MEXICO CITY.- United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee celebrated its 33rd session in Sevilla, Spain, and announced that the tri national candidature “The Mercury + Silver Binomial on the Intercontinental Camino Real. Almaden, Idrija and San Luis Potosi” has been postponed, after 4 hours of debate and without achieving 2/3 of the votes.

“The Mercury + Silver Binomial on the Intercontinental Camino Real” is a candidature presented by Spain, Slovenia and Mexico under the cultural itinerary classification. Legacy is result of the intense relation between Almaden, Idrija and San Luis Potosi between 16th and 19th centuries, as a consequence of the discovery of silver and mercury amalgamation method.

With the support of countries like Brazil, China, Korea, Cuba, Peru, Jordan, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria and Tunisia, among others, the UNESCO Cultural Heritage Committee decided that participant countries should fulfill some requirements to fully confirm the Exceptional Universal Value of the cultural good. This means that it will be during the 34th session in 2010 that inscription could be acknowledged.

On that regard, INAH Direction of Cultural Heritage informed that work reunions with San Luis Potosi State authorities have been resumed, and a programmatic agenda has been established to fulfill those requirements, along with Slovenia and Spain governments.

Mexico has 29 sites inscribed in the UNESCO List of World Heritage, being the most recently included the historical city of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato and the Monarch Butterflies Biosphere Reserve in Estado de Mexico and Michoacan.

Silver extraction in San Luis Potosi using Almaden and Idrija mercury marked a strong dependency to the metal that became the base of the increase of silver production in America, making the Spanish Crown establish a state monopoly on mercury and silver distribution as well as develop communication networks for their transport.

As a result of interaction between the 3 locations, an exceptional value heritage appeared, determining technologic, economic, social and cultural exchange that persists to present. Two centuries later, relation between these 3 cities has become close again with the objective of showing the great cultural richness inherited by their ancestors. International cooperation has been a key factor to achieve the candidature that was postponed until 2010.