Upper Harz Ponds

The Upper Harz Ponds () are found mainly around the mining town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld and the nearby villages of Buntenbock and Hahnenklee in the Upper Harz mountains of central Germany. There are around 70 ponds in total, both large and small. They were built by the miners of the Upper Harz, mostly between the 16th and 18th centuries, and are important components of the cultural monument known as the Upper Harz Water Regale - a network of dams, ditches, ponds and tunnels that was built to supply much-needed water power for the mining industry in the Harz mountains. Today the Water Regale is being proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. About half the dammed ponds are classified today as reservoirs, but they have now become characteristic features of the Upper Harz and are home to some extremely rare plant and animal species.
The Upper Harz Ponds also have the oldest working dams in Germany.
Purpose.
The ponds were originally built for storing the water needed to drive the water wheels providing energy to the Upper Harz silver mines. These water wheels drove the pumps, the hoisting equipment, the stamp mills and, from 1820, the man engines as well.
To begin with, the ponds merely impounded water from their natural catchment areas. But in many cases, their inflow was later increased significantly through the use of additional collection ditches.
Today the ponds are operated for several reasons: the protection of historic monuments, rural conservation, nature conservation and recreation. Several ponds also provide flood protection; others are used to supply drinking water.
The operator of the ponds today is the "Harzwasserwerke", who also manage six modern dams in the Lower Saxon part of the Harz.
Design.
The barriers were built as earth-fill dams, the fill being usually excavated on site. Usually small quarries were established in the terrain earmarked as the future reservoir; this had the added advantage that it increased its eventual capacity. Neither clay nor silt could be used as grouting material because they did not occur in sufficient quantities in the Upper Harz. The Upper Harz miners had, however, learned from experience that grass sods or turves made excellent grouting; by placing them one on top of another, in a similar fashion to building a wall, a layer of sods up to a metre thick would be built into the dam which ensured that it remained watertight.
A wooden conduit ("Holzgerenne") acted as a bottom outlet. It was usually made of oak due to its great durability. The valve was a so-called "Striegel", which acted like a plug and closed off the inlet to the wooden channels and was operated by rods. Both grass sod grouting and wooden bottom outlets are still in use in many of the ponds.
The dams themselves are between 4 and 15 m high and the impounded volumes varied between 10,000 and 600,000 m³. One notable exception is the Oderteich northeast of Sankt Andreasberg, which is the only pond not grouted with grass turves, but with granite sand known as "granitgrus" and with a dam height of 21 m and reservoir volume of 1.7 million m³ of water stands head and shoulders above the other ponds in terms of size.
Flora and fauna.
Although these water features have been artificially created, rare flora and fauna have evolved in and around many of the Upper Harz ponds. The water is low in nutrients and rather cool. The crayfish, which has died out in most European waterbodies due to crayfish plague, has been able to survive in many Upper Harz Ponds thanks to their isolated locations. Pond operators and fishing leaseholders have worked successfully to increase their numbers.
The operation of the ponds over many centuries with constantly changing levels of water has also created a habitat for some extremely rare plant communities. On the soils of many ponds coral necklace ("Ilecebrum verticillatum"), strapwort ("Corrigiola litoralis") or shoreweed ("Littorella uniflora") may be found growing. They are dependent on this constant fluctuation of water levels in the reservoir and so the nature conservation authorities have agreed with the pond operators an operating regime that will secure the existence of these plants in the waterbodies concerned. By other ponds there are meadow bogs ("Kleinseggenried"), which are rich in sedges, rushes and cottongrass and moss communities.
The fish population is primarily influenced by the angling clubs that lease fishing rights and stock the ponds with fish. Only native species of fish are desired, although eel and catfish are excluded due to their incompatibility with the crayfish populations.
Table of Upper Harz Ponds.
The following list includes the majority of the dammed ponds built by the Upper Harz miners, where they are still in operation or where the dam ruins are still clearly visible. Mill ponds are not included. A total of 143 dams and former dams have been documented.
(†) means: pond out of service, largely dry. Dam remains exist.
Where no data is given, this usually indicates that the pond ended up in other hands before the mines closed and has not been precisely documented.


Nolan Evans

Nolan Evans (1885–1948), sometimes known as Peggy Evans, was an English professional football left back who played in the Football League for Clapton Orient.
Personal life.
Evans worked as a miner. He served with the 17th (Service) Battalion of the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment) during the First World War. He was wounded in the thigh at Delville Wood and nearly lost the leg as a result. He was wounded again in March 1918 and the effects caused his retirement from football.


Royal charters applying to Cornwall

This is a list of charters promulgated by kings of England that specifically relate to Cornwall, which was incorporated into the Kingdom of England late in the Anglo-Saxon period. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the kings of Wessex became the rulers of Cornwall, and after a period of independence during the wars with the Danes, this rule by the kings of England became permanent (see History of Cornwall). The charters below relate either to the tin mines of Cornwall and Devon or to the Earldom or Duchy of Cornwall. The stannary charters are dated between 1201 and 1508, the others between 1231 and 1338.
In 1337, the earldom of Cornwall was made into a royal duchy to support the heir to the throne. Centralisation in the reign of Henry VIII meant that Cornwall's distinct status was no longer recognised in royal documents; though unlike the situation for Wales, no legislation was enacted to formalise this. The rights of the Duke of Cornwall still rely on medieval legislation. When no one is duke of Cornwall, the lands and rights of the Duchy are exercised by the Crown since the heir apparent may not always inherit the Duchy.
List.
The legal materials are as follows:
Sources.
Materials in Cornish law


Zinc mining in the United States

Zinc mining in the United States produced of zinc in 2019, making it the world's fourth-largest zinc producer, after China, Australia, and Peru. Most US zinc came from the Red Dog mine in Alaska. The industry employed about 2,500 in mining and milling, and 250 in smelting.
Current zinc-mining districts.
In 2019 zinc was mined in six States at 15 mines operated by five companies.
Red Dog Mine, Alaska.
In 2019, 552,400 tonnes of zinc, 71 percent of US mined zinc production, and 4.2 percent of world zinc production, came from Teck Resources' Red Dog mine, the world's most productive zinc mine, in northwest Alaska, near Kotzebue. The mine opened in 1989. The zinc is shipped as concentrate to foreign smelters. The Red Dog is a polymetallic deposit, which also produces lead and silver concentrates.
Admiralty Island, Alaska.
Hecla Mining's Greens Creek mine located south-southwest of Juneau, Alaska, on Admiralty Island, opened in August 1989. The mine produces silver, gold, zinc and lead from a structurally and mineralogically complex VMS deposit. In 2019 it produced 56,805 tonnes of zinc in concentrate as a byproduct of silver-gold mining.
Coeur D'Alene district, Idaho.
At the Coeur D'Alene mining district in northern Idaho, zinc is produced as a byproduct of silver mining in Hecla Mining's Lucky Friday mine. In 2019 the mine produced 2,052 tonnes of zinc in concentrate.
Viburnum Trend, Missouri.
Doe Run Resources' mines on carbonate-hosted lead-zinc deposits (Mississippi Valley-type deposits) in the Southeast Missouri Lead District include Casteel, Buick, Brushy Creek, Fletcher, Sweetwater and Mine No. 29.
Middle and East Tennessee Zinc Complexes, Tennessee.
In the Middle and East Tennessee Zinc Complexes, Nyrstar's six mines produce zinc from carbonate-hosted lead-zinc deposits. They are the Coy, Immel, and Young mines in the East Tennessee Zinc Complex, and the Gordonsville, Elmwood, and Cumberland mines in the Middle Tennessee Zinc Complex. Nyrstar produced 115,000 tonnes of zinc in concentrate from its East and Middle Tennessee mines in 2018.
Metaline district, Washington.
In July 2019 Teck Resources' Pend Oreille mine in Washington's Metaline mining district ceased production due to exhaustion of reserves.
Former zinc-mining districts.
Tri-state district.
The Tri-State district of Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas was the major zinc mining district in the United States, with production of 10.6 million tonnes of zinc from c.1850 through 1967. The Eagle-Picher mine of Cardin, Oklahoma, the largest and longest lived mine, ceased production in 1967.
Franklin mining district, New Jersey.
The Franklin and Sterling Hill deposits with production of 6.3 million tonnes of zinc, account for 15 percent of all recorded zinc production in the contiguous United States. Major mining began about 1870, and the Sterling Hill mine was the last working underground mine in New Jersey when it closed in 1986.
Southeast Missouri lead district.
Zinc was produced as a byproduct of lead mining in the Southeast Missouri Lead District.
Austinville-Ivanhoe district, Virginia.
Mining operations began in 1756 in the Austinville-Ivanhoe District of Wythe County, Virginia. By the time the mine closed in 1981, it was the most continuously mined base metal deposit in North America, with a total production of 1.4 million tonnes of zinc.
Smelting.
The US has two smelter facilities, one primary and one secondary, producing commercial-grade zinc metal.
Primary smelters produce metal from ore. The only US primary zinc smelter, the Nyrstar smelter at Clarksville, Tennessee, produced 120 tonnes of zinc, from a mix of ore from six mines in middle and east Tennessee, and recycled zinc products.
Secondary zinc smelters produce zinc from recycled materials. A secondary zinc smelter in Pennsylvania closed in 2014, the operations being shifted to a new smelter in North Carolina using solvent extraction/electrowinning (SXEW). In addition, some non-smelting zinc recycling operations produced small amounts of zinc. The total amount of zinc produced from secondary operations was 70 tons. For primary and secondary smelters taken together, recycled products accounted for 25 percent (30,000 tonnes) of the refined zinc produced in US in 2019.
Through 1940, the production of primary zinc by US smelters approximated the mined production of zinc ore. When zinc demand increased during World War II, US smelters turned to foreign zinc ore. US-smelted zinc reached a high of 926,000 tonnes in 1970, then dropped as smelters closed. There were 12 primary zinc smelters in 1970, but only seven in 1980, three in 1990, and two in 2000. Today, there is one operating primary zinc smelter, in Clarksville, Tennessee, which produces zinc from mines in the East Tennessee and Middle Tennessee districts. All other zinc concentrates are exported and smelted abroad.
Byproducts of zinc.
A number of elements are recovered in flue gas and flue dust in zinc smelters. These include the metal cadmium and the semi-metals gallium and germanium. In 1970, for every ton of zinc produced at a US smelter, there were also recovered 4.2 kilograms of cadmium, 53 grams of germanium, 18 grams of indium, and 2.9 grams of thallium. These elements are concentrated as impurities in the zinc mineral sphalerite. The elements are more abundant in sphalerite from ore deposits with lower formation temperatures, such as Mississippi Valley-type deposits. The Middle and East Tennessee zinc mines are Mississippi Valley-type.
Cadmium recovered in zinc smelting is the only commercial source of cadmium. Gallium and germanium are also recovered some from other sulfide ores. Some germanium is also recovered from aluminum smelting. In previous years, indium and thallium were recovered from zinc smelting, but as of 2015, they were not being recovered from American zinc smelters.
According to the British Geological Survey, in 2011, US zinc smelting recovered about 600 tonnes of cadmium, three tonnes of gallium, and three tonnes of germanium.
Consumption.
In 2019, the US consumed 950,000 tons of zinc. Most zinc is used for galvanizing, followed by brass and bronze, and zinc-based alloys.
International trade.
The United States is a net importer of zinc (87% of consumption). In 2019 it imported 830,000 tonnes of refined zinc metal and products. In the same year, the US exported 870,000 tonnes of zinc in ore concentrates, mostly from the Red Dog Mine in Alaska. During the period 2015-2018, imports were primarily from Canada (64%), Mexico (13%), Australia (7%), and Peru (7%).


