Editing Mining (section)

===Ancient Egypt===
[[File:Malachite, Zaire.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Malachite]]
[[Ancient Egypt]]ians mined [[malachite]] at [[Maadi]].<ref>Shaw, I. (2000). ''The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt''. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.&nbsp;57–59.</ref> At first, [[Egyptians]] used the bright green malachite stones for ornamentations and [[pottery]]. Later, between 2613 and 2494 BC, large building projects required expeditions abroad to the area of [[Wadi Maghareh]] in order to secure minerals and other resources not available in Egypt itself.<ref name="Shaw">Shaw, I. (2000). ''The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt''. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 108.</ref> Quarries for [[turquoise]] and [[copper]] were also found at [[Wadi Hammamat]], [[Tura, Egypt|Tura]], [[Aswan]] and various other [[Nubia]]n sites on the [[Sinai Peninsula]] and at [[Timna Valley|Timna]].<ref name="Shaw"/> Quarries for [[gypsum]] were found at the Umm el-Sawwan site; gypsum was used to make funerary items for private tombs. Other minerals mined in Egypt from the Old Kingdom (2649-2134 BC) until the Roman Period (30 BC-AD 395) including [[granite]], [[sandstone]], [[limestone]], [[basalt]], [[travertine]], [[gneiss]], [[galena]], and [[amethyst]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shaw |first=Ian |date=March 1994 |title=Pharaonic quarrying and mining: settlement and procurement in Egypt's marginal regions |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/pharaonic-quarrying-and-mining-settlement-and-procurement-in-egypts-marginal-regions/B141EC0C2080C7FFEE5D6D8E995EDC08 |journal=Antiquity |language=en |volume=68 |issue=258 |pages=108–119 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X0004624X |s2cid=127791320 |issn=0003-598X}}</ref>

[[Mining in Egypt]] occurred in the earliest dynasties. The [[Nubia#Kerma|gold mines of Nubia]] were among the largest and most extensive of any in Ancient Egypt. These mines are described by the [[Greeks|Greek]] author [[Diodorus Siculus]], who mentions [[fire-setting]] as one method used to break down the hard rock holding the [[gold]]. One of the complexes is shown in one of the earliest known mining maps.<ref>{{cite journal| url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-019-01811-w| doi=10.1007/s00531-019-01811-w| title=Al Fawakhir Gold mine as a Geosite, Eastern Desert, Egypt| year=2020| last1=Abdelmaksoud| first1=Kholoud M.| journal=International Journal of Earth Sciences| volume=109| issue=1| pages=197–199| bibcode=2020IJEaS.109..197A| s2cid=210715910}}</ref> The miners crushed the ore and ground it to a fine powder before washing the powder for the gold dust known as the dry and wet attachment processes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Neesse |first=Thomas |date=April 2014 |title=Selective attachment processes in ancient gold ore beneficiation |journal=Minerals Engineering |language=en |volume=58 |pages=52–63 |doi=10.1016/j.mineng.2014.01.009|bibcode=2014MiEng..58...52N |doi-access=free }}</ref>