Draft:History of mining

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The History of mining is the

minerals from the earth. It dates back to prehistoric times
.

Prehistory

The concept of

Early hominins expanded out of Africa into Europe and Asia
approximately 2 million years ago, bringing stone tools with them.

The oldest-known mine on archaeological record is the

Grimes Graves and Krzemionki are especially famous, and like most other flint mines, are Neolithic
in origin (c. 4000–3000 BC).

Native metals may have been the next minerals to be used. Trace amounts of gold have been found in Paleolithic caves dating to 40,000 years ago.[7] Copper
was the first metal to be shaped into objects, around 10,000 years ago.

During prehistoric times, early Americans mined large amounts of

pre-Columbian America; in the Cerillos Mining District in New Mexico, an estimate of "about 15,000 tons of rock had been removed from Mt. Chalchihuitl using stone tools before 1700."[11][12]

Antiquity

Ancient Egypt

See also: Mining industry of Egypt

New Kingdom period.[16] These mines are mentioned by the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus in his Bibliotheca historica written about 60 BCE, as among the largest and most extensive of any in Ancient Egypt. The Bibliotheca historica also describes the method of fire-setting used by the Egyptians to weaken rocks by thermal shock as one way to break down the hard rock holding the gold. The miners crushed the ore and ground it to a fine powder before washing the powder for the gold dust.[citation needed
]

Ancient Egyptians mined malachite at Maadi.[17] At first, Egyptians used the bright green malachite stones for ornamentations and pottery. Later, between 2613 and 2494 BC, large building projects required expeditions abroad to the area of Wadi Maghareh in order to secure minerals and other resources not available in Egypt itself.[18] Quarries for turquoise and copper were also found at Wadi Hammamat, Tura, Aswan and various other Nubian sites on the Sinai Peninsula and at Timna.[18]

Egypt is famous for its ancient limestone quarries that dot the

the Pyramids at Giza. Sandstone, agate, and carnelian were mined in Nubia. The Eastern Hills had large deposits of a variety of other gemstones such as emerald, jasper, amethyst, and garnet.[19]

Ancient Greece and Rome

Further information: Mining in Roman Britain
Ancient Roman development of the Dolaucothi Gold Mines, Wales

Mining in Europe has a very long history. Examples include the silver mines of

archaeologists to have been used in buildings including the tomb of Amphipolis. Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, captured the gold mines of Mount Pangeo in 357 BC to fund his military campaigns.[22] He also captured gold mines in Thrace for minting coinage, eventually producing 26 tons
per year.

However, it was the

aqueducts. The water was used for a variety of purposes, including removing overburden and rock debris, called hydraulic mining, as well as washing comminuted
, or crushed, ores and driving simple machinery.

The Romans used hydraulic mining methods on a large scale to prospect for the

reservoirs and tanks. When a full tank was opened, the flood of water sluiced away the overburden to expose the bedrock underneath and any gold-bearing veins. The rock was then worked by fire-setting to heat the rock, which would be quenched with a stream of water. The resulting thermal shock cracked the rock, enabling it to be removed by further streams of water from the overhead tanks. The Roman miners used similar methods to work cassiterite deposits in Cornwall and lead ore in the Pennines
.

Sluicing methods were developed by the Romans in

millennia,[24] but after the Roman conquest, the scale of the operations increased dramatically, as the Romans needed Britannia's resources, especially gold, silver, tin, and lead
.

Roman techniques were not limited to surface mining. They followed the ore veins underground once opencast mining was no longer feasible. At

National Museum of Wales.[25]

Ancient China

China was the first civilization to mine coal for heat, with a history of mining for coal dating back over 3,000 years. Coal was seen as a solution for the rapid deforestation of China's forests, as that was taking place to meet energy demands through charcoal.[26] Possible reasons this did not lead to China industrializing are hypothesized to include Confucian ideals, lack of government support for change, and the physical geography not being ideal for it (for example, the coal deposits were in the North while economic activity was concentrated in the South, and the coal was deeper in the ground than Britain's).[27]

Medieval era

Medieval Europe

Main article: Mining and metallurgy in medieval Europe
De Re Metallica
Gallery, 12th to 13th century, Germany

Mining as an industry underwent dramatic changes in

lances and other weapons.[28]
The overwhelming dependency on iron for military purposes spurred iron production and extraction processes.

The silver crisis of 1465 occurred when all mines had reached depths at which the shafts could no longer be pumped dry with the available technology.

precious metals, gold and silver
still remained vital to the story of medieval mining.