Godavari Valley Coalfield

Godavari Valley Coalfield is located in the districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam and Warangal in the Indian state of Telangana. It is the only coalfield in South India. It lies in the basin of the Godavari River.
History.
Dr. King of the Geological Survey of India discovered coal in Khammam district in 1871. The Hyderabad (Deccan) Company Limited acquired mining rights to exploit the coal in 1886. The Singareni Collieries Company Limited, incorporated in 1920, acquired all assets of the Hyderabad (Deccan) Company Limited. Hyderabad State purchased majority shares of The Singareni Collieries Company Limited in 1945. With the reorganization of states, the controlling interest of The Singareni Collieries Company Limited vested with the Government of Andhra Pradesh now Telangana in 1956.
The implementation of the five year plans saw large scale expansion in the activities of The Singareni Collieries Company Limited. Since March 1960 it was jointly owned by the Government of Telangana and the Government of India. The activities of Godavari Valley Coalfield extended to the districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam and Warangal. The coal extracted in the Godavari Valley Coalfield, the sole coalfield in South India, up to 2009-10 was about 929.12 million tonnes.
The coalfield.
The cumulative basin area of Godavari Valley Coalfield is 17,400 km2. The coal bearing area is 11,000 km2. However, the area considered potential for regional exploration is 1,700 km2.
The Godavari Valley Coalfield, sometimes referred to Pranhita-Godavari Valley Coalfield, is a continuation of the Wardha Valley Coalfield. It extends over an area of 9,000 km2. The Lower Gondwana rocks consisting of Talchir, Barakar and Kamthi measures are well developed in the area. The Godavari Valley Coalfield is divided into twelve coal belts. Important coalfields of the area are: Tandur Coalfield; North Godavari and South Godavari Coalfield; Karlapalli or Kamaram Coalfield; Ramagundam Coalfield etc.
Reserves.
According to the Geological Survey of India, Godavari Valley Coalfield has total reserves (as on 1 January 2004) of 16,697.26 million tonnes of non-coking coal, up to a depth of 1,200 m, out of which 8091.10 million tonnes are proved reserves and the rest being indicated or inferred. A large portion of the coal is up to a depth of 300 m.
Subsequent studies of Geological Survey of India attribute as much as 22,054.58 million tonnes of coal reserves to the Godavari Valley Coalfield.


Taseevskoye mine

The Taseevskoye mine is one of the largest gold mines in Russia and in the world. The mine is located in Siberia. The mine has estimated reserves of 5.09 million oz of gold.


Olovskoye mine

The Olovskoye mine is a large open pit mine located in the southern part of Russia in Zabaykalsky Krai. Olovskoye represents one of the largest uranium reserves in Russia having estimated reserves of 16.8 million tonnes of ore grading 0.082% uranium.


Lingbao Gold

Lingbao Gold Company Limited () is a state-owned gold mining enterprise in Lingbao, Henan, China. It mainly engaged in the mining, smelting and refining of gold, silver, copper products and sulphuric acid. It has 49 mining and exploration rights in Henan, Xinjiang, Jiangxi, Inner Mongolia and Gansu.
It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2006 with IPO price of HK$3.3 per share.


Petro Oliynyk

Petro Mykhailovych Oliynyk (; born 10 July 1957 – died 10 February 2011) was a Ukrainian career miner and later politician, member of the Verkhovna Rada.
In 1989-1999 he worked as a director for various companies including coal mining (i.e. the 50th Anniversary of the Soviet Union Mine) in Chervonohrad. Later he was a mayor of Chervonohrad.
In 2002-2005 Oliynyk was a member of Verkhovna Rada representing the People's Movement of Ukraine.
In 2005-2008 he served as a Governor of Lviv Oblast.
In 2011 Oliynyk died in Austria where he was treated for serious illness.


North Karanpura Coalfield

North Karanpura Coalfield is located in Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Chatra and Latehar districts in the Indian state of Jharkhand.
Overview.
In 1917, L.S.S.O’Malley described the coalfields in the upper reaches of the Damodar as follows: "Near the western boundary of Jharia field is that of Bokaro, covering" , "with an estimated content of 1,500 million tons; close by… is the Ramgarh field (40 square miles), in which, however, coal is believed to be of inferior quality. A still larger field in the same district is that called Karanpura, which extends over" "and has an estimated capacity of 9,000 million tons."
The Coalfield.
There are large numbers of seams in the North Karanpura Coalfield, some with thicknesses over 72 feet.
North Karnpura Coalfield covers an area of and has total coal reserves of 13,110.84 million tonnes.
Reserves.
Geological reserves in the North Karanpura Coalfield in million tonnes as on 1/4/2010:
Transport.
In 1927, Bengal Nagpur Railway opened the Barkakana-Muri-Chandil line to traffic. In the same year the Central India Coalfields Railway opened the Gomoh-Barkakana line. It was extended to Daltonganj in 1929. Later these lines were amalgamated with East India Railway.
The 57 km long Hazaribagh-Barkakana section of the Koderma-Hazaribagh-Barkakana-Ranchi line was opened for passenger trains on 7 December 2016 by the railway minister Suresh Prabhu in the presence of chief minister Raghubar Das.
Coal-bed methane.
ONGC’s preliminary assessment of coal-bed methane indicates that four Damodar Valley coalfields – Jharia, Bokaro, North Karanpura and Raniganj – to be the most prospective.


