General Director of Mines in Mexico. Before departing to his new office, he toured Europe again from 1786 to 1788 in order to study Born's method on refining silver. During this trip, he married Joan Raab in Vienna, in 1787. For the next thirty three years, he resided in Mexico City, where the crown founded the capital's School of Mines (January 1, 1792), with Elhuyar as its first director. During his tenure, he commissioned and directed the construction of that institution's seat, the Palacio de Minería, which was finished in 1813 and is considered one of the jewels of the Spanish American neoclassicism. He also visited and improved several of the existing Royal Mines of Mexico, dramatically increasing their productivity due to the introduction of new methods of exploitation. He aided Alexander von Humboldt during his time in New Spain, along with other mining experts then in Mexico, allowing Humboldt's section on mining in his Political essay on the Kingdom of New Spain to be replete with statistics and insights. After Mexican Independence, he returned to Spain, where, due to his wide experience in modern minery methods, he was appointed Minister of Minery in 1822, and supervised the modern mining of the mines in Almadén, Guadalcanal, and Río Tinto. After falling from his ministry, he was appointed yet again General Director of Mines, and resumed his research activities in chemistry from this quieter office till his death in Madrid on January 6, 1833. Further reading Eyles, Joan M. "Fausto de Elhuyar (1755–1833), a Spanish mining geologist". Geological Magazine 93(2)1956, pp. 175–80. http://geolmag.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/93/2/175. doi =10.1017/S0016756800066486 Howe, Walter. The Mining Guild of New Spain and Its Tribunal General, 1770–1821. 1949. Whitaker, Arthur P. "The Elhuyar Mining Missions and the Enlightenment," Hispanic American Historical Review 31, no. 4(1951):557–585. References External links Fausto de Elhuyar at the Catholic Encyclopedia Fausto Delhuyar. Polymath Virtual Library, Fundación Ignacio Larramendi 1755 births 1833 deaths Discoverers of chemical elements People from Logroño Academic staff of the University of the Basque Country 18th-century Spanish chemists 19th-century Spanish chemists Spanish people of Basque descent