Cu-River Mining

Cu-River Mining Pty. Ltd. is a privately-owned Australian resources company with interests in iron ore mining and port development projects in South Australia. It is the smaller of two iron ore exporters operating in the state, the larger being the GFG Alliance. The company is owned by Adelaide-based businessman, Yong Gang Shan and as of 2019 its only producing asset is the Cairn Hill mine in the state's Far North. The company has contracted mining, processing and freight logistics services to Jiujiang Mining Australia.
History.
In 2014, Cu-River Mining purchased the Cairn Hill iron ore mine in the Woomera Prohibited Area, near Coober Pedy in South Australia. The mine was previously owned by Termite Resources; a joint venture between ASX-listed IMX Resources and the Taifeng Yuan Chuang International Development Company. Cu-River Mining produced its first iron ore from Cairn Hill in 2016.
In October 2017, the company announced that it would invest $800 million in expanding the Cairn Hill mine. Cu-River Mining has contracted JiuJiang Mining Australia (the Australian arm of the JiuJiang Group, China) to undertake infrastructure improvements at Cairn Hill.
Jiujiang Mining Australia.
Cu-River Mining's mine and port developments are the Jiujiang Group's first international projects. JiuJiang Mining Australia will provide services including construction (e.g., wet processing plant), mining, processing (as the owner/operator of the project's Wet Processing Plant) and handling (including rail and port logistics).
Port Playford development.
In January 2019, the company purchased the site of the former Northern and Playford A and B power stations at Port Augusta, where it intends to construct a port for the transshipment of iron ore from its existing Cairn Hill mine, future iron ore projects Snaefell and Tomahawk, and potentially wheat and other commodities. The 1068 hectare property's existing 5 kilometre long rail loop and unloading facilities (previously used to unload and stockpile coal from Leigh Creek) would be utilised by the prospective port. An export capacity of 15 million tonnes per annum is anticipated by the company, with scope to increase to 50 million tonnes.
In 2020, Cu-River Mining signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Haviliah Resources, a prospective iron ore exporter with leases to mineral deposits in the Braemar region in South Australia. As of December 2020, the port development proposal is pending approval by the Government of South Australia.


Guggenheim family

The Guggenheim family ( ) is an American family known for making their fortune in the mining industry, in the early 20th century, especially in the United States and South America. After World War I, many family members withdrew from the businesses and became involved in philanthropy, especially in the arts, aviation, medicine, and culture.
History.
Meyer Guggenheim, a Swiss citizen of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, arrived in the United States in 1847. His surname was derived from the Alsatian village of Gugenheim. He married Barbara Meyer, whom he met in the United States. Over the next few decades, their several children and descendants became known for their global successes in mining and smelting businesses, under the name Guggenheim Exploration, including the American Smelting and Refining Company. In the early 20th century, the family developed one of the largest fortunes in the world.
Following World War I, they sold their global mining interests and later purchased nitrate mines in Chile. Subsequently, the family largely withdrew from direct involvement in running businesses. Family members became known for their philanthropy in diverse areas such as modern art, aviation, and medicine. They donated funds to develop Guggenheim Museums, the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, and the Guggenheim Pavilion at Mount Sinai Medical Center, designed by I. M. Pei in New York City.
Current interests.
Guggenheim Partners today manages over $200 billion in assets. Another family vehicle, Guggenheim Investment Advisors, oversees about $50 billion in assets.
Family tree.
Meyer Guggenheim (1828–1905) married Barbara Meyer, of German Jewish descent, in 1852. They met in the United States. They had eleven children together, including eight sons, five of whom were active in the family businesses: Isaac, Daniel, Maurice "Murry", Solomon Robert, and (John) Simon Guggenheim. Sons Benjamin, Robert and William pursued other careers. The daughters were Jeanette, Rose and Cora. Meyer's 11 children, their spouses, and notable descendants are shown below:


