Abstract

Royal Mines of Zacualpan Mexico, 500 Years of Mining History
Track: Mining and Geosciences
Authors: Brian Hall

The Royal Mines of Zacualpan Silver-Gold District is located, approximately halfway between Mexico City and Acapulco. It is one of, if not the oldest silver mining district in Mexico receiving the name "Royal Mines" by charter from King Charles V of Spain in the early 1500's, through the efforts of Herman Cortez. Impact Silver currently operates three mines (Chivo, San Ramon, and Nochebuena) and occupies a land position of 600 km2. During the past three years all of the daily field data and approximately 25% of historical mining information, representing about five rooms have been entered into about a hundred easily viewable layers in ArcGIS. By using this format of data viewing the Nochebuena mine was found, and Impact's success rate for discovering new economic silver veins has increased from 31 to 62%, resulting millions of dollars in annual savings.