Mercury (element) metals. Alchemists thought of mercury as the First Matter from which all metals were formed. They believed that different metals could be produced by varying the quality and quantity of sulfur contained within the mercury. The purest of these was gold, and mercury was called for in attempts at the transmutation of base (or impure) metals into gold, which was the goal of many alchemists. The mines in Almadén (Spain), Monte Amiata (Italy), and Idrija (now Slovenia) dominated mercury production from the opening of the mine in Almadén 2500 years ago, until new deposits were found at the end of
The King of Oil The King of Oil The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich is a non-fiction book by Swiss investigative journalist Daniel Ammann. The book was initially released on October 13, 2009 by St. Martin's Press. The book focuses on the biography of Marc Rich, a prominent international financier and commodity trader, who became a billionaire in the 1970s, arguably inventing the spot market for oil, grain, and metals. His Switzerland-based corporation Marc Rich + Co. AG actively traded with the apartheid regime of South Africa, Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini, Cuba, Nigeria under dictator Sani Abacha, China, the Soviet