How old is Mining?

Question

When did Man begin to extract Metals from Stone?

Answer 1

Well it has to be within the early part of neolithic period .i.e. post 11,000 to 10500 years B.P.

Man learnt use of Gold earlier to Copper, brass, iron etc.

Soon after man learnt the art of domestication of plants and animals his boreal habitat changed to terrestrial dwellings and social groupings. Gradually the stone age changed to "metal age".

It is difficult to date this event precisely.

thnks

Answer 2

Mining of the red iron oxide pigment, Ochre, began 92,000 years ago in Israel.

The oldest known ritual Human burials, the 92,000 year old Qafzeh burial site in Israel, used mined red ochre as part of the burial rituals. The red ochre was painted on several skeletons and 71 pieces of mined ochre were found at the cave.

"Geochemical and petrographic analyses are used to test the hypothesis that ochre was selected and mined specifically for its color."

From: An Early Case of Color Symbolism: Ochre Use by Modern Humans in Qafzeh Cave by Erella Hovers, Shimon Ilani, Ofer Bar-Yosef, and Bernard Vandermeersch

Answer 3

Mining in the sense of 'metals from stone' differs in various regions of the world.  People technically started mining when their culture(s) exited the stone age into the Bronze Age.  Some copper mines in North America are 5000 years old.  We don't know how long ago they started mining gold in Central America for sure.  Although mining often goes along with agriculture and agriculture started in the Western Hemisphere before it did in the eastern (unless they have found new evidence to the contrary, in which case it would be the Middle East).

There are quite a few flint mines in Europe that are at least 6000 years old.

This isn't an exact number, but I hope it gives you an idea.

Answer 4

I recall a Scientific American article several years ago mentioning areas and specific sites around Afghanistan/Iraq extracting copper around 6,000BC or so.

Bonus: Zinc deposits are frequently found near copper ore. Some was perhaps accidentally extracted and added to the molten copper, cooled and found to be harder than copper alone - thus bronze was discovered - and on goes the story...