Mining and the processing of minerals date back to ancient times in Sardinia.
Ancient traders and conquerors, attracted by the astonishing underground riches, were drawn to the island's coast. Evidence of ancient metal processing is given in the many placenames connected with mining: examples include Argentiera, Montiferru, Funtana Raminosa, and Capo Ferrato. The term Gennargentu (silver carrier) comes from Eugenio Marchese, then manager of the mining district of Sardinia, bringing it back to the records of an ancient processing of the precious metal around the village of Talana.
Prehistory
The long mining history of Sardinia started probably around the 6th millennium BC with the mining of obsidian at the slant of Monte Arci in the central-eastern part of the island. Monte Arci was one of the most important Mediterranean centres for mining and processing of this volcanic glass in the area. As a matter of fact at least seventy processed hectares of land and about 160 steady or temporary settlements have been found from which obsidian was later exported to Southern France and Northern Italy.
About 3000 BC the metal working practices, probably exported there from the Eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea, expanded into Sardinia too, where they reached a highly practical level. Silver extraction was one of the earliest in Europe, known since the early Chalcolithic. Together with metal working, mining practices also developed allowing the mining of growing amounts of minerals and then of metals.
The geographical position of the island and its mining asset, attracted, between the tenth and the 8th century BC, Phoenician merchants, that were replaced by Carthaginians. Phoenicians and Carthaginians deeply exploited the mining richness, above all in the Iglesiente, where there are some traces of excavations and wastes of fusion ascribable to this period. An intense metal working activity, both in excavation and in fusion, is evidenced by its archaeological viewpoint, by the large ore bodies rich in metal of Sarrabus, made up of minerals compounded by oxides and iron sulphide, copper and lead.
Roman times
In 238 BC, the era of Roman domination began in Sardinia. Carthage was forced to formally cede the island to Rome following defeat in the First Punic War and the upheaval of the mercenaries who were stationed on the island. In 226 BC, Sardinia was granted the status of a Roman province.
Under the Romans mining activity grew strongly, first of all as far as rich gold ore bodies of lead and silver are concerned. Ever since 269 BC the Roman Republic had employed silver as a monetary unit, whereas lead was used in most various fields of civil life, from crockery to water pipes. Sardinia was ranked as the third region, among all Roman dominions, after Spain and Brittany, in the amount of worked metals. Mining production during the whole period of Roman rule was assessed at about six hundred thousand tons of lead and one thousand tons of silver. The mining industry of the Romans was not limited to the basin of the Iglesiente (Metalla), in fact they knew and definitely exploited rich silver ore bodies of Sarrabus, the importance of which the geographer Solinus was referring to when he wrote: "India ebore, argento Sardinia, Attica melle" ("India is famous for ivory, Sardinia for silver and Attica for honey").
The mining development in the Roman era consisted mainly of excavations and shafts — some more than one hundred meters deep — using hand tools and sometimes fire-setting to shatter rocks. Workers were free miners first, called "metallari" and from about 190 onwards were slaves and prisoners called "damnati ad effodienda metalla." In 369 the emperor Valentinian II decreed that each ship landing at Sardinia should pay a tax of 5 solidi for each metallarius on board. Afterwards the emperors Gratian, Valens, and Valentinian II prevented any metallari from moving to the island. There was a fear that the extraordinary richness of Sardinian ore bodies might threaten the silver mines of Spain that were owned by the Emperor.
In the late Roman era, the Sardinian mining industry diminished significantly and, due to the limited needs of the island's market, many mines were relinquished and some of these, like those of the Sarrabus, were forgotten.