Wau, Papua New Guinea

Wau is a town in Papua New Guinea, in the province of Morobe. It has a population of approx 5,000 and is situated at an altitude of around 1100 metres. Wau was the site of a gold rush during the 1920s and 30s when prospective gold diggers arrived at the coast at Salamaua and struggled inland along the Black Cat Track.
At the Battle of Wau in January 1943, the Australian Army stopped an advance by the Japanese. A road was established soon after World War II to Lae and this fostered the further development of local timber and agricultural industries that were originally established in support of the mining industry. While much of the mineral reserves have been extracted, industrial gold mining continues at Edie Creek and at the newly established Hidden Valley Gold Mine operated by Morobe Goldfields (a subsidiary of Harmony Gold - South Africa).
The Wau Ecology Institute is a biological research station situated near Wau.
Gold mining history.
Gold rush.
The first strike at Wau, the start of what would be known as the Morobe Goldfield, was made at Koranga Creek by William ‘Shark-Eye’ Park, probably towards the end of 1921. Park and his partner, Jack Nettleton, ran a clandestine mining operation for twelve months from April 1922 until a new Mining Ordinance enabled them to get their gold out legally. Nettleton, it is known, took out 6000 troy ounces, or about 190 kg, of gold in August 1923.
Only a handful of miners worked the field, rich as it was, until 1924. From 1924 to 1926 perhaps 20 miners were on the field producing about 200 kg of gold a year. The real rush began in 1926 with much bigger discoveries at Edie Creek, above Wau. The new rush made air transport viable and Wau's airstrip opened in 1927 by the Parer brothers originally of Spanish descent. In 1928 there were 200 miners and production was about three tonnes a year.
The influx of miners was often in conflict with the area's indigenous populations, including the Biangai along the Bulolo River and the Watut along the Watut River. During the early gold rush (1924–1927) prospectors and carriers employed from the coast followed paths through some of the Biangai villages. Accusations of theft from gardens against coastal carriers resulted a number being killed. In response, miners burned a Biangai village, and killed three men and a woman who died in a house that was burnt down. The beginning of air transport reduced the need for lines of carriers. In 1972, in the 6000 hectares case, PNGLR 71 (19 July 1972) the Biangai won the restitution of the Morobe Goldfields in the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea and compensation was awarded in respect of historical gold sales.
Companies.
Park quit Wau in 1926 as a wealthy man. After this properly capitalised companies were formed. New Guinea Goldfields, Ltd (NGG) was the biggest operator, but there were many others: for example, Koranga Gold Sluicing, Sandy Creek Gold Sluicing, Edie Creek Gold Mining Company, The Golden Deeps N.L., Upper Watut Gold Alluvials, Placer Development Limited, and so on. In subsequent years, NGG consolidated control over much of the mineral reserves using its large capitalisation to purchase the smaller leases.
Underground mining began with the Day Dawn mine in 1931; a number of similar operations were opened before and after the Second World War. These mines were very small by modern standards, the biggest being Upper Ridges with a total production of 2.9 tonnes over eighteen years.
Open cut mining was carried out at Golden Ridges mine between 1932 and 1941, and other pits yielded gold in the Namie area both before and after the war. Most were small and short-lived; the richest was Golden Peaks, producing about six and half tonnes of gold between 1962 and 1977. The Golden Peaks mill also processed ore brought to it by an aerial ropeway from new workings at Upper Ridges.
Bulolo Gold Dredging (BGD) began operations at the sister town of Bulolo in 1932 and was responsible for the bulk of pre-war gold production: about 40 tonnes in total. Seven of the eventual eight dredges worked the Bulolo Valley gravels; one only, No. 6, worked in the Wau Valley. Large operations ceased to be attractive after WWII, partly due to pegging of the gold price at pre-war prices and the last dredge ceased operating in 1965.
Alluvial mining.
At peak production, the Morobe Goldfield was the largest consumer of indentured labour in the Territory of New Guinea. On 30 June 1936 there were 13,121 labourers in Morobe as a whole, 6816 of whom were classified as involved in mining at Wau and Bulolo. But that was the limit of local involvement until 1957 when the Administration began to issue miner’s permits to Papua New Guineans. By this time the peak of alluvial production was past, but from this point the proportion of the total in local hands rose to 80% by 1975, according to a 1975 analysis of buying records.
Most of the miners were, and still are, operating with the simple methods of dishing and boxing, or gold panning. They make little capital expenditure and have a limited ability to discover new reefs. Production has dropped steadily since a post-war peak in 1953, as the small-scale miners attempt to make a living from alluvial ground constantly worked over since the 1920s.
Timber mills.
Timber mills in Wau were started by Roy Hyde in 1935, who arrived with his wife, two sons and a daughter. Timber was floated down the Bulolo river to the coast, which was used for house building in Lae and other resorts along the coast. Natives would guide the rafts to their destinations.


Sloss Mines

The Sloss Mines are a group of mines in southwestern Jefferson County, Alabama. They were established by the Sloss Iron and Steel Company and its successor, the Sloss-Sheffield Iron and Steel Company, on the southern end of Red Mountain. The Sloss Iron and Steel Company itself was founded by James Sloss in 1881 as the Sloss Furnace Company. The Sloss Mines produced iron ore from 1882 until the 1960s. The ore that these mines produced were essential to the production of iron at the Sloss Furnaces, making them an important element in the formation of adjacent Birmingham and Bessemer as cities.
An accident in January 1895 killed two people.
Red Mountain Park is an urban park that runs from east to west along the mountain. Red Mountain Park now owns the Sloss #2 mine site. Park officials plan to open a portion, but not all, of the area that the mines operated on to the public. Although the entrances have for the most part been sealed, The Tenn Coal and Iron mines 10, 11, 13 and 14, located in Red Mountain Park are planned for development into interactive visitor sites. In addition, walking trails on the former mining sites have been developed, as well as the preservation of a mine worker's cemetery and many historic mining structures.


Etango mine

The Etango mine is a proposed open pit mine located in the western part of Namibia in Erongo Region. Etango represents one of the largest uranium reserves in Namibia, having estimated reserves of 46,000 tonnes of Uranium in 455.7 million tonnes of ore grading 0.0165% uranium.


Ulur mine

The Ulur mine is one of the largest graphite mines in Russia and in the world. The mine is located in the east of the country in Sakha Republic. The mine has estimated reserves of 10 million tonnes of ore 30% graphite.


Tyndrum

Tyndrum (; ) is a small village in Scotland. Its Gaelic name translates as "the house on the ridge". It lies in Strathfillan, at the southern edge of Rannoch Moor.
Location and facilities.
Tyndrum is a popular tourist village, and a noted stop on the A82 for road travellers to refresh at the Green Welly Stop or one of the several other cafes and hotels. There is a filling station. The village is on the West Highland Way, and has a campsite, hotel, bunkhouse and bed and breakfasts to accommodate walkers.
Overshadowed by Ben Lui, a Munro, Tyndrum is built over the battlefield where Clan MacDougall defeated Robert the Bruce in AD 1306, and took from him the Brooch of Lorn.
Railways.
The village is notable as a junction of transport routes. The West Highland Line railway from Glasgow splits approximately to the south at Crianlarich, with one branch heading to Fort William and the other to Oban. Tyndrum has a station on each branch: Upper Tyndrum on the Fort William line and Tyndrum Lower on the Oban line. Thus unusually there are two stations serving the same small village, only a few hundred yards apart, but about apart by rail.
Indeed, Tyndrum is the smallest settlement in the UK with more than one railway station. This is partly a legacy of the history of the railways in the area, after two separate railways belonging to different railway companies were built through the village. However, the main reason is geography: splitting the line in Crianlarich allows the contours of the glen to be used to avoid very steep climbs heading north or west from Tyndrum. Roads mirror this division: the A82 from Glasgow to Fort William passes through Tyndrum, and the A85 to Oban splits off just north of the village.
Mines.
Tyndrum is a former mining centre. The hamlet of Clifton (the row of cottages across the A82 from the Green Welly) is made up of the former mining cottages, and up the hillside beyond them the tailings of a former lead mine can be seen. Historical records indicate that the mine was exploited in several different phases between 1730 and 1928. Opencast mining was carried out from 1741 to 1745 under the orders of Sir Robert Clifton. The Scots Mining Company owned the mineral rights to the area from 1768 to 1791, introducing water-powered crushing machinery.
The site of a proposed gold mine is to the south and west of Tyndrum at Cononish, above Cononish Farm. Work on constructing the mine began in the 1980s but low gold prices forced the closure of the mine before it became fully operational. In October 2011 it was announced that the mine would be reactivated. It was expected to employ 52 people and produce of gold and of silver over the next 10 years, thereby generating an estimated £80 million for the Scottish economy. Following planning difficulties, which featured in the BBC Four programme "Tales from the National Parks", and a fall in the price of gold, opening of the mine was again delayed. In an update on the project released by Scotgold in May 2015, total ore reserves are now estimated at of gold and of silver. Work is continuing to update capital and operating cost estimates and include opportunities for savings. This is expected to be complete by the end of July 2015.


