The Atocha project covers a significant part of the colonial era Santa Ana-Frias-Mariquita primary silver district where mining records date to at least 1585. Following the Spanish Conquest, more formal mining commenced, with extraction of gold and more importantly, silver, specifically around the town of Falan to the North of the project. During the time the Spanish operated the mines, silver grades were reported to be some of the highest in Latin America. The average smelter return for silver ore during those days was “4 marcos per quintal” (equal to approximately >17kg/ton Ag or over 500 oz/ton Ag). Subsequent exploration discovered further veins in the Santa Ana (today Falan) and Frias regions, adding 14 new mines to the district, all of them producing over one marco of silver per quintal (approximately 4.3kg Ag/ ton or over 138 oz/ton Ag).
Spanish mining was superseded by the British, commonly in the form of Cornish migrants who worked their way through Central and subsequently, Southern America. The British engineer Robert Stevenson worked briefly in the Falan area, leaving well-preserved old mine workings and reports indicating the relatively extensive underground mine development within and around the town of Falan, and also several kilometres to the South, in a second mining area operated by the British called El Cristo mine, together with other extensive mining infrastructure located at the headwaters of the Jimenez creek, near the northern boundary of the Atocha project. The last gold-silver rush started in the area in the 1930’s, with focus on existing or past producing mines. As a result, four mining districts (re)-started: Ibagué, Anzoategui, Santa Isabel and Líbano.
