Hacienda Bustos? Marfil

[jesm]

A change of pace.
I’m on a search for information about Guanajuato’s key history as a precious metals mining and processing center within New Spain.
Specifically, any location or other information about one of the many processing haciendas that lined the river in Marfil.
The one in question was named Hacienda Bustos. It achieved notoriety across New Spain for its use of innovative metallurgical techniques that dramatically increased the amount of precious silver recovered from a ton of raw ore. This process involved the use of valuable and dangerous mercury for extracting tiny granules of pure silver from the finely ground rock.
In later times I understand the historic structures were owned and later renovated by a Morrill family and converted into an art studio.
If you can point me to the present day site, which I am confident is still standing, that would be wonderful.
If you today enjoy dining at La Capellina the Italian restaurant up from the Jardín you are experiencing a nice dose of this GTO mining history. On that site sat the heavy oven and cumbersome associated apparatus, all called a capellina, that was used to recover the spent mercury from the finished silver extraction process for reuse in the haciendas.

[MissMyBike]

The still-operating plant in GTO is the Cata Plant, belonging to Great Panther Resources. The address for the site is Ex-Hacienda Bustos. If this is your target, it is not at Marfil, but up at Cata. You get there by driving up from Camino Real hotel, turning right in front of hotel Castillo on Panorámica, and traveling another 5 min. You’ll know when you get there when you pass the big gate on the right, where you’ll see the ball mill turning. I know this place well, as I worked for this company for a few years, until May of last year.

Also there is a 1906 book, titled Mexico’s Treasure-House, by Percy F Martin, that can be a rich source for your research. I tried to send you a pic of the cover but the system got overloaded!

While on the subject of beneficiation technologies, look into the Rayas site up past Cata (great lookout too). These circular features are the Patio process, with elaborate schemes of mules turning the wheels to crush the ore before amalgamation, while also serving as the hoist to the shaft in the center. The same book above covers this subject well.

Anyways, too much here for this venue.

Good luck.

[jesm]

Wonderful stuff thank you
We know Cata and Great Panther and had just found a resource pointing to that area as location for Hacienda Bustos
I will seek out the referrnce you suggest
This subject is so interesting and powerful from a historians perspective it just keeps pulling one in deeper

[admin]

Mexico’s Treasure-House, by Percy F Martin,
get it here in .pdf and several other formats. The .pdf is 382 pages

[jesm]

Our dear Administrator, thank you so much.
I had only found this as a limited edition thru Amazon for $65!
Susan may not be so cheerful as this means my face will be glued to my tablet for hours enjoying this rare look at Guanajuato history.
Live long and prosper mi amigo.