Laurium

Laurium, a mountain (1171 feet) of Attica, NW. of Cape Colonna, and connected by a railway with Athens. It was famous in ancient times for its silver-mines, but these were already exhausted in Strabo's day. Since 1874, however, the great heaps of slag have been profitably worked, and fresh deposits of argentiferous lead and of zinc ore have also been found, so that the most important mining in the kingdom is carried on here. In 1887 nearly 60,000 tons of ores of every kind were exported, besides 2779 tons of pig-lead. The mining-town that has sprung up has a pop. of over 5000. See National Review for July 1888.