Due to differences in the social structure of society, the increasing extraction of mineral deposits spread from

technicians and skilled workers were brought over; in 1642 a colony of 4,000 foreigners was mining and smelting copper at Keswick in the northwestern mountains.[30]

Use of water power in the form of

Black powder was first used in mining in Selmecbánya, Kingdom of Hungary (now Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia) in 1627.[31] Black powder allowed blasting of rock and earth to loosen and reveal ore veins. Blasting was much faster than fire-setting and allowed the mining of previously impenetrable metals and ores.[32]
In 1762, the world's first mining academy was established in the same town there.

The widespread adoption of agricultural innovations such as the iron plowshare, as well as the growing use of metal as a building material, was also a driving force in the tremendous growth of the iron industry during this period. Inventions like the arrastra were often used by the Spanish to pulverize ore after being mined. This device was powered by animals and used the same principles used for grain threshing.[33]

Much of the knowledge of medieval mining techniques comes from books such as

Georg Agricola's De re metallica (1556). These books detail many different mining methods used in German and Saxon mines. A prime issue in medieval mines, which Agricola
explains in detail, was the removal of water from mining shafts. As miners dug deeper to access new veins, flooding became a very real obstacle. The mining industry became dramatically more efficient and prosperous with the invention of mechanically- and animal-driven pumps.

Medieval Africa

Gold became an important commodity for Africa during the

Sahara desert. The trading of gold for salt was mostly used to promote trade between the different economies.[34] West Africa was a major producer of gold during the medieval era, with large deposits in Mali and Ghana that are still tapped today. The Islamic Empires of the time had a huge demand for gold because of their architecture and to pay their armies.[35]

Modern era

View showing miners' clothes suspended by pulleys, also wash basins and ventilation system, Kirkland Lake, Ontario, 1936.

The mining of coal played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. Gold rushes occurred in the 1800s in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

As the 21st century begins, a globalized

rare earth minerals, have begun to increase in demand as a result of new technologies.[citation needed
]

Americas

Lead mining in the upper Mississippi River region of the U.S., 1865

In the early colonial history of the Americas, "native gold and silver was quickly expropriated and sent back to Spain in fleets of gold- and silver-laden galleons",[36] the gold and silver originating mostly from mines in Central and South America.

In 1727 Louis Denys (Denis) (1675–1741), sieur de La Ronde – brother of

Chippewa tribes.[37]
The first documented discovery of gold in the United States was at
Denver and Sacramento originated as mining towns.[citation needed
]

When new areas were explored, it was usually the gold (

lode) and then silver that were taken into possession and extracted first. Other metals would often wait for railroads or canals, as coarse gold dust and nuggets do not require smelting and are easy to identify and transport.[10] In the early 20th century, the gold and silver rush to the western United States also stimulated mining for coal as well as base metals such as copper, lead, and iron. Areas in modern Montana, Utah, Arizona, and later Alaska became predominate suppliers of copper to the world, which was increasingly demanding copper for electrical and households goods.[41]

Canada's mining industry grew more slowly than did the United States' due to limitations in transportation, capital, and U.S. competition; Ontario was the major producer of the early 20th century with nickel, copper, and gold.

Klondike gold rush of the Yukon region of Canada waned with the discovery of gold in Alaska that was easier to extract, but heavier equipment in the later 1900s allowed the Yukon gold to be more easily extracted, leading to large amounts of gold being mined there in the contemporary era.[42]

Africa

Main article: Mineral industry of Africa

Since the 19th century, gold and diamond mining in

Democratic Republic of Congo is the largest producer of diamonds in Africa, with an estimated 12 million carats in 2019. The Democratic Republic of the Congo also has a history of conflict over rare metals such as gold and tin.[43] Guinea, in West Africa, is one of the largest bauxite-producing nations in the world.[44] Other types of mining reserves in Africa include cobalt, iron ore, coal, and copper.[45]

Oceania

Gold and coal mining started in Australia and New Zealand in the 19th century. Nickel has become important in the economy of New Caledonia.

Australia experienced the Australian gold rushes and by the 1850s was producing 40% of the world's gold, followed by the establishment of large mines such as the Mount Morgan Mine, which ran for nearly a hundred years, Broken Hill ore deposit (one of the largest zinc-lead ore deposits), and the iron ore mines at Iron Knob. After declines in production, another boom in mining occurred in the 1960s. Now, in the early 21st century, Australia remains a major world mineral producer.[46]

In Fiji, in 1934, the Emperor Gold Mining Company Ltd. established operations at Vatukoula, followed in 1935 by the Loloma Gold Mines, N.L., and then by Fiji Mines Development Ltd. (aka Dolphin Mines Ltd.). These developments ushered in a “mining boom”, with gold production rising more than a hundred-fold, from 931.4 oz in 1934 to 107,788.5 oz in 1939, an order of magnitude then comparable to the combined output of New Zealand and Australia's eastern states.[47]

References

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