Copper mining in Arizona

Copper mining in Arizona, a state of the United States, has been a major industry since the 19th century. In 2007 Arizona was the leading copper-producing state in the US, producing 750 thousand metric tons of copper, worth a record $5.54 billion. Arizona's copper production was 60% of the total for the United States. Copper mining also produces gold and silver as byproducts. Byproduct molybdenum from copper mining makes Arizona the nation's second-largest producer of that metal.
Although copper mineralization was found by the earliest Spanish explorers of Arizona, the territory was remote, and copper could seldom be profitably mined and shipped. Early Spanish, Mexican, and American prospectors searched for gold and silver (see "Silver mining in Arizona"), and ignored copper. It was not until the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1876 that copper became broadly economic to mine and ship to market.
All copper mining was done by underground methods until the early 20th century. After the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah successfully mined a large low-grade copper deposit from a large open pit, the same technique was applied to Arizona's porphyry copper deposits. Arizona's first open pit copper mine opened at Ajo in 1917.
Copper mining districts.
Jerome.
Native Americans used copper minerals of the Verde district at modern-day Jerome as pigment to decorate skin and textiles. The first European to visit the area is thought to be Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo, who found silver at a location in central Arizona in 1583. No mining resulted, and Juan de Oñate led another expedition searching for Espejo's silver location in 1598; many claims were staked, but the expeditioners returned to Santa Fe without mining any silver, and the deposits remained unexploited.
The United Verde mine exhausted the rich oxidized ores in 1884, and the mine closed. William A. Clark of Montana visited the district in 1888, bought it, and reopened the mine. The smelter at Clarkdale was built in 1915.
Ajo.
Spaniards mined on a small scale at Ajo as early as 1750. After the Gadsden Purchase brought the southern Arizona into the United States in 1853, the mine was reopened in 1855, and shipped high-grade ore to Swansea in Wales. However, the remote desert location made mining generally uneconomic without onsite treatment. The area was mostly idle until the New Cornelia mine opened in 1917 as the first large open-pit mine in Arizona. Mining continued in the district until 1983. The district produced 6.304 billion pounds of copper.
Clifton-Morenci district.
Prospectors from Silver City, New Mexico discovered copper mineralization at Morenci, also known as the Greenlee district in 1872. Mining began the following year, and miners extracted and smelted high-grade copper ore until a railroad reached the district in 1884 and a concentrator made mining and processing of low-grade ore economical.
The Morenci mine, owned jointly by Freeport-McMoran and Sumitomo, is the largest copper producer in the state, and regularly contributes about half of Arizona's copper production.
Bisbee (Warren district).
An army scout noted copper mineralization in the Warren district at present-day Bisbee in 1877. Production began in 1880 after a rich discovery of copper oxide on the Copper Queen claim. The success of the Copper Queen mine convinced Phelps Dodge to buy the adjacent Atlantic claim in 1881. Phelps Dodge later bought control of the Copper Queen and adjacent claims.
Although Phelps Dodge was the largest mining company in Bisbee, it was not the only one. The Calumet and Arizona Mining Company organized in March, 1901 and operated several large and profitable mines adjacent to the Copper Queen. By 1907, the C&A was the fourth-most productive copper mine in Arizona, and ran its own smelter in Douglas, Arizona.
Phelps Dodge started mining the Lavender open pit in the early 1950s. The Lavender pit closed in 1974.
The Copper Queen mine, Bisbee's first working mine, was also its last. Mining stopped in 1975, although the Copper Queen still offers tours.
The Warren district is credited with having produced 7.92 billion pounds (3.59 million mt) of copper. In addition, the district recovered 324 million pounds (147,000 t) of lead, 355 million pounds (161,000 t) of zinc, 28 million pounds (13,000 t) of manganese, 2.79 million ounces (86.8 t) of gold and 102 million ounces (3177 t) of silver.
Globe-Miami district.
Silver mining started at Globe in 1874. The silver mines shut down in 1877, but the following year copper mining took over.
White Mesa district.
The White Mesa copper-mining district is in the western part of the Navajo reservation, northeast of Flagstaff, in Coconino County. The copper deposits consist of malachite and chrysocolla as grain coatings in the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone. They were first mined on a small scale by Mormon settlers in the 19th century, then briefly in 1917, and again 1939–1941. The district produced about 550,000 pounds of copper and a small amount of silver.
Copper mining today.
Significant active Arizona copper mines in 2012, by order of output:
Leading copper-producing mines in 2015.
Leading copper-producing mines in the Arizona in 2015, in order of output:
Five of the mines are owned and operated by Freeport-McMoRan, three by ASARCO, and one each by Capstone Mining and KGHM International, Ltd..
New operations.
Mining of the Resolution Copper deposit in Pinal County, potentially the largest copper mine in Arizona, is stalled pending a proposed land swap with the federal government. Resolution Copper has proposed to give the federal government of environmentally sensitive land in Arizona in exchange for the proposed mine site. In May 2009 Arizona Democratic congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick introduced legislation in Washington to complete the land swap. The swap already has the support of Arizona's two Republican senators. As of July 2017, the project was still under review by the US Government.
The Sunnyside mine project is in development in Santa Cruz County.