George Wallace Jones

George Wallace Jones (April 12, 1804 – July 22, 1896) was an American frontiersman, entrepreneur, attorney, and judge, was among the first two United States Senators to represent the state of Iowa after it was admitted to the Union in 1846. A Democrat who was elected before the birth of the Republican Party, Jones served over ten years in the Senate, from December 7, 1848 to March 3, 1859. During the American Civil War, he was arrested by Federal authorities and briefly jailed on suspicion of having pro-Confederate sympathies.
Early life.
Jones was born in Vincennes, Indiana. He was the son of John Rice Jones, who became active in efforts directed toward the introduction of slavery to the country north of the Ohio River. When George was six years old, his father moved the family to Missouri Territory, recently acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase. As a child he served as a drummer for a volunteer company in the War of 1812. He later moved to Kentucky where he attended Transylvania University in 1825, and returned to Missouri to study law with his brother. After he was admitted to the bar and had practiced law for a short time, he went to work at Sinsinawa Mound, then in Michigan Territory, where he mined lead and worked and a storekeeper. He returned to Missouri, where he courted and married seventeen-year-old Josephine Gregiore in 1829. In 1831 Jones returned to Sinsinawa with his wife, seven slaves and several French laborers, to resume lead mining.
In 1832, Jones fought the Sauk and Fox Indians in the Black Hawk War, in which his brother-in-law Felix St. Vrain was killed. Jones was a judge in the local county court.
Delegate to Congress from territories.
Jones was a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives from both Michigan Territory and Wisconsin Territory. Uncertainty over precisely when his terms began and ended led to a contested election that was settled by the House, in favor of his opponent, in 1839.
Election and service as delegate.
Jones was elected to represent Michigan Territory as its at-large delegate in the 24th Congress. Part of the territory was in the process of becoming the state of Michigan, and already had a "de facto" state government in place, so Jones helped push forward legislation to create a new Territory of Wisconsin comprising what remained of Michigan Territory. That legislation became law on April 20, 1836, and Wisconsin Territory came into existence on July 4 of that year.
An election was held in October 1836 to choose the new territory's Congressional delegate, and Jones won. He took his seat at the opening of the next session of Congress on December 5, 1836, as the delegate from the Territory of Wisconsin. In that position he successfully persuaded voting members to support the designation of areas of Wisconsin Territory west of the Mississippi River as Iowa Territory. In February 1838, he served as second to Jonathan Cilley, a Congressman from Maine, in his duel with William J. Graves, a Congressman from Kentucky, in which Cilley was fatally wounded. The outpouring of anger over four Congressmen being involved in a fatal duel led to a House committee recommending censure for Jones and expulsion for Graves, but no such action was taken before the end of the session.
Contested election.
In September 1838, Jones lost an election to James Duane Doty to serve as the Wisconsin Territory's delegate to Congress. Jones went to Washington to take his seat for the session beginning that December, reasoning that his term through January 26, 1837, had been as the delegate from Michigan Territory, and thus he was entitled to a full two-year term beginning March 4, 1837, as the delegate from Wisconsin Territory. He believed Doty should not be seated until his own term expired on March 4, 1839. At the opening of the session, Isaac Crary of Michigan moved that Doty, also in attendance, be seated, and the matter was referred to the Committee on Elections. The committee determined that Michigan Territory had ceased to exist on June 15, 1836, and thus Jones had ceased to be its delegate at the same time, notwithstanding that Crary had not been seated as the new state of Michigan's representative until January 27, 1837, the day after statehood was officially granted. The committee reported in favor of Doty on December 21, and on January 3, 1839, the full House voted to seat Doty. Joshua Giddings of Ohio attempted to deny Jones payment for his travel to Washington and the month of salary he had claimed, but the full House voted to honor his claim in spite of its determination that he was not entitled to the seat.
Other territorial offices.
President Martin Van Buren appointed him as Surveyor-General of the Wisconsin and Iowa Territories, where he served (most likely in Dubuque, in Iowa Territory) from early 1840 until the end of the Van Buren administration in 1841. In 1845, following the election of another Democrat, James K. Polk, as president, he was reappointed Surveyor-General of Iowa Territory, one year before the southeastern eastern area of Iowa Territory became the State of Iowa.
U.S. Senate.
Jones represented Iowa in the United States Senate from December 7, 1848 to March 3, 1859. For its first two years, the Iowa General Assembly failed to choose Iowa's first U.S. Senators, due to a three-way split that prevented any candidate from earning the required number of 30 legislators' votes. However, after the 1848 elections gave the Democratic Party a greater share of Iowa legislators, Jones became a candidate for one of the two seats, and after four ballots won the Democratic caucuses' nomination for one of the two seats. He won the election and then, by drawing lots, received the seat with the longer term (to expire in four years). He won re-election (to a full six-year term) in 1852, after winning renomination by the Democratic Party by a single vote.
Jones was Chairman of the Committee on Engrossed Bills, the Committee on Pensions, and the Committee on Enrolled Bills. He served two terms before failing to be renominated. Jones had become increasingly unpopular in Iowa, even among those in his own party, because he often voted with southern Senators on slavery-related issues. As a senator, Jones was described by his biographer as a "Democrat in politics and a southerner by instinct." He claimed to oppose slavery (despite his own slaveholding past) but insisted that Congress had no right to forbid it or criticize it where states chose to allow it. Thus, he supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act. That stance, while unremarkable at the time, ultimately rendered him incapable of re-election in a state whose antislavery, anticompromise faction became dominant midway in Jones' second term, as the new Republican Party. After his term ended, no Iowa Democrat would win election to the U.S. Senate until the 1920s. His ten years in the Senate were not matched by any Iowa Democrat until 1950, after Guy M. Gillette was elected a third time.
Later life.
In 1858, the Democratic Party in Iowa, like those in other northern states, was bitterly divided over the support that its own president, James Buchanan, gave for the adoption by Kansas Territory and Congress of the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution. Jones had voted to approve the Lecompton Constitution in the Senate. When anti-slavery Iowa Democrats passed a resolution at their 1858 state convention repudiating the party's previous support for the Lecompton Constitution, Jones and others in the party's "old guard" walked out.
In 1859, President Buchanan appointed Jones as Minister Resident of the United States to New Granada (encompassing modern Colombia and Panama), requiring his relocation to Bogotá.
His service in Bogotá ended just as the Civil War broke out, as the Abraham Lincoln administration succeeded the Buchanan administration. Jones' two sons joined the Confederate Army. Upon returning to the United States in 1861, Jones was arrested by order of Secretary of State William H. Seward on the charge of disloyalty, based upon correspondence with his friend, Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He was never indicted or placed on trial. Jones was held for 34 days, until he was released by order of President Lincoln.
Jones then began a long retirement in Dubuque. In 1892, he was granted a pension by special act of Congress for his services in the Black Hawk War. On his ninetieth birthday in 1894, Governor Frank D. Jackson and the Iowa General Assembly gave Jones a public reception in recognition of his valuable services in the formative periods of the Territory and State. He died at his daughter's home in Dubuque on July 22, 1896.
Jones County, Iowa, was named in his honor. In 1912, the State Historical Society of Iowa published the biography "George Wallace Jones", by John Carl Parish.


RB Kolubara

RB Kolubara (full legal name: "Privredno društvo za proizvodnju, preradu i transport uglja Rudarski basen "Kolubara" d.o.o. Lazarevac"; "Company for the production, processing and transport of coal mine basin Kolubara Ltd. Lazarevac") is a Serbian coal mining and smelting complex with headquarters in Lazarevac, Kolubara District. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 2.2 billion tonnes of lignite, one of the largest lignite reserves in Europe, and it produces 22.6 million tonnes of coal per year.
Since Kolubara mining basin is the largest coal supplier for Elektroprivreda Srbije it plays a vital role in the country's energy independence. About 52% of the electricity in Serbia is produced based on the lignite from Kolubara, that is about 20 billion kW hours of electricity per year. Most of the coal (about 90%) is used for electricity production in TPP Nikola Tesla in Obrenovac, in thermal power plant Kolubara in Veliki Crljeni and in thermal power plant Morava in Svilajnac.
History.
The beginnings of mining in the region of Kolubara basin are associated with the year 1896 when the first pit Zvizdar was opened. In the eastern and western part of the basin coal has been successively extracted from the 14 pits Zvizdar, Sokolovac, Skobalj, Radljevo, Prkosava, Veliki Crljeni, Kolubara 1, Veliki Crljeni - Kolubara 2, Kosmaj - Kolubara 3, Baroševac, Šopić, Junkovac and others. A turning point in coal production came in 1952 with the opening of the first open pit (Fields A) which started mass surface mining of lignite. Opening of new mines and processing facilities fallowed. The mining projects' original intention was to secure a stable, constant supply of energy and electricity for the country, which is why the Serbian federal government considers these projects of national interest.
Environmental Improvement project.
In 2011 Kolubara started the Environmental Improvement project in order to improve the mining conditions and effects on the environment as well as the local communities involved. The estimated cost of this project is approximately EUR 165.2; the initiative is financed by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development EBRD (EUR 80 million ), the German state development bank KfW (EUR 75 million) and state electricity company Elektroprivreda Srbije (EUR 80 million). According to information provided by EBRD, the investment will generate benefits resulting in an environmental improvement of the Kolubara complex. The main benefits being more efficient and cleaner extraction of natural resources, supplying the existing power plants with lignite of a uniform quality (that will lead to more stable and efficient operations and controlled uniform emissions which will result in lower levels of CO2 and other pollutants as well as reduced wear and tear and maintenance costs) and helping Serbia to achieve emission limits set by the recently introduced EU Directive 2010/75 on Industrial Emissions.
The Environmental Improvement project's goal is to also introduce new equipment, strategies and techniques to the workers and planners of Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS). The purpose of introducing the new technologies and methods is to increase efficiency both economically speaking and environmentally speaking.
Controversial issues.
Social impact.
For the last 10 years the Kolubara mine basin has been expanding towards the settlements causing conflicts between inhabitants and mines. This problem affects around 6000 families. During the last decade, Elektroprivreda Srbije has moved hundreds of households, two complete villages and partially 10 villages. One of the main villages impacted was Vreoci, which resides in central Serbia. The project required a new mine pit on the location of the Vreoci graveyard as well as the relocation of more than 1,000 households. Underneath the graveyard lies approximately 50 million tons of coal, a requirement to get to the 600 million tons of lignite which would help the project but damage the local community's burial grounds and cultural landmark. Despite the heavy protests from the villagers, the EBRD loan was approved and the excavation of the graves continued. These protests have been met with police intervention and a series of blockades preventing the villages into the graveyard. The villagers asked for their houses to be relocated first so that shelter was secured, yet that process has not been as successful as promised. The lack of progress in the resettlement phase of the project has caused villagers to live in sub-par conditions and in locations with high air and ground pollution. Further protests ensued, such as street protests and hunger strikes.
Resettlement caused by the Tamnava West expansion in 2003 was not done according to good standards either, the main reason being shortage of funds which led to slowing down of the land acquisition and development of the proposed infrastructure. In the end, they were never conducted, which diminished credibility of Elektroprivreda Srbije in the eyes of inhabitants. With continued expansion of the mine, the relocation of households became urgent and residents were under enormous pressure to accept financial compensation and leave the territory designated for coal excavation. The value of their property was often underestimated.
Environmental Impact.
In spite of the Environmental improvement project carried out in 2011, there are still various environmental consequences of the mining work in Kolubara complex such as gas releases (carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone etc.), pollution of water supply and deterioration of the ground.
2013 Landslide.
In May 2013 the overburden of field B of the Kolubara lignite mine collapsed and caused a landslide that destroyed seven houses and one road in the town of Junkovac. On 28 March 2014 Serbian nongovernmental organization CEKOR (Centre for Ecology and Sustainable Development) pressed charges against Kolubara company for endangering public safety in Junkovac. The case was made after the statement by the Department for Mining Inspection in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Mining and Spatial planning that confirmed the Kolubara company has overloaded the dump field that caused the landslide.
Corruption.
In October 2011 authorities arrested 17 people, including two former directors of the Kolubara mine Dragan Tomic and Vladan Jovicic, eight executive managers and seven owners of private firms with which Kolubara conducted business. The executive managers are suspected of abusing their positions to illegally appropriate up to 2.9 million Euros, while enabling private companies to illegally profit 9.2 million Euros. Pre-trial proceedings were initiated because of suspicion that Kolubara's assets were used illegally through the leasing of construction machinery from privately owned companies, and by enabling other corporations and persons material gain. The first of two corruption trials against Dragan Tomic started on 25 May 2012. Tomic and four others were indicted in January on charges of abuse of power and of damaging the Kolubara budget for US$650,000 between 2004 and 2008. They face up to 12 years in prison.
In January 2013 Serbia's Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlović in her address, announced that Kolubara's business dealings are now a subject of an investigation, on suspicion of financial abuses. Allegations include paying high salaries to non-existent employees, buying over-priced equipment, and using resettlement compensation to pass bloated amounts of money to people close to the management.
There have also been allegations of corruption within the EPS board members. Radoslav Savatijević, member of the Managing Board of EPS was given a huge compensation of EUR 1.2 million for his house in Vreoci; however, his house was not near the location of the mining and may not even have been eligible for expropriation compensation as the house was not registered as his residence address. Similar cases have risen throughout this project, causing anger and distrust amongst the locals of affected villages.
Events.
2014 Floods.
Due to heavy floods which devastated the area in May 2014, there has been a week-long interruption in coal transport from Kolubara. Water two meters high covered all the machines and the railway on which the coal is being transported. The Belgrade media have written about the damage and repayment of it since the machinery and equipment were not ensured against flooding. Damage is estimated to be at least 100 million Euros. The flood’s impacts were much worse for those living near the mine, especially where the waters and mud mixed with pollution from the mine.


