SILVER MINING - RAINCLOUD SILVER, NEW MEXICO

The Raincloud silver mine is located in New Mexico on the Santo Domingo Indian Reservation. It is the last fully operational silver mine of its kind in America. All of the labour  and smelting are performed and processed by hand. Some of these techniques are now a lost art-form in the creation of silver ore. The mine mainly produces a fine silver ore with some traces of turquoise.

The traditional Native American Indian Tribes use Sterling in their jewelry. It usually contains about 92.5 percent silver and 7.5 percent copper. The silver is too soft without the additive of copper which makes it malleable. Raincloud Silver is a totally “Green” process of mining, processing, and smelting silver ore by tried and true, hand to hand, operations. It is almost impossible to accomplish pure sterling silver by these methods. And, that’s what makes our silver so precious and sets us apart from the afore mentioned method which comes from large scale manufacturing and too often open pit mining. Raincloud silver ore is smelted by hand to keep from polluting the environment. To obtain the original soft silver appearance or patina with a very slight indigenous turquoise hint of luster, the maker allows certain alloys which can not be completely taken by hand from the smelting process to remain within the silver! The approximate variance is 3 to 4 per cent bauxite, 90 per cent silver, 1 per cent copper, and a slight amount of turquoise. Raincloud and his highly skilled artisans can thus produce an ore which brings a difference for those who wish for something new and exciting from the silver market.

The artisan or master craftsman in jewelry now takes over from the miner and begins the creation of developing a unique piece of art form from the precious  sources found deep within the bowels of the earth. First we supply an assayer with our samples before creating any jewelry which allows us a Hallmark and stamp. In the past, it was enough to know which Indian tribe was responsible for making its jewelry. Today, Native American Indian Artists mark/stamp their jewelry with their initials. These stamps indicate the jeweler and are handed down from generation to generation. Sometimes the initials may, also, be their parents or grandparents. After R/C has created a finished piece, as in the bracelet shown on this site, you will see a blackened area between the finely carved figures. This is intentional and important to the design of the piece. It is essentially the slag or ash and other by products from the finishing process which adhere to the pure silver within the exterior and interior regions of the bracelet. This final process highlights each of the carved figures and designs on the bracelet. The significant and special jewelry designs created in R/Cs  jewelry represent important tribal meanings to the Santo Domingo Indians, which are always shared with their new owners.

We feel fortunate to be able to provide our silver ore in fine jewelry since many of the once producing mines no longer exist. A recent New Mexico Mineral Symposium held at New Mexico Institute Of Mining & Technology was conducted on the ‘Closures and Abandoned Mines of New Mexico’ which held that although New Mexico had been heavily mined for silver and turquoise there remained areas of potential.

Business Plan - Raincloud Silver Production:

Our future plans include the mining of silver ore in quantity to supply for the manufacture of our exclusive jewelry and/also for high-end limited edition watch cases. Our silver ore, although similar in nature and sheen to German Nickel silver, has its own peculiar properties, which we feel make it a more durable and interesting metal with a unique colour to enhance and endear the Independent Watch Manufacturers watch case to its owner. Also, it will be a product representative of the Indian tribe and nation from which it comes in America. The production of this ore by the Santo Domingo Indian tribe will ensure its marketability and desirability throughout the world for centuries to come.

The following link, provided by Ickler of Germany, shows how watchcases are manufactured from silver alloy.

Click Here   Watchcase Production              Gold, Silver, & Copper Watch Cases

Additional Information:

“Santo Domingo Pueblo is located near the ancient Cerrillos turquoise mines and its people have an entrenched history of making fine jewelry and heishi out of the colorful stones. The Santo Domingo people historically are great traders of their crafts, very much like their Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon ancestors.” - New Mexico Tourism Department

“Native American Indian Jewelry has been found in excavations of prehistoric ruins. Bead making is an ancient craft. Bead necklaces are often called heishe, from the Santo Domingo word for shell. Seashells are the most common material used for beads. Seashells used in Native American Jewelry are Spiny Oyster Shell, Mother of Pearl, Abalone, Conch and Clam. They have been important trade items in the Southwest for over 1,000 years. The Santo Domingo Indians have been making bead jewelry since ancient times. They use Seashells, Turquoise, Jet and Coral in their jewelry. Many featured Santo Domingo Artists are members of the Palace of the Governors program located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They are held to strict standards in making their jewelry such as Heishi beads must be cut, drilled and ground by hand. This is a painstaking process: a single necklace may require the fashioning of hundreds of tiny beads.” - Native Tribe Primitives

“Use of silver in the jewelry making of the Southwestern tribes began approximately in the 1860s when, according to historians, a frontier trader taught the Navajo artisans to substitute silver for bone. More specifically, they claim a Mexican silversmith named Nakai Tsosi, showed the art to a Navajo blacksmith named Atsidi Saani. And it was he that taught it to other Natives. Many believe the Zuni learned to silversmith when Navajo, Atsidi Chon, taught a Zuni named Lanyade. It was Lanyade who later taught the Hopi people. Today, all tribes have produced magnificent and accomplished artisans. Over the years, various styles have developed as each tribe has branched out and created their own specialties. Look closely and discover why Indian Jewelry from this part of the world is so highly prized.” - Jewel Of Santa Fe

“Cerrillos Turquoise Mine: Cerrillos is not only an uncommon and unique form of native New Mexican turquoise, but has a history entwined with both ancient Native peoples of the Southwest and more recent American mining companies. Cerrillos turquoise was created and mined under unusual circumstances. It is the only turquoise that formed at the base of a volcano. Thus, a variety of colors developed from the minerals in the various volcanic host stones. In fact, seventy-five colors have been identified, from tan to khaki-green to rich, blue-green to bright and light colors. Cerrillos is a very hard stone and so takes a brilliant polish.
In addition to producing a distinctive stone, the Cerrillos mine is the oldest mine of any kind in North America. Located ten miles south of Santa Fe, it was the site of the largest prehistoric mining activity on the continent because the huge turquoise deposit was partially exposed at the surface. Miners from the San Marcos Pueblo, who later moved to Santo Domingo Pueblo south of Santa Fe, most heavily worked the mine. Using only stone axes, mauls, antler picks, and chisels, Pueblo miners removed 100,000 tons of solid rock to create a pit mine 200 feet deep. They dug other vertical shafts into the ground to reach veins of turquoise. Miners carried tools and leather rock buckets on their backs as they climbed in and out of the shafts using notched logs as ladders. The turquoise obtained from this hard work traded among early peoples from Mexico to the Midwest and from the east to west coasts. In New Mexico, many pieces of Cerrillos turquoise for personal and trade use have been unearthed in the prehistoric ruins of Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon. The Pueblo peoples continued to extract turquoise from the Cerrillos mine until the 1870's when a silver mining boom raised interest in the area. The Tiffany Company in New York and its associates bought up the mine area and extracted $2,000,000 worth of turquoise between 1892 and 1899.” -  Durango Silver Company