Woodsmith Mine

Woodsmith Mine is a deep potash and polyhalite mine located near to the hamlet of Sneatonthorpe, Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. The venture was started by York Potash Ltd, which became a subsidiary of Sirius Minerals plc whose primary focus is the development of the polyhalite project. The project will mine the world's largest deposit of polyhalite – a naturally occurring mineral. Because the project would require mining to be undertaken in the North York Moors National Park, many objections were raised to the mine and the proposed conveyor that would be installed to transport the raw material offsite to a plant on Teesside away.
The mine is expected to have a life of 100 years and has been labelled the biggest mining project in Britain for decades; its twin shafts will be the deepest commercial mineshafts in Britain. The project is expected to generate over £100 billion for the UK economy over a period of 50 years.
When the project is up and running, it will be the deepest mine in Europe and have the longest tunnel in Great Britain.
History.
Potash in North Yorkshire.
Deposits of potash in North Yorkshire have been well known about since the 1930s when boreholes drilled for gas and oil also discovered the mineral. At least three submissions to mine the mineral were submitted in 1971 and a further one in 1978. Such was the belief of the venture in the Whitby area, that even after the railway line between Whitby and had closed, a small section between Prospect Hill at Whitby and was left in-situ for a commercial potash venture near to the village of Stainsacre.
Sirius Minerals.
The initial proposal was forwarded from York Potash to the North York Moors National Park Authority in 2011. This enabled the Authority to allow test drilling at various sites along the coast between Whitby and Scarborough. The company decided to develop a site next to Doves Nest farm near to the hamlet of Sneatonthorpe. The geological survey pointed to a resource that is the world's largest and highest grade polyhalite deposit.
Sirius withdrew its initial planning application in 2013 to re-examine key elements, particularly the project's environmental impact. Plans were resubmitted in 2014 with notable changes including an underground system of conveyor belts to transport the dry mineral, instead of a slurry pipeline, and other mitigation efforts. Originally, the transport methods for delivering the product from the mine were conveyor, pipeline and by rail on the Esk Valley line.
The decision from members of the North York Moors National Park Authority to resolve to grant planning permission for the mine and mineral transport system, was made at a public meeting on 30 June 2015. When complete, the Project would be among the largest mining projects ever built in the United Kingdom.
Sirius intend to have the mine and associated tunnel operational by 2021, with preferred bidder status on construction being announced in June 2016.
The project requires the company to construct two shafts to reach the mineral seam which includes a mineable area of around . The twin shafts have been labelled as the deepest commercial mineshafts in Britain, and the mine will also be the deepest in Europe.
To minimise the amount of visible infrastructure within the North York Moors National Park, a protected area, the polyhalite will then be transported at an average depth of in a tunnel to the company's processing plant at Teesside. The tunnel will consist of two conveyors: the first will be long and the second will be . There will be an interchange point between the two conveyors at Lockwood Beck, near Guisborough.
After granulation and drying, the finished product— marketed by Sirius Minerals as POLY4—will be exported from the nearby harbour facilities. The mine will produce 20 million tonnes a year of polyhalite, potash and POLY4 and is expected to be in production for 100 years. Woodsmith Mine has been projected as contributing over £100 billion for the UK economy over a period of 50 years.
In August 2017, the deep tunnels were being constructed on the site. "The Times" said that the project was the "biggest mining project Britain has seen in decades".
Orders for the mineral have already been agreed with third-party distributors in America and South-East Asia to receive and respectively each year. In September 2018, Sirius Minerals revealed that had signed a seven-year deal with a Brazilian fertiliser distributor to export per year to South America. All mineral supplies will be delivered from a new harbour area on Teesside. The company acquired a site adjacent to the defunct Redcar Steelworks site in December 2017, which will serve as the northern portal of the conveyor. The site will be known as Bran Sands with initial building taking place in 2019. However, the site was assessed as not have satisfactory loading facilities for shipping, so in May 2018, Sirius signed an agreement with the South Tees Site Company, to option the site which lies from the Bran Sands site, but offers better access to the River Tees.
In November 2018, Sirius agreed a multi-million pound contract to use the site next to the Redcar Bulk Terminal instead. Engineers will install a storage area and ship loading facilities to allow the product to be exported from the original site.
Anglo American.
In September 2019 the project was in doubt when Sirius shelved a £400 million junk bond sale, citing a lack of government support and Brexit uncertainty. In November 2019 the company announced that it was in talks with potential investors to raise $600 million needed to fund the first phase of the development.
In January 2020 Anglo American plc confirmed it was considering making a bid to buy Sirius Minerals, and then made a 5.5p per share offer to buy the project for £400 million. In salvaging the financially troubled project, Anglo American envisaged spending around £230 million to keep construction going through to at least 2022. Sirius advised shareholders that if the offer was rejected the company could face entering administration within weeks. Subject to approval by at least 75% of Sirius shareholders, the deal was expected to become effective by 31 March 2020. The sale was approved by shareholders on 4 March 2020.
In December 2020, Anglo American stated their intent to spend a further $200 million on top of the already allocated $300 million to enable ground and tunneling works to "gather pace [in 2021]". They also announced further jobs that they will recruit for so that by spring 2020, the total number of personnel on site would be 1,400.
Objections.
Many groups and campaigners objected to the project. An open letter signed by 29 different groups, including the Caravan Club, the RSPB and the Campaign for National Parks, was sent to the national park authority, whose own internal report stated that the economic benefits of the mine did not outweigh the environmental damage it would cause. Initially, the Ministry of Defence lodged an objection to the mine as its use of dynamite blasting had the potential to cause damage to the sensitive equipment at RAF Fylingdales which is only south west of the mine head. This objection was withdrawn when the company agreed to the MoD's conditions and monitoring of the mine's workings.
However, some local people supported the venture. The farmer who works the land that will be adjacent to the minesite wrote to the NPA in support of the project stating Another local man stated that there was nothing in the area other than pot washing or working in the local fish and chip restaurant.
Naming and ground works.
In February 2017, the project was given the name Woodsmith Mine in an unveiling by Andrew Percy MP, the Northern Powerhouse Minister. The name of the mine is a portmanteau of the surnames of Peter Woods and Dr Frederick Smith, who were two of the original geologists on the project. The mine head is situated on Doves Nest farm, a former beef farming site.
Ground works on the mine and initial building was due to start in April 2017 whilst preparatory work on the access roads (including building new filter lanes on the A171 road) was undertaken in February and March 2017. In May 2017, Sirius minerals confirmed that construction work had officially started at the site with production of minerals starting in late 2021.
Mineral transport tunnel.
In June 2018, work was started on the tunnel that would convey the polyhalite from the mine site to Teesside. The tunnel was originally due to be in diameter, but after the initial groundworks and with an enhanced understanding of the geological strata, this was changed to in diameter with the increased lining thickness too. This meant the company needed £3.6 billion of stage 2 funding as opposed to the estimated £3 billion it had projected for the tunnelling and mineshaft phase. Sirius issued a warning about the financial situation so that "everybody is clear of the significance of the stage-two funding for us to continue."
The first tunnel boring machine (TBM) arrived at Teesport in February 2019. The TBMs will number three with one working from Teesside southwards towards Whitby, whilst the other two will work from the mine site northwards towards Teesside. Each TBM weighs and will progress between and per day. The TBMs at the mine site will start off underground at a depth of around with the whole tunnel being at an average depth of .
Tunnelling started from Teesside on 12 April 2019 and when completed, the tunnel will be the longest wholly within Great Britain.


