Precious Metals Ore in the Land of Promise

Nephi describes the ore and precious metals of the promised land as finding all manner of ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper (1 Nephi 18:25). Obviously, for a match to be made for Lehi's Isle of Promise, the Land of Promise area would have to include these metals. An interesting side note is the way in which these three items were translated: both of gold, and of silver, and of copper—which sounds like three, not both. Gold and silver, of course, are two, therefore both, but as a unit of precious metals, they are one. Add copper to the unit of precious metals and then both again applies, identifying two units—the precious metals unit and the copper unit.

Thus, the Land of Promise area must contain ores where precious metals of gold and silver are found with copper—that is, the ore itself must contain all three metals. And that is exactly what is found in the Andean area of South America, and not at all within the area of Mesoamerica.

Gold: The majority of the gold mined in modern times comes either as a by-product of other mining (such as copper) or from gold mines (such as those in South Africa and the two largest in the United States), in which the quantity of gold is so small (about 1/3 ounce per ton of ore) that its recovery is practical only when the ore is mined on a very large scale. But in earlier times there were mines from which ore that would have suited Nephi's purpose could have been obtained. From his earlier experiences (1Nephi 17:9-11,16), Nephi knew something about smelting and metal fabrication, and gold is one of the easiest metals to work with. It is practically immune to natural corrosion and is highly malleable (workable), and would have been the ideal metal to form the plates on which his record was kept.

Gold and Silver as a Unit: Any general map of minerals of Chile and Peru will show the presence of gold, silver, copper, tungsten, nitrates, antimony, lead, zinc, bismuth, sulfur, iron, molyedenum, manganese, coal and vanadium. A close look at South America shows Chile as the only place where gold and silver are found as a unit, with copper surrounding that unit—this is the same configuration found in the Meditrerranean Sub-tropical climate of Palestine. Interestingly, neither Southern California nor the southern tips of Africa and Austrailia possess the ores in the combination Nephi describes.

Mountain building, the forming of the great mountains, has contributed extensive mineralization, with intrusive rocks, such as diorites, andesites, and porphyries, accounting for most metalic minerals. One region in Chile produced over a billion dollars in silver since its discovery by Spanish conquistadores in 1545. Today, Chile leads South American in copper production. Copper and tin are more plentiful than gold and silver, and one of three main areas it exists in South America is in the cordillera Occidental, the western cordillera east of the nitrate zone in northern Chile.

The point is, when the Lehi Colony landed in the Land of Promise, Nephi says they found gold and silver and copper in single units of ore. This is consistent with the landing site of 30º south latitude in Coquimbo Bay, Chile, and the surrunding La Serna. However, it is not consistent with any place in Mesoamerica.