Benjamin T. Frederick

Benjamin Todd Frederick (October 5, 1834 – November 3, 1903) was an American miner, businessman, real estate agent and politician. After winning the Democratic nomination for the 1884 elections in Iowa's 5th congressional district, he was elected for one term (1885–1887) to the United States House of Representatives.
Early life.
Born in Fredericktown, Ohio, he attended district schools, completed preparatory studies and later moved to Marshalltown, Iowa. He moved to Marysville, California, in 1857 and engaged in placer mining. He returned to Marshalltown in 1859 and engaged in the foundry and machine business from 1865 to 1888. Frederick was a member of the Marshalltown City Council from 1874 to 1877, was a member of the school board for three terms.
Congressional career.
In 1882 he was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House seat representing Iowa's 5th congressional district in the 48th Congress. In the immediate aftermath of a very close general election race, his Republican opponent, James "Tama Jim" Wilson, was certified by the State of Iowa as the winner, leading Frederick to file an election contest in the U.S. House. Although the House was controlled by Fredrick's own party, the contest was not resolved until the last hours of the second session. On the morning of inauguration day (March 4, 1885), Frederick was declared the winner of the 1882 race, and was seated minutes before the 48th Congress ended. Until that day, Republicans had successfully filibustered to prevent a vote by the House on the contest, until continuation of the filibuster would have prevented the House from acting in a popular bill to permit former President Ulysses S. Grant, then on the verge of death, to retire with the benefits of a general. Indeed, that was exactly what opponents of the Grant retirement bill had in mind. By drawing out debate on every contested election case as long as possible, they could prevent the bill from coming to a vote, where the pressure to vote in its favor would be irresistible. Well aware of this, Wilson rose amid intense silence. Since the rules could not be suspended to bring up the Grant bill until his own case had been determined, he announced, he resigned his claim to Frederick immediately. At that the House rose to its feet cheering. The Grant bill sailed through almost instantly.
Frederick had been re-elected in 1884 by defeating Milo P. Smith, so he was able to remain in Congress for two years after his contest victory. He arrived just in time to have a share in passing out the patronage posts for the Fifth District: a Democratic president had just been elected. In fact, his was an empty honor. Iowa's two Republican senators insisted on being consulted about nominations and blocked the confirmation of postmasters they disliked. Iowa Democrats, clamoring for offices, could never find enough to satisfy them, and when they were denied appointments, complained bitterly. In Grundy County, the "Times" editor sought an $800-a-year post office. When Frederick refused to help him to it, the "Times" decided to quit publishing, but only after it had seen to Frederick's defeat for re-election in 1886. In 1886, he did seek and accept the Democratic nomination for re-election, but was defeated in the general election by Republican Daniel Kerr. Exulting that Frederick "has been relegated back to his junk-shop", the "Grundy County Times" then closed its doors. Quarreling with the Cleveland Administration over appointments, Frederick quit his seat within a month of the election. Disgustedly, fellow Democrats pronounced him "a chump from Chumpville."
Later life.
In 1887, Frederick moved to San Diego, California, where he engaged in the real estate business and was collector of internal revenue for San Diego from 1893 to 1902.
Death and burial.
Frederick died at age 69 in San Diego. He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery.


Domtar mine

The Domtar Mine, formed from the consolidation of Grand Rapids Gypsum Company mines 1 & 2, is an inactive underground gypsum mine in Walker, a suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
History.
The Grand Rapids Gypsum Company was incorporated in 1860, but the mines pre-dates this incorporation. The mine is located in the city of Walker, just southwest of Grand Rapids, north of the Grand River. The original mine entrances were both north and south of Butterworth Drive, named after the pioneering mining magnate, R.E. Butterworth, who opened the first gypsum mines north of the Grand River in this area.
Pellerito Cave.
A small gypsum solutional cave, known as the Pellerito Cave (named after its founder, Russell Pellerito) was discovered during the mining operations.
Domtar purchase.
The mine was purchased by Domtar industries in 1983, and re-opened in 1984 as the Domtar mine.
Domtar sold their gypsum operations to Georgia-Pacific, who closed the mine in 1999. It was the last operating underground gypsum mine in Michigan.


Three Aloes mine

The Three Aloes mine is a large mine located in the western part of Namibia in Erongo Region. Three Aloes represents one of the largest tantalum reserves in Namibia, having estimated reserves of 13.2 million tonnes of ore grading 0.026% tantalum.


Bakcharskoye mine

The Bakcharskoye mine is a large iron mine located in western Siberia in the Tomsk Oblast. Bakcharskoye represents one of the largest iron ore reserves in Russia and in the world having estimated reserves of 28 billion tonnes of ore grading 37.4% iron metal.


Alex Eadie

Alexander Mark Hughes Eadie (23 June 192026 January 2012), known as Alex Eadie, was a Scottish Labour politician.
Early life.
Born in Buckhaven, Fife, he was the son of a coal miner, who was later killed in a pit accident. Educated at Buckhaven Senior Secondary School, he left school aged 14 to work part-time at Lochhead Colliery, while he trained as a mining engineer.
Eadie stood for the Scottish presidency of the National Union of Mineworkers in 1961 against Alex Moffat, brother of the outgoing president Abe Moffat. Media commentators gave him little chance as a Fabian Society member in a union executive dominated by communists, but he came within 3,000 votes of victory. He was subsequently in 1965 elected to the Scottish NUM executive, representative for the county of Clackmannanshire.
Political career.
Eadie joined the Scottish Labour Party in 1943, and was elected Scottish president of the Young Co-Operators in 1945. He later served as a member of the SLP Executive.
He was a councillor on Fife County Council for 20 years, chairing the housing and education committees.
Parliamentary career.
Eadie contested Ayr in 1959 and 1964, losing the second time to George Younger.
In 1966 a vacancy arose in the mining constituency of Midlothian. Elected Member of Parliament in the 1966 general election with a majority of over 14,416, he warned in his maiden speech at the Palace of Westminster against closing the pits. His seat remained safe until his retirement in 1992, the only scare coming in 1974 when the Scottish National Party reduced his majority to just over 4,000.
After co-sponsoring David Steel's Private Member's Bill which became the Abortion Act 1967, in January 1967 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Minister of Social Security, Margaret Herbison. However, along with seven other PPS's, he was sacked by Prime Minister Harold Wilson four months later for refusing to back Britain's application for Common Market membership.
Wilson appointed Eadie opposition spokesman on energy in 1973, and served as junior minister for Energy during the Labour government of 1974 to 1979, serving under ministers Eric Varley and then Tony Benn. Eadie promoted research into wave, tidal and geothermal energy, and in 1976 secured the Joint European Torus (JET) nuclear fusion project for Oxfordshire, when the European Commission recommendation was for Italy.
Eadie held the energy brief again in opposition under new Labour leader Neil Kinnock. Considered in 1983 as a replacement for Derek Ezra as chairman of the National Coal Board, the position was given to Sir Ian MacGregor, whom Eadie later blamed for the conflict that led to the miners' strike of 1984–85. As Labour's then shadow Energy spokesperson, he backed the strike, but was later critical of Arthur Scargill's leadership. After the strike, Eadie successfully led legal action against the NCB, which under a ruling from the Attorney General for England and Wales Sir Patrick Mayhew, recovered £120M in miners pension credits, which had been withheld during the strike.
In the early 1970s, Eadie put forward a Private Members Bill that would have established the principle that no child in Scotland should be treated as incapable of being educated. After he became a junior minister in February 1974, he handed over the brief to Hamish Gray, then Conservative MP for Ross and Cromarty, with whom he became firm friends. Legislation later passed, steered and supported by Eadie and Gray, which put Scotland at the forefront of special needs education provision within the UK.
Personal life.
Eadie was married twice, firstly in 1941 to Jemima Ritchie; she died in 1981. In 1983 he married his second wife Janice Murdoch. His son from his first marriage is Bob Eadie, a Labour councillor in Fife. His daughter-in-law Helen Eadie was Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament for Cowdenbeath.
After a period of illness, Eadie died at his home in East Wemyss, Fife, on 26 January 2012.


