A Century of Research in Sedimentation and Thickening

Nevertheless, the earliest written reference for crushing and washing in Egypt is that of Agatharchides, a Greek geographer who lived 200 years before Christ.Ardaillon, author of the book Les Mines du Laurion dans l'Antiquité, described in 1897 the process used in the extensive installations for crushing and washing ores in Greece between the V to the III century BC.A.J. Wilson (1994) describes in his book The Living Rock mining of gold and copper in the Mediterranean from the fall of the Egyptian dynasties right to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.The development of mineral processing from unskilled labor to craftsmanship and eventually to an industry governed by scientific discipline is largely due to the Saxons in Germany and Cornishmen in England in the beginning of the 16th century.An international exchange of technology began between these two countries and continued for a long time.However, it was in Saxony where Agricola wrote his De Re Metallica, the first major contribution to the development and understanding of the mining indus-