The metal sought was gold, and in their quest of it the Phoenicians had, he says, turned an entire mountain topsy-turvy.
Here again no modern researches seem to have been made, and nothing more is known than that at present the natives obtain no gold from their soil, do not seek for it, and are even ignorant that their island was ever a gold-producing region.[1011] The case is almost the same on the opposite coast, where in ancient times very rich mines both of gold and silver abounded,[1012] which the Phoenicians are said to have worked, but where at the present day mining enterprise is almost at a standstill, and only a very small quantity of silver is produced.[1013] Sardinia can scarcely have been occupied by the Phoenicians for anything but its metals.

The southern and south-western parts of the island, where they made their settlements, were rich in copper and lead; and the position of the cities seems to indicate the intention to appropriate these metals.

In the vicinity of the lead mines are enormous heaps of scoriae, mounting up apparently to a very remote era.[1014] The scoriae are not so numerous in the vicinity of the copper mines, but "pigs" of copper have been found in the island, unlike any of the Roman period, which are perhaps Phoenician, and furnish specimens of the castings into which the metal was run, after it had been fused and to some extent refined.

The weight of the pigs is from twenty-eight to thirty-seven kilogrammes.[1015] Pigs of lead have also been found, but they are less frequent.
But all the other mining operations of the Phoenicians were insignificant compared with those of which the theatre was Spain.

Spain was the Peru of the ancient world, and surpassed its modern rival, in that it produced not only gold and silver, but also copper, iron, tin, and lead.