Ivan Kulyk

Ivan Yulianovych Kulyk (; born Izrail Yudelevich Kulik; January 14, 1897 – October 10, 1937) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, translator, diplomat and Communist Party activist. He also wrote under the names "R. Rolinato" and "Vasyl Rolenko".
Biography.
Kulik was born in the city of Shpola, in the Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine) into the family of a Jewish teacher. He finished fourth-grade college in Uman where he moved with his parents. There his first poem was published in the Uman newspaper "Provincial voice" ("Провинциальный голос"), in Russian.
In 1911 he enrolled into the Odessa Art academy. In 1914, together with his parents, he emigrated to the United States. There he worked in the factories and mines in Pennsylvania. He began publishing his poems in the local Russian newspaper "New world" ("Новый мир"). In 1914 he became a member of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP).
In spring 1917 Kulik travelled through the Russian Far East and Siberia, returning to Kiev where he joined the local revkom. He actively participated in the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising that led to the establishment of the Soviet government in Kiev. In December 1917 he was elected to the Central Executive Committee of Soviets and the first Soviet government of the Ukrainian SSR (heading the People's Secretariat of the Foreign Affairs). In summer of 1918 together with Vitaliy Primakov participated in the formations of the Red Cossacks military units.
From May 1921 to May 1922 he was a secretary of the Kamyanets-Podilsky branch of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine. There he edited the local newspaper "Red Truth", simultaneously teaching history in the Institute of the People's Education. At this time he published his poem the "Green heart" (1921, ).
In 1924–1926 he was consul of the Soviet Union in Canada. From September 15, 1930 to June 1932 he returned to Kamyanets-Podilsky as secretary of a raion committee.
He was one of the leaders of the All-Ukrainian Association of the Proletarian Writers (VSPP), and after 1934 became the leader of the Ukrainian Association of Soviet Writers. Along with those duties he also was head of the State Political Publishing house, edited in the "Literary newspaper" ("Літературнa газетa") and the journal "Soviet Literature" ("Радянська література").
He was married to the Ukrainian writer (1899–1937), an ethnic German.
He was arrested during the Great Purge in 1937, charged with "spying against the Soviet Union" and executed by shooting on October 10, 1937. Earlier, on September 25, 1937, his wife was executed as well for "supporting her husband in anti-state activities".


Pasir coal mine

The Pasir Coal Mine is a coal mine located in East Kalimantan. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 1.38 billion tonnes of coking coal, one of the largest coal reserves in Asia and the world. The mine has an annual production capacity of 32 million tonnes of coal.


Christopher Bwalya Yaluma

Christopher Bwalya Yaluma is the minister of commerce, trade and industry in Zambia. He has held that position since February of 2018. He was formerly the minister of mines and minerals. Yaluma is a member of the Patrotic Front, the ruling political party in Zambia.
He has a Bachelor of Science and diploma in electrical engineering.


Pacific Rim Mining Corporation

The Pacific Rim Mining Corporation is a multinational mining company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Its principal corporate offices are located in Reno, Nevada and has operations throughout the Americas. It merged with Dayton Mining Corporation in 2002.
In 2013, Pacific Rim became a wholly owned subsidiary of OceanaGold.
Projects.
As the company's projects were still in development, Pacific Rim had no income in 2009. At the end of 2009, the company's total assets were valued at $8.2 million.
El Dorado mine in El Salvador.
The proposed El Dorado mine project is Pacific Rim's largest project. The company gained the mine property, of 144 square kilometres, from its merger with Dayton Mining Corporation in 2002, and claims to have invested approximately $77 million to discover and prepare to begin mining gold deposits in Cabañas department. The company estimates that it can extract 1.4 million gold-equivalent troy ounces.
Controversy.
According to US think tank Public Citizen Pacific Rim did not complete a feasibility study required for a mining permit, and in July 2008 ceased exploratory drilling. Expatriate Salvadorans and local activists connected with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) political party campaigned for the project to be discontinued over human rights issues, and concerns of pollution arising from the extraction of gold and silver. As of December 2008, 24 mining projects were waiting for new mining laws introduced by the National Coalition Party (PCN) to be finalized. However, environmentalists warned of negative environmental and social impacts if mining went ahead. On June 16, 2009, FMLN lawmakers demanded a permanent ban on gold and silver mining in El Salvador, whose requirements meant that "companies involved in mining activities in El Salvador would have 180 days to abort operations and leave the country." However, the proposal did not become law.
Pacific Rim claimed that the mine would be environmentally responsible, provide jobs and spur economic development. The company also claimed that dewatering activities in the mine would produce substantial amounts of water, and that it would collect runoff rain water. However, some organizations and the Salvadorian government questioned these claims.
In 2008, tensions in Cabañas rose as three prominent anti-mining activists were murdered. In June 2009—after the murder of a local pro-mining businessman, Horacio Menjivar, two months earlier—environmental campaigner Marcelo Rivera Moreno was kidnapped, tortured and murdered. In August, Menjivar's son, Oscar, was arrested for the attempted murder of another anti-mining activist, Ramiro Rivera Gomez (no relation to Marcelo Rivera Moreno). In October, Esperanza Menjivar, the widow of Horacio and mother of Oscar, was murdered. On December 20, 2009, Ramiro Rivera Gomez was murdered, followed by another anti-mining activist, Dora Alicia Recinos Sorto, on December 26. Recinos Sorto was eight months pregnant when she was shot dead, and her two-year-old son was also wounded in the attack. While some anti-mining activists suggested the murders were connected to Pacific Rim, local police and other investigators believed that they were connected to a series of murders (six in total) between two neighborhood groups.
In June 2010, Pacific Rim CEO Thomas Shrake testified before the Canadian parliament's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, stating that suggestions that the company had been involved in the murder of anti-mining activists were "simply outrageous" and that they would be "contrary to everything we believe and practice." He also noted that the mine operation and employees had been victims of attacks, including "mobs" that damaged their property and hacked down trees planted as part of the company's reforestation program.
International arbitration.
In response to President Antonio Saca's refusal to allow a mining permit, Pacific Rim Mining Corp. invoked a provision of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in 2009 to place the matter in the hands of an international arbitration court. As Canada is not a party to CAFTA, the company declared ad hoc a subsidiary in Nevada as the base for the claim. The company sought over $300 million in damages, asserting that the government "changed the rules of the game" laid out in the nation's mining laws. The administration of Saca's successor Mauricio Funes later said in 2009 that it would be willing to negotiate with Pacific Rim concerning its arbitration claims, while Funes' chief of cabinet, Alex Segovia, "acknowledged that the merits of the Pacific Rim case were strong."
When Pacific Rim invoked the CAFTA international arbitration provision in 2009, initially seeking $77 million in damages, the Salvadoran government called the action "an attack" on its national sovereignty. Other gold mining companies with operations in Central America, such as Goldcorp, said they may use the Pacific Rim case to adjudicate disputes of their own. In October 2012, Pacific Rim signed a deal with Crowell & Moring to represent their case in the final phase of arbitration, which was being handled by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
In October 2016, the ICSID dismissed Pacific Rim's claim for an eventual amount of $250 million, ruling that their case was "without merit." Pacific Rim was also ordered to pay the Salvadoran government $8 million in legal fees.


Yentna-Cache Creek mining district

Gold was discovered in the Yentna Cache-Creek Mining District in the US state of Alaska (also known separately as the Yentna District or Cache Creek District) of the upper Susitna Valley in 1898, soon followed by claim staking. Placer mining was reported in the Cache Creek drainage of the Dutch Hills by 1906. Quaternary glaciofluvial deposits, alluvial deposits, and Cenozoic conglomeratic white quartz-breccia units have been mined in the Dutch Hills. About of gold has been produced from these placer deposits.
By 1927, a road from Talkeetna was constructed into the mining area, known today as The Petersville Road. The mining camp of Petersville, Alaska served as the area Post Office for several years in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Two areas have been set aside for recreational gold mining, the North and South units of the Petersville State Recreation Mining Areas. Many smaller one-man and family placer mining operations continue today.
In addition to placer gold mining, the district has had some mining of tungsten from scheelite deposits, and small-scale lode mining for gold.
The district is well known due to the influence of artist Sydney Laurence and the still-unsolved murders of four miners in 1939 which gained nationwide attention (see "The Mystery of the Cache Creek Murders" by Roberta Sheldon).
A steam-powered dragline was used to mine the placer deposits of Peters Creek, below the canyon that cuts through the Peters Hills. The tailings of that operation can be seen today, and the area is part of the Petersville State Recreation Mining Area.
A cluster of deposits is in the main part of the Yentna district, near the Dutch Hills. The productive deposits here have been placer gold deposits with byproduct platinum and locally abundant cassiterite. Gold-bearing lodes in the Yentna district, which have not been as well described, include small and locally very rich deposits associated with felsic dikes and apparently low-grade deposits in major shear and altered zones. Assays exceeding 1 ounce of gold per ton have been obtained from three of these areas, and selected quartz-arsenopyrite vein material from one prospect assayed about of gold per ton.
Cache Creek Mine.
A bucketline dredge was constructed in Cache Creek in the 1920s, and used locally-abundant coal to fire the boilers. Later, a hydroelectric plant was used to run the dredge. The dredge mined the entire valley of Cache Creek as far as the mouth of Nugget Creek, then bulldozers mined what remained. Hydraulic mining was also widely used before 1942, and many ditches can be found all over the Dutch Hills today. About 115,000 ounces of placer gold was reported to have been produced from Cache Creek. An active placer mine operated in 1998-1999.
The Blue Ribbon Mine.

