Saturday, May 01, 2010
Negocios / Ciudad Argentum Turns Silver into Gold
Ciudad Argentum Turns Silver into Gold
A new urban concept that is completely sustainable and built over an old silver mine wants to free the city of Zacatecas’s historic center –declared World Heritage
Site by UNESCO– from its burden. The construction of this “mega-metropolis” will take ten years, and the initial investment will not be significant compared to the
revenues it is expected to generate.
Zacatecas is a city with a “face of limestone and a heart of silver.” It is the capital city of the state of the same name and is famous for both its external and internal
beauty.
Its core –huge silver deposits– was the reason behind the establishment, during the Colonial period, of the second largest center in the area, known as “New Galicia.”
It is no accident that this city, which was first called “The mines of the Zacatecas” and used to be known as the “northern civilizator,” had a road that connected it
directly to Mexico City and the port of Veracruz.
Zacatecas was also the birthplace of the socalled “silver aristocracy,” a select group of mine and landowners who settled for centuries in what seemed to be an arid
land with shiny guts. These dominions are what have given this land – since its official establishment on September 8th, 1546– a very special architectural beauty
that can be still be appreciated today.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) shed some light on the external treasure that covered Zacatecas’s silver internal
riches with pink limestone. In 1993, UNESCO named the city’s historic center a World Cultural Heritage. Since then, the site, which once hid the world’s largest
silver mine, has been carefully preserved.
A Silver Guardian for a Pink City
While finely sculpted pink limestone used to guard the Zacatecan soil’s gold, silver and zinc veins, today it seems that the equation has been inverted because
although the state continues its mining activities, its capital city has now left behind its glorious mining days to become a jewel itself.
It seems that time has stood still on the streets of Zacatecas’s historic center. However, this seemingly quiet city continues to grow and attract national and
international tourism with its beauty and peacefulness, as well as investors and businessmen who have brought the old “Real de Minas” to a new dimension. This
mad rush is both beneficial and dangerous: it slowly erodes the city’s fashionable architecture.
To solve this issue, the state government began planning, between 2004 and 2005, a “New Zacatecas” that promotes the state’s growth and development without
endangering the beauty of its living past.
And so the Ciudad Argentum Project was born. It is a new real estate development located on the northwestern part of the city, covering more than 1,000 hectares. It
includes the municipalities of Calera, Guadalupe and Zacatecas, which, due to their closeness, have shared for many years the area’s suburban growth.
Ciudad Argentum –meaning “silver” in Latin– or the new Zacatecas, will be established on what used to be one of the largest silver deposits in Zacatecas: the old El
Bote mine, one of the major mines during the area’s silver mining peak.
This ambitious project, which began construction in 2007, is also located on the road to Fresnillo, another of the state’s stars, where silver mining is still an important
activity.
That is why Ciudad Argentum’s slogan –“Where Zacatecas makes history again”– is just perfect. The project intends to be a kind of ‘release’ that allows the historic
site to exude its past while it creates a future for the city that is as prosperous now as it was during the time of the silver domains.
Urban Alchemy
According to the project’s developers, transforming silver into gold at the new urban complex will take no more than a decade. They believe that their 2 billion dollar
initial investment will soon yield profit based on their ambitions for the real estate complex.
In one location, neighbors from Zacatecas and tourists will have access to shopping malls, hotels, homes, specialized hospitals, business centers, movie theaters, a
golf course and even a mining theme park. All within a city inserted into the capital of Zacatecas.
And if that wasn’t enough, citizens will be able to access every government office and agency –some of them have already started moving to the area.
Ciudad Argentum, known as one of Mexico’s “sustainable cities,” will combine environmentally friendly viability with architectural style and functionality.
According to the plans, this giant complex will include hidden electrical installations, five-facade buildings and large green areas to preserve the external beauty of
the complex’s facilities.
However, sustainability is much more than a beautiful sight. Ciudad Argentum will have alternative power systems —wind and solar–, water treatment plants and
solid waste handling facilities, as well as state-of-the-art devices for rainwater use. Without a doubt, this “silver city” will be worth its weight in gold.
And if all future projects come to fruition as planned, the past of Zacatecas will see a new day, not based on mining but on an old deposit that will produce a new
Zacatecas emulating past times of prosperity –the times that made this city the world’s largest silver producer and the internationally acclaimed “northern civilizator.”