The indirect amalgamation technology, developed by Ignaz von Born following older methods from the Spanish colonies, was intended to be nothing less than a revolutionary method of extraction of precious metals using mercury. Between 1784 and 1786, the Austrian mineralogist and mining expert Born developed, together with his academic collaborators, a technological process that acknowledged the complex nature of gold and silver ores mined in the Habsburg Monarchy. As a metallurgic-chemical process, it not only considered the economic efficiency of the production, but led also to scientific disputes about the chemical composition of the treated ores. In 1786, these questions were discussed by an international gathering. After that, the amalgamation process was more or less successfully applied in Saxony, Norway, etc.
The lesser-known part about the indirect amalgamation technology is its practical application in the Habsburg monarchy after 1786. Originally put to trial in Hungarian mining districts (now in Slovakia), it was adopted throughout the Habsburg monarchy in almost all areas that produced precious metals. My paper will concentrate on the role of chemical analysis within the amalgamation sites—the various motives pursued by chemists and mining administrators, competing understandings of the technology’s merits, and how different local settings shaped whether or not the process was used for a long or short period of time. The crucial question of chemical composition was not only a scientific dispute about the affinities of different precious and non-ferrous metals, but was also the determining factor of technological functionality.
