306: Chapter 306 Finding Silver-Bearing Ore

Xu Ning would not forget his primary purpose for coming to Japan: he had to find the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine for His Majesty the Head of State.

He secretly dispatched his trusted aides, blueprints in hand, to search the Dasen Mountains where the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine was located.

After several days of travel, they arrived at the central part of the Dasen Mountains.

Cai Mao looked at the blueprints in his hand.

He climbed to a high vantage point and surveyed the surrounding terrain, confirming that he had reached the silver mine mountain.

Cai Mao looked around but saw no signs of silver.

The area was overgrown with weeds and wild trees, looking like nothing more than a desolate mountain.

Cai Mao was not surprised; if the silver ore were distributed on the surface, the tribes living nearby would have known about it long ago.

Like copper mines, this silver mine was buried deep within the earth.

Furthermore, silver ore required manual refining before it could become bright, white silver.

A total of ten men had come with him; besides their weapons, they also brought many digging tools.

They intended to tunnel into the mountain to find the silver ore buried deep underground.

After finding a slope with relatively firm soil, Cai Mao and his group of ten began digging.

Digging was strenuous work, so they took turns.

After more than half a day of effort, they had excavated a tunnel 1.5 meters high and three meters deep.

To prevent the tunnel from collapsing, they felled a large number of trees as thick as a man's thigh.

After removing the branches, they kept the main trunks, sawed them into sections, and built wooden frames to reinforce the tunnel and prevent it from caving in.

In this manner, they dug further inward while simultaneously reinforcing the tunnel with timber.

The deeper they dug, the darker the light became.

They had anticipated this situation, so they had brought kerosene pressure lamps.

They divided the tunneling work clearly: two men were responsible for digging at the front, while the others transported the soil out of the tunnel, felled trees, and reinforced the structure.

After spending over ten days tunneling dozens of meters, they finally made a huge discovery.

They had dug into an entire silver vein.

They continued digging along the perimeter of the silver ore.

They dug another dozens of meters, and it was all silver ore!

This type of silver-bearing ore was also known as raw ore; it contained many impurities and had to be purified before it could become silver.

The method used in ancient times was called cupellation.

It is an ancient method for separating gold and silver from a symbiotic state and for extracting silver from lead.

Silver often coexists with other non-ferrous metals, and its content is usually low, thus requiring separation and purification.

cupellation primarily utilizes the mutual melting of silver and lead, allowing the silver to dissolve into the lead; air is then introduced to oxidize and deposit the lead, thereby separating the silver and purifying it.

The selected ore is placed in a furnace and covered with a layer of charcoal about one foot thick; once the charcoal is finished burning, the ore becomes a sintered mass.

In the 15th century, the island nation lacked the means to process silver, knowing only methods like ore grinding and washing, or sintering, which were inefficient and left many impurities.

Therefore, silver-bearing raw materials were usually transported to the Great Ming Empire for purification before being shipped back to the island nation.

"Good, good, good!"

Cai Mao's face was filled with immense excitement; there must be at least dozens of tons of silver-bearing raw material here!

Their long journey from Great Qin had not been in vain!

Cai Mao sent two men to report the news to Xu Ning.

Meanwhile, he stayed behind with his men to guard the site, ready to drive off any savages who might approach.

Since they were the ones who discovered the silver mine here, it now belonged to Great Qin.

When Xu Ning learned that the silver mine had been found, his expression was also one of extreme excitement.

Now, he could successfully fulfill his mission for His Majesty the Head of State.