Sado Gold Mine 佐渡金山

Description

Among Japan’s many islands, Sado Island stands out as a gleaming source of treasure. The group of mines that came to be collectively known as the Sado Gold Mine produced some 78 tons of gold and 2,330 tons of silver over nearly 400 years of operation. This great wealth funded the shogunate during the Edo period (1603-1867), and became an important driving force during Japan’s modernization in the Meiji period (1868-1912). Some of the island’s treasure was even exported overseas. Full-scale mine development on Sado Island began in 1601 with the discovery of its largest repository, the Aikawa Gold and Silver Mine. In the Meiji period, Western technology introduced by foreign engineers and Japanese engineers who had studied overseas included the excavation of vertical shafts to connect horizontal tunnels and mechanization for transporting ore. Good times alternated with bad, but mining continued until as late as 1989, when the mountain was officially closed. Among the historical remnants available to visit are the Odate Tateko, or Grand Shaft, the oldest Western-style mining shaft in Japan, and the Kitazawa Flotation Plant that separated minerals and waste. It was at one point the largest plant of its kind in East Asia. These mining facilities contain many vestiges of the mining operations that continued here for centuries, including tunnels in which life-size mannequins reenact how its precious deposits of gold and silver were extracted despite the perilous nature of rudimentary mining techniques. But most impressive of all perhaps is the great split created as miners dug deeper and deeper following the Doyu vein during the Edo period. Ultimately the mountain cracked open in a great V-shaped opening that stretches about 30 meters wide and 74 meters deep, a testament to the miners’ tenacity.