The first reported mining in what was to become The Blue Ribbon Mine took place in 1906. Except for some stretches when no mining took place, some gold has probably been recovered every year since. The total amount recovered is unknown, but at least have been reported recovered, mostly by small-scale hand or mechanized methods. The placer mine continues operating today, and the company is actively exploring lode deposits.


Tugrugnuur coal mine

The Tugrugnuur Coal Mine is a coal mine located in eastern Mongolia. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 3.12 billion tonnes of coking coal, one of the largest coal reserves in Asia and the world. The mine has an annual production capacity of 0.05 million tonnes of coal.


Ruchar mine

The Ruchar mine is one of the largest titanium mines in Russia. The mine is located in the Far Eastern Federal District. The mine has reserves amounting to 3 billion tonnes of ore grading 15% titanium.


Agar Rodney Adamson

Agar Rodney Adamson (November 8, 1901 – April 8, 1954) was a Canadian politician. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada who represented the riding of York West from 1940-1954. He died in a plane crash in 1954.
Biography.
Adamson was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1901. He was the son of Agar Adamson, who commanded Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry from 1916 to 1918 during World War I. His mother was Mabel Cawthra, a wealthy heiress, artist and decorator. He attended Ridley College in St. Catharines and later Magdalene College in Cambridge, England. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and served as a pilot in 1918 in the last year of World War I. He was trained as a mining engineer and worked for Brazilian Traction in South America and Ontario Hydro.
He was elected as a Conservative to represent York West, a riding to the west of Toronto that would eventually become Mississauga. Shortly after he was elected he took leave from parliament to serve overseas in the army with the Lorne Scots regiment. He served with the regiment for two years as an intelligence officer. In 1942 he transferred to a headquarters unit in London, England where he served for the rest of the war. In 1947 he married Cynthia Jacqueline Oakley whom he had met in Banff on a skiing trip. Previously he had been married to Rosamund Lazier but that marriage ended in divorce. He and Cynthia raised two sons.
After the war, he returned to his role as M.P. He was re-elected in 1945, 1949 and 1953. He and his wife died in a TCA plane crash near Moose Jaw SK on April 8, 1954. He was 52.


Joseph Ladue

Joseph Francis "Joe" Ladue (July 28, 1855 – June 27, 1901) was a prospector, businessman and founder of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada.
Ladue was born in Schuyler Falls, New York. His mother died when he was seven years old, and his father in 1874. Upon his father's death, 19-year-old Joe headed west.
In 1876, he found employment in a gold mine in Deadwood, South Dakota, beginning as a general labourer and working his way up to engineer, foreman and superintendent. He eventually quit to go prospecting in Arizona and New Mexico, but did not strike it rich. In 1882, he crossed the Chilkoot Pass into the interior of the Yukon, where he prospected and traded for a couple of years.
In August 1896, a few days after the discovery of gold in the Klondike, he staked a claim to either 160 or 178 acres (65-72 hectares) of boggy flats at the mouth of the Klondike River as a townsite. In January 1897, he named the new town Dawson after Canadian geologist George Mercer Dawson. By July, about 5000 people lived there. Ladue could sell town lots for as much as $5000 or $8000. He relocated his saw mill to Dawson; it ran continuously night and day in response to the extreme demand. He also set up a store and the first saloon in town. In addition, he acquired a number of rich gold claims. All this enabled Ladue to leave the north a rich man that year.
With some of his wealth, Ladue bought the steamer "SS Morgan City" and had it brought around Cape Horn from New York City. After a single trip from Seattle to Skagway and Valdez he leased it at $600 per day as a troop transport to the Philippines. The ship was lost in the Sea of Japan in September 1899.
Ladue returned to his home town and on December 15, 1897, he married Anna "Kitty" Mason. He was in poor health and died of "consumption" (tuberculosis) at Schuyler Falls on June 27, 1901. He was survived by his wife and a son.


Kingash mine

The Kingash mine is a large mine in the north of Russia in the Krasnoyarsk Krai. Kingash represents one of the largest nickel reserve in Russia having estimated reserves of 219 million tonnes of ore grading 0.39% nickel. The 219 million tonnes of ore contains 0.85 million tonnes of nickel metal.


Chihong Zinc and Germanium

Yunnan Chihong Zinc and Germanium Company Limited () is the state-owned enterprise engaged in the processing, extracting and prospecting and trading of zinc, lead, germanium and sulphuric acid products.
The company was founded in Qujing, Yunnan, China in 2000. It was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2004.
In 2010, Chihong's Canadian subsidiary, Chihong Canada Mining, closed a joint venture with Selwyn Resources Ltd. for the development of a zinc-lead mining operation in the Yukon. The transaction cost CDN$100 million to complete.


Tsentralnyi coal mine

The Tsentralnyi Coal Mine is a coal mine located in Tuva, Russia. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 639 million tonnes of coking coal, one of the largest coal reserves in Russia and the world. It was acquired by Russian steel company Severstal in 2010 and has an annual production of 1 million tonnes of coal.


World Museum of Mining

The World Museum of Mining is a museum and memorial in Butte, Montana.
Chartered in 1964 as a non-profit educational corporation, the Museum first opened its doors in July 1965. The site, an inactive silver and zinc mine named the Orphan Girl, includes 50 buildings on some 22 acres of land. Copper and zinc were the most common ores found in this mine.


Hushan mine

The Hushan mine is a large mine located in the south-eastern China in Zhejiang. Hushan represents one of the largest fluorite reserves in China having estimated reserves of 4.5 million tonnes of ore grading 50% fluorite.


