At the same time a mining authority was also established, its seal and coat-of-arms eventually becoming the town’s coat-of-arms. The Reformation found many…

In 1526 Kamiya Jutei, a wealthy merchant from Hakata, founded the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine in Ōda. In 1533 he introduced a Korean method of silver refining to the mine, which became the Hai-Fuki-Ho method. Historians compared the Hai-Fuki-Ho method to the Medieval European seigerprozess [de] of silver smelting. Under the Hai-Fuki-Ho method, silver-containing copper ore would be cast-smelted with lead,…