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.
Middle Ages Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire the historical events of Sardinia split up from those of the Italian Peninsula. After the short period of the Vandalic occupation, the island came under Byzantine rule. During the Byzantine rule the mining industry and the metal working activity scored a certain rebirth and silver became again one of the most important export products of Sardinia, although around 700AD trade traffic in the Mediterranean Sea became somewhat difficult because of the plunderings of the Arabs.
For Sardinia the steady plunderings of the Arabs along the coast had been, for a long spell of time, an impending danger that provoked the depopulation of wide coastal areas and the migration of the people towards the inner side of the island.
More and more isolated from the centre of the Byzantine Empire, Sardinia saw in this period the establishment, for the first time in its history, of a real administrative and political autonomy. The island was reorganised into four sovereign and independent kingdoms: the Giudicati of Cagliari, Arborea, Torres and Gallura, after the title of their sovereign (it. giudice, meaning "judge").
There are only a few documents left of the mining history of the period of the giudicati, but it is reasonable to maintain that mining industry was not relinquished at all. In 1131 the judge Gonario II of Torres donated half of the Argentiera of the Nurra to the primatial church of Santa Maria of Pisa, as evidence of the ever-closer political links between the weak Sardinian States and the Tuscan comune.
At the beginning of the 9th century in fact, under the patronage of the Papal Court, that was then ruled by Benedict XIII, in Sardinian history the two Maritime republics of Genoa and Pisa, that were at first allied against the Muslim emir Musa who had taken possession of some areas of the island, were afterwards competing for the dominion on the weak judge states. The defiance ended up in favour of Pisa. The peace of 1087AD between Genoese and Pisans brought, during the period that immediately precedes the Aragonese conquest, the predominance of Pisa across the whole of Sardinia.
From the viewpoint of mining history the Pisan rule seems to be quite well supplied with documentary evidence.
The Pisan family of the Counts of Donoratico, embodied by Ugolino della Gherardesca, enhanced a new start for the mining industry in his dominions in Sardinia and particularly in what is now Iglesiente.
Ugolino operated on a territory of about , called Argentaria del Sigerro for the richness of its underground in silver minerals. He supported moreover the moving into the island of some Tuscan hands, skilled in mining and more generally he tried to repopulate his dominions. The main aim of the demographic policy of the Gherardeschi was the founding and the development of the town of Villa di Chiesa, now Iglesias.
In the Iglesiente, the Pisans resumed the operations of the Romans by opening new shafts and bringing back to daylight the old veins. The strong mining industry, just like political, economic and social life, was ruled by some laws that were gathered in a codex divided into four books, better known as Breve di Villa Chiesa. In this codex the regulations of mining industry, particularly the silver prospecting, plays a major role. The crimes against mining were punished with the utmost rigour: the death penalty was provided for those who stole silver or silvery minerals but also for the foundrymen who mined silver from stolen materials.
Everyone in the territory of the Argentiera could undertake a mining industry, often for this purpose some companies whose participants (parsonavili) possessed quotations of society (trente) were founded. Some members of these companies, so called "bistanti" confined themselves to tender to advance the necessary amount of money.
The operations developed around the digging of ditches and in depth thanks to shafts (bottini) and tunnels. The ongoing vein or of the mineral lens was followed, so that the operation extension was quite limited. To grab on the rocky mass, picks, wedges and other hand tools were employed; sometimes fire was used to break out harder rocks. The working week started at noon on Monday and ended at noon on Saturday. Miners worked for 12 hours a day and during the week they could not leave their work. During summer season operations were stopped because of the unwholesome climate, being mostly coastal areas stricken by the plight of malaria.
It has been calculated that Sardinian mines had supplied Pisa with almost 15 tons a year of the valuable metal in the period stretching from the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 14th century. Under the Tuscan comune, in the period of brightest splendour the mines around Villa di Chiesa gave shelter to 6500 workers.
In the years around 1326AD Pisa lost its Sardinian dominions to the crown of Aragon. The loss of the island, but first of all of its silver mines, was the commencing of the fall of the Tuscan city that was pressed on the continent by its rivals Lucca and Florence.
The Aragonese crown took upon the rights concerning the exploitation of the rich ore bodies of the silver ore in order to avoid disputes between Aragonese nobles for the mineral richness of the zone. The mining industry level in this period was remarkably reduced if compared to the one of Pisan domination.
Following the total conquest of the island, the Aragonese tried to enhance the silver mining industry: duties were lightened and also taxes and rights owed to the crown for metals. Such policy though could not return Sardinian mines to their past prosperity. Under Aragonese domination first and Spanish after that, the mining industry knew a continuous decay; Sardinia, that for centuries had been one of the most important productive areas for silver, ended up importing the valuable material that was by then coming in large amounts from the Spanish settlements in the New World. Even in this period Sardinian mines did not totally cease to be active, in fact a small domestic market remained.
Under Spanish domination it was decided to subordinate the mining activities to the grant of concessions from the State administration. At least forty concessions for exploration and exploitation of Sardinian ore bodies were assigned. Eight of them were general concessions, extended to the whole territory of the island and eighteen were limited to the circle of Iglesias. The assigners of the territory of the island had to pay to the Treasury 10% of the value of the extracted mineral. The first attempt to enhance the activity of the silver vein of Sarrabus, that had been relinquished for more than one thousand years, dates back to this period. In fact, on 6 June 1622 a certain Gio. Antonio Agus was granted a permit of prospecting around Monte Narba, near the town of San Vito. After no longer than four hundred years the Spanish dominion on Sardinia ended as a consequence of the events connected to the War of the Spanish Succession and to the attempt of reconquest of Cardinal Alberoni.
The Savoy Era
In 1720 following the provisions of the Treaty of the Hague the island came under the rule of the House of Savoy, who acquired the title of Kings of Sardinia. The State of the Savoy boosted again the mining industry. Even under the Piedmontese mining was connected to the assignment of general concessions for the execution of research and mining operations on the whole territory of the island. The first who obtained this kind of concession, that lasted twenty years, were Pietro Nieddu and Stefano Durante.