Robert Prager

Robert Paul Prager (February 28, 1888 – April 5, 1918) was a German immigrant who was lynched in the United States during World War I as a result of Anti-German sentiment. He had worked as a baker in southern Illinois and then as a laborer in a coal mine, settling in Collinsville, a center of mining. At a time of rising anti-German sentiment, he was rejected for membership in the Maryville, Illinois local of the United Mine Workers of America. Afterward he angered area mine workers by posting copies of his letter around town that complained of his rejection and criticized the local president.
A mob of 200-300 men forced Prager from his home in Collinsville, making him walk barefoot and wrapped in an American flag along Main Street, where they beat and harassed him. The police took him into custody, but the mob gained control again, taking him from the Collinsville City Hall and accusing Mayor John H. Siegel of being pro-German. Failing to find tar in order to tar and feather Prager, as the workers had done to other victims, leaders of the mob used a rope and hanged him to death at a prominent bluff outside town.
Eleven men were tried for Prager's murder but all were acquitted. Rumors were that Prager held socialist beliefs, which were considered suspect at the time. Men in the mob claimed he was planning to blow up the coal mine, but there was no evidence against him and he had not been charged with any crime.
Biography.
Robert Paul Prager was born in Dresden, Germany on February 28, 1888. He emigrated to the United States in 1905, at the age of 17. First working as an itinerant baker, he was sentenced to a year in an Indiana reformatory for theft. When the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, Prager was living in St. Louis, Missouri.
Prager showed strong patriotism for his adopted country. He took out his first citizenship papers the day after Wilson's war speech on April 2, in order to start the naturalization process. He registered for the draft and tried to enlist in the US Navy. (Aliens were promised citizenship if they successfully served in the armed forces.) Prager continuously displayed an American flag from his window. When his St. Louis landlord objected, Prager reported him to the police.
Prager was rejected by the Navy due to medical reasons. After moving briefly to other towns in Missouri and Illinois, he landed in nearby Collinsville in southern Illinois in the late summer of 1917. He first took a job baking for an Italian baker named Lorenzo Bruno. In early 1918, Prager learned of the high wartime wages that miners were earning and began working in a laborer's position at the Donk Brothers Coal and Coke Co. Mine #2 in nearby Maryville. But Prager was rejected for permanent membership as a mine worker in United Mine Workers of America Local 1802, perhaps due to his argumentative personality or suspected socialist beliefs.
Background: Labor issues in Collinsville.
Coal mining was the lifeblood of Collinsville in 1918, with seven mines in production in or around the city. More than half the city's male working population was employed at the mines. The work also drew itinerant miners who had no familial anchors to the community. Many of the miners in this period were immigrants or had at least one parent who was an immigrant, and most were from European nations. The United Mine Workers of America (UMW) had five locals in the Collinsville area, and the miners dominated the community. Radical elements in the UMW unions caused a number of wildcat strike actions at Collinsville area coal mines in the summer and fall of 1917.
Almost concurrently with the wildcat strikes, a unionization strike at the St. Louis Lead Smelting and Refining plant (Lead Works) in Collinsville energized many of the coal miners and other union members in the community. The strike turned violent at times. In an unusual twist, Collinsville police officers and Madison County Sheriff's deputies, mostly former miners themselves, sided with the striking workers from the Lead Works and the coal miners who supported unionization. Industry owners hired strikebreakers, who were harassed by both union men and law enforcement officers on local streets and in streetcars.
The strike at the Lead Works resulted in social tensions similar to those that had preceded the East St. Louis Race Riots earlier in 1917. Owners had hired black workers to break strikes in that community. In Collinsville, ethnic white workers objected to the use of "imported" workers, and many of the workers hired to fill the non-union jobs at the Lead Works were black.
The wildcat coal mine strikes and unionization strike at St. Louis Louis Smelting and Refining resulted in radicalizing many Collinsville coal miners. They became empowered by the lack of official resistance to their actions in 1917-1918 by community leaders or local law enforcement.
Background: Wartime patriotism and paranoia.
The federal Committee on Public Information (CPI) sought to gain support for U.S. entry into the Great War, which had raged in Europe since 1914. Many Americans had a largely isolationist viewpoint and believed they did not need to get involved in Europe's problems. At the same time, anarchists and socialists had largely opposed US entry into the war, in order to focus on solving domestic problems such as labor injustices and economic inequities. The CPI's campaign reached the newspapers and also produced buttons and posters to support the war effort, trying to raise patriotic support. The CPI also controlled the release of news and photographs of the war to newspapers and magazines.
Meanwhile, Congress had passed the Espionage Act of 1917, which criminalized actions that might interfere with the military or even military recruitment, such as making statements which could discourage potential soldiers from registering for the draft or enlisting. The Espionage Act also prohibited mailing of any materials which might harm the government's war efforts. This act was used broadly by the government to suppress anarchist and socialist activists, whom they opposed. There had been considerable labor and social unrest preceding US entry into the war.
Locally, many residents of Collinsville attended patriotic events, such as the June 5, 1917 National Draft Registration Day, or the March 27, 1918 organizing meeting of the Collinsville Neighborhood Committee of the Illinois State Council of Defense. Many immigrants and their descendants were eager to prove their loyalty to the United States. A number of Collinsville men had enlisted, while many more were drafted to report for military service starting in September 1917. But the city residents failed to meet Liberty Bond sales quotas for both bond drives in 1917. In November 1917, Leighton Evatt died from pneumonia in France, the first fatality of the war from Collinsville.
Nearly every club or organization in Collinsville conducted regular fundraising to support the soldiers or the military effort. The Red Cross became the leading war support organization locally, and would have nearly 4000 members by war's end. Though some residents complained about fuel and food conservation measures, most Collinsville people complied with the guidelines, not wanting to have their loyalty considered suspect.
Government propaganda urged residents to be on constant alert for enemy spies. The war raised the unease of native-born Americans about the numerous immigrants in the country. "Every German or Austrian in the United States, unless known by years of association to be absolutely loyal, should be treated as a potential spy," the "Collinsville Advertiser" newspaper reported on December 29, 1917. Because Germany was opposed to Great Britain and France, nationally ethnic Germans in the United States, having previously been perhaps the most-respected immigrant groups, increasingly faced anti-German sentiment. Examples of anti-German sentiment were street names being changed and German-language classes dropped in many communities. Groups ranging from the All-Allied Anti-German League to the Boy Spies of America reported any activity they thought suspicious.
In the coal fields of southern Illinois, miners administered extralegal justice against real and perceived enemies: in a kind of "charivari", they tarred and feathered some men, and drove others out of town through mob harassment. A Lutheran minister from a Collinsville-area church was forced to leave the community because he reportedly would not renounce his German citizenship. Throughout the nation, harassment of German immigrants and those of German descent peaked during early 1918.
Lynching of Robert Paul Prager.
Prager's application to join UMW Local 1802 was rejected on April 3, 1918. After the union meeting that evening, miners paraded Prager near saloons in Maryville, then warned him to leave that town. Prager was angered to have been rejected by Local 1802 and losing his job. The next morning, he wrote a letter to the Maryville miners, complaining that he had been treated unfairly by Local 1802 President James Fornero. "I have been a union man all times and never once a scab [strikebreaker]," Prager said. He denied accusations that he was a German sympathizer. He wrote, "I am heart and soul for the good old USA. I am of German birth, of which accident I cannot help." On the afternoon of April 4 he posted copies of this letter near the Maryville mine and nearby saloons.
Leaving work at the end of the day, the Maryville miners were enraged to see copies of Prager's letter. A contingent of about six Maryville men went to Prager's Collinsville home in the 200 block of Vandalia Street, bringing along dozens of men who had been drinking in a nearby saloon. The men arrived at Prager's door about 9:45 p.m. and ordered him to leave town. Soon the group told Prager to come out first and kiss the flag to show his patriotism. Prager was told to remove his shoes; wrapped in the flag and barefoot, he was paraded along Main Street in Collinsville past numerous saloons where miners and other working men were drinking. Many joined the mob, which now numbered about 300. At approximately 10 p.m., three Collinsville policemen took Prager from the mob at Main and Seminary streets, and put him into the jail for his safety, in the basement of City Hall, three blocks away.
The mob reassembled on Main Street; several hundred men marched behind a US flag, singing "The Star Spangled Banner" (a popular song that was not designated as the national anthem until 1931). They stopped at the front steps of City Hall. Mayor John H. Siegel and a few others tried to calm the mob and urged the men to let federal authorities deal with Prager. Siegel said if the man was a German spy, federal investigators might gain important information. Attacking Siegel and other officials for German ancestry, the mob accused them of being pro-German, too. During the time the mob was in front of City Hall, there had reportedly been an ineffective attempt by police officers to take Prager away. Unable to find a way to leave the building secretly, they removed Prager from the locked cell and hid him among sewer tiles in the basement. At about the same time, the mayor was told that Prager had been taken from the building by federal authorities, and he announced that to the mob. But many in the mob asked to search the building themselves. Believing Prager had been taken away, Mayor Siegel agreed. In this search, two members of the mob located Prager and took him back to the remnants of the mob, which had moved back to Main Street.
Lynching.
The mob forced Prager to walk west on Main Street and the St. Louis Road, beating and harassing him. He had to sing patriotic songs and kiss the flag. When the mob arrived at the top of Bluff Hill, on the St. Louis Road overlooking St. Louis, some men took a car to get tar from a nearby streetcar stop. They intended to tar and feather Prager, as they had other targets of their wrath. But the men returned, not having been able to find any tar. Joe Reigel (also of German ancestry), 28, one of the two men to find Prager at city hall, had taken a leading role since then. He found a length of manila rope in one of the cars, and announced that Prager should hang. Other men were initially reluctant, but no one spoke out in the crowd.
Prager was allowed to write a last note to his parents in Dresden, Germany:
He was hanged in front of a mob of 100 to 200 people, mostly men, at about 12:30 am on April 5, 1918.
Investigation.
Prager's death was first investigated by Madison County Coroner Roy Lowe. His Coroner's Jury interviewed dozens of witnesses and on April 11 charged five men with murder. They were:
Joe Riegel, 28; Wesley Beaver, 26; Richard Dukes, 22; William Brockmeier, 41; and Enid Elmore, 21.
Riegel gave a remarkably candid confession to the Coroner's Jury about his role in the night's events. He also gave a full account to a reporter from the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch".
A grand jury for Madison County, Illinois, was convened to hear testimony in the case. On April 25 they indicted the five men previously charged, and seven others for the murder of Prager. Additional suspects included: Charles Cranmer, 20; James DeMatties, 18; Frank Flannery, 19; Calvin Gilmore, 44; John Hallworth, 43; and Cecil Larremore, 17. The twelfth man to be indicted, George Davis, was never further identified, or located. He was not prosecuted.
The grand jury also indicted four Collinsville police officers for omission of duty and nonfeasance, for their failure to protect Prager from the mob. He had not been charged with any crime when taken into custody.
Trial and reaction.
The trial began on May 13, 1918. More than 700 prospective jurors were reviewed by attorneys during the next two weeks to choose the 12 men who would serve. The judge refused to let the defense counsel try to demonstrate that Prager was disloyal. The case for the defendants was based on three principal claims: no one could say who did what, half the defendants claimed they had not been at the murder, and the rest claimed they had been bystanders. This defense was used by Joe Riegel, who had previously confessed his part in the affair.
In its concluding statements, the defense argued that Prager's lynching was justified by "unwritten law", which does not allow unpatriotic talk. After five days of statements and testimony, the case went to the jury on June 1, 1918. After deliberating 10 minutes, the jury found all the defendants to be innocent. One juryman reportedly shouted, "Well, I guess nobody can say we aren't loyal now". The prosecuting attorney dropped charges against the four policemen and George Davis, the defendant who had never been found.
A week after the trial, editor and publisher J.O. Monroe wrote an editorial in the "Collinsville Herald", saying,
"Outside of a few persons who may still harbor Germanic inclinations, the whole city is glad that the eleven men indicted for the hanging of Robert P. Prager were acquitted." And further, "the community is well convinced that he was disloyal... The city does not miss him. The lesson of his death has had a wholesome effect on the Germanists of Collinsville and the rest of the nation."
A "New York Times" editorial said, "The new unwritten law appears to be that any group of men may execute justice, or what they consider justice, in any case growing out of the war." The "Chicago Daily Tribune" editorialized: “The lynching of Prager was reprehensible enough in itself, but the effort to excuse it as an act of ‘popular justice’ is worse.” The "St. Louis Star" noted that men were acquitted of lynching while American troops fought for democracy abroad:
“We must save our own soul as a nation. We cannot let ourselves go in such a way as was done in the Prager outrage and hold up our heads as civilized people. We are battling for right and humanity and should exhibit those qualities ourselves or be open to the charge of hypocrisy. We cannot successfully battle the Hun if we are to become the Hun ourselves.”


Ban laomakkha mine

The Ban laomakkha mine is one of the largest gypsum mines in Laos. The mine is in Savannakhet Province. The mine has reserves amounting to 42 million tonnes of gypsum.