| Caja | Provincial treasury.
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| Calcine | The roasting of ore to remove impurities, particularly arsenic.
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| Calciner | The furnace used to for the calcine process.
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| Caliche | Calcium carbonate (CaCO3), or raw nitrate of soda.
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| Campistas | Tributers.
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| Canones | Horizontal levels or galleries within a mine driven in search of the vein.
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| Cantera | A quarry.
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| Capel or Carrack | Stone comprised of quartz, schorl and horneblende, usually occurring on both walls of a lode, and usually accompanying tin.
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| Capstan | A machine consisting of an axle and several long arms, by which pumps and other equipment is lowered or raised from a shaft by manual force.
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| Captain or Agent | A superintendent in charge of the running of a mine. There were also subordinate captains who attended exclusively to underground or surface operations.
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| Carga | 300 Spanish pounds.
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| Carilleros | Ore carriers.
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| Casa de monedo | The mint.
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| Casa grande | Mine account house; manager's residence; main office.
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| Cata | A mine of no great depth, a pit made in quest of the vein, a mine denounced for trial.
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| Catear | To search for new mines.
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| Caxo | A measure of ore containing many quintals, but varying in bulk at different places; at Potosi 5000 pounds.
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| Caxoneros | Landers at the mouth of the shaft.
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| Cebar | To feed; to add quicksilver to a mass of silver ores under amalgamation.
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| Chapas | Iron blocks on which the stamps fall.
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| Claying | Lining the hole (in which gunpowder is to be placed) with clay, to prevent the powder becoming damp.
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| Cobbing | The intermediate stage of the hand reduction of ore when the valuable parts are chipped away from the gangue prior to bucking.
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| Cobre | Copper.
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| Coffin | Old workings open at the surface
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| Cohetajo | Blackpowder wrapped in leaves, with a small reed protruding for a fuse, used to ignite explosives.
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| Cohetero | The explosives expert dealing with cohetajo.
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| Colero | Assistant of the underground captain in charge of the peonada, or account of daily labour.
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| Contra mina | A work of communication between two mines; also an adit
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| Contra tiro | Auxiliary pit contiguous to a main pit or shaft, to serve as a footway, or for ventilation.
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| Costeaning | A series of pits sunk in the vicinity of a suspected lode to ascertain its position.
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| Count house | Mine account house; mine captain's residence or main office.
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| Cross course | A lode or vein that intersects or crosses a lode at various angles, and generally throws the lode out of its regular course.
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| Cross cut | A level driven at right angles to the direction of the lode.
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| Crucero | A cross cut.
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| Cuerpo | The lode.
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| Country | The strata or rock through which the vein or lode traverses
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| Crusher | A pulverising machine for reducing the ores; worked either by steam or water.
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| Cuņa | A hard-edged iron wedge weighing up to 2 pounds that is hammered with a pica.
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| Cylinder | The circular case of iron in which the piston receives the steam to give the engine motion.
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