There are quartz mines all over the world, but the spectacular quartz mine in Naica has attracted the attention of experts in the field due to the large size of the crystals found. This famous mine was discovered in 1794, in the municipality of Saucillo in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, when miners Pedro Ramos, Alejo Hernández and Vicente Ruiz made the discovery while looking for other minerals, thus finding the first mineral streaks.
But in reality, its boom and development began in 1828 when Santiago Stoppelli discovered a mineral in the area, which brought progress and gave rise to the founding of the town that grew rapidly and thus the Naica Mining Company was established on July 27th, 1911. In this way, the town managed to reach the category of Municipality of Naica, thanks to the level of development obtained by the mining activity; but when the Mexican Revolution took place, it was practically abandoned and the activities in these mines ceased, which meant that it was added to the towns belonging to the Saucillo Municipality.
On the other hand, the mine of Naica is widely known and considered one of the most impressive quartz mines in the world, and at the same time it is the main mine of lead concentrates in Mexico and the fourth most important in the world; however, the “Cave of Crystals”, which is inside this mine, is the one that catches the most attention due to its structural characteristics, size, dimensions and the great beauty of the crystals found in it.
This famous cave was discovered by brothers Javier and Eloy Delgado in December of 1999 at a depth of more than 850 meters, and it is the only one that can be entered, since the rest is not possible to access given the large size of the crystalline formations and the high temperature which reaches up to 45 Celsius degrees with a humidity between 80 and 90% that makes breathing very difficult.
This “Cave of Crystals” is located above an underground magma chamber, which heats the water to levels in which it was very saturated with minerals, which has allowed the crystals to grow very much, reaching incredible proportions, the reason why UNESCO was requested the World Heritage status in order to protect these large quartz crystal formations, which is a mineral with many properties and uses in various areas, such as jewelry and industry.
It should be noted that quartz is the most common of all the minerals that exist on the planet, being its distribution very wide on the earth surface and abounding in the igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. This mineral, which is in various mining deposits throughout the world, has a level 7 hardness on the Mohs scale, being able to be used in various activities in the industry; but the miners that extract it must protect their airways, because the inhalation of particles detached from the rock can end up producing a very serious disease such as silicosis.
This is how the spectacular quartz mine of Naica has a significant importance not only for Mexico but for the world, since the morphological and structural characteristics of the crystals found there make it unique in the world, which is why it must be declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. In addition, from the economic point of view, its extraction brings lots of income to Mexico and can provide raw materials to various industries in this country and around the world.
Remember that quartz has a wide range of properties and uses, which make it not only the most common mineral on earth, but also one of the most useful, considering that since ancient times it has been used for various purposes, from healing to industrial ones, having qualities and properties that have made it essential not only in the field of jewellery to create fabulous garments, but also in different processes, including healing.
For this reason, since ancient times it has been considered a healing stone, to the point of being considered magical by some ancient civilizations, even in China it has always been believed that quartz is capable of quench thirst in people and / or animals, so when the warriors went to battles, they wore a piece of quartz to quench their thirst, to protect themselves and focus on the fight with their opponents.
It is also used in order to balance the chakras and benefit people from the spiritual, emotional and physical point of view, eliminating negative emotions and providing positive energy, enhancing strength and vitality. For this reason, it is used to strengthen the immune system, and in this way to prevent the body from being affected by diseases of any kind.
One of the latest discoveries related to the mine of Naica has to do precisely with the Cave of Crystals, where a group of scientists have been working since 2001, applying the uranium-based dating process with which they were able to demonstrate that the crystals were 500,000 years old.
More recently, Dr. Penelope Boston from the NASA Astrobiology Institute managed to isolate dormant microbes in the crystals and revive them, showing that they were about 10,000 years old and possibly up to 50,000, which feed on iron and sulfur present in the huge underground crystals located inside the cave through a process called “chemosynthesis”.
ALFA