The mines of Laurion (or Lavrion) are ancient mines located in southern Attica between Thoricus and Cape Sounion, approximately 50 kilometers south of the center Athens, in Greece. The mines are best known for producing silver, but they were also a source of copper and lead. A number of remnants of these mines (shafts, galleries, surface workshops) are still present in the region.
The mines were exploited in prehistoric times as a source of copper and galena, a lead ore. In the classical period, mining in the area resumed. The Athenians used large numbers of slaves to mine the area, with the silver produced contributing significantly to the city's wealth. Abandoned in the 1st century BC, the mines were reactivated in 1864 and mined for their lead by French and Greek companies until 1978.
History
Ancient times
Referring to the mines in his 354 BC work Ways and Means, Xenophon wrote:
It is clear, I presume, to every one that these mines have for a very long time been in active operation; at any rate no one will venture to fix the date at which they first began to be worked.
In fact, the exploitation of the mines stretches from the Bronze Age: isotopic analyses of lead present in objects of this era indicate that they were made in large part from metal extracted from the Laurion mines.
The earliest evidence for mining activity at Laurion comes from the Late Neolithic period, around 3200 BC. Mining became more systematic starting from the late sixth-century BC, and in the fifth century it was an important source of revenue for Athens. During this period, the city began to mine a new and particularly rich vein, which unlike the two which had previously been exploited did not appear on the surface. During the tyranny of Peisistratos systematic exploitation of the mineral resources of Athens began. Shafts were driven down into the ground and galleries opened where slaves, chained, naked, and branded, worked the seams illuminated only by guttering oil lamps. An unrecorded number were children. It was a miserable, dangerous, and brief life.
This discovery meant that at the beginning of the second Persian invasion of Greece, the Athenian state had at its disposal a hundred talents of silver (around three tons) from the aforementioned vein. Rather than distribute this wealth amongst the citizens of Athens, Themistocles proposed that this money should be used to construct 200 triremes, which were used to conduct the naval campaign against Persia which culminated in victory at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. Although lead, mercury, cinnabar, red chalk, and ochre were considered to be byproducts of silver production, they were still incredibly useful. After the Persians fled Athens around 479 BCE, the city needed to be rebuilt. Over the next century lead from the mines would be brought to make countless different water pipes and clamps that would aid in the big rebuilding of Athens.
Loss of free men and slaves as a result of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) caused the mines to shut down. This compounded the economic crisis of Athens, along with the infrastructure damage to the port of Piraeus.
Modern times
Mining at Laurion resumed in 1864. Renewed mining involved both the processing of ancient slag for remaining lead and silver and the extraction of fresh ore. Mining of zinc ore was a commercially significant in the Laurion area in modern times. It was mined from reactivation in 1864 until 1930. Iron ore was also mined through the 1950s. The mines continued to be active, producing silver and other metals until profitable sulfide deposits were exhausted in 1978.
During the early years of their modern operation, the mines became the cause for a legal dispute, known as Lavreotika, between the Greek state and the mining company, that resulted in foreign powers threatening with military intervention. After the dispute was resolved, an economic scandal broke out, as a result of the cultivation of rumors regarding the existence of gold reserves in the mines.