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The sieve served as a decanter to separate the infertile minerals from the useful ones, and was used mainly by women. Children also worked in the mines, doing jobs that were difficult for adults, such as squeezing through narrow passages or operating gears with their small hands. Child labour was considered a legitimate evil to cope with poverty and misery. Later, in the mines of Montevecchio and Ingurtosu, a new treatment was introduced for the recovery of galena and blende, which was carried out in several stages: the material was crushed into very small pieces and then conveyed to large mills where, with the help of water, it was reduced to sludge. This in turn underwent chemical treatments to separate blende and galena from sterile material and then to extract zinc and lead (through smelting furnaces).