Aktogay Mine

Aktogay Mine is a copper mine under production in the Karaganda Region (, "Қарағанды облысы") of Kazakhstan. It is an "open-pit" type quarry currently under development. It will contain an open pit, as well as a concentrator to produce copper cathodes, although molybdenum is also expected to be extracted as well. The site contains a large copper deposit, as well as a molybdenum-rich sulfide deposit. It is expected to contain around 123 million tonnes of copper, as well as another 2.063 billion tons of sulfide-molybdenum. The projected cost to build it is somewhere around $2.3 billion.


Elizabeth Mine

The Elizabeth Mine was a copper mine located on the town line between the Town of Strafford and the Town of Thetford, in Orange County, Vermont.
The ore deposit was discovered in 1793, but mining did not start until 1809. Open pit mining and from 1886 underground mining was conducted. The mine produced up to of copper (1954) and was closed in 1957.
Due to acid mine drainage the west branch of the Ompompanoosuc River was polluted. Since 2000 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources have been developing a plan to clean up the area.
Geology.
The ore deposits at the Elizabeth Mine represent classic examples of sedimentary exhalative type deposition where hydrothermal fluids enter the marine environment and precipitate out minerals in a strataform ore body. The ores are hosted in the strongly deformed Lower Devonian Guile Mountain Formation (a grey to dark grey mica schist). The ore body at the Elizabeth Mine is a massive sulfide deposit consisting primarily of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite.


Sorsky mine

The Sorsky mine is a large copper mine located in the center of Russia in Krasnoyarsk Krai. Sorsky represents one of the largest copper reserve in Russia and in the world having estimated reserves of 9.43 billion tonnes of ore grading 0.046% copper.


Pitarrilla mine

The Pitarrilla deposit is a large silver deposit located in north central Mexico in the state of Durango. Pitarrilla represents one of the largest unexploited silver resources in Mexico and in the world having estimated reserves of 479 million oz of silver. The deposit also has reserves amounting to 157.2 million tonnes of ore grading 0.29% lead and 0.79% zinc.


Combermere Colliery

Combermere Colliery was a coal mine operating on the Manchester Coalfield after 1867 in Shakerley, Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.
Combermere Colliery's two shafts, one for ventilation, were sunk to the Rams mine at 315 feet and the black and White mine at 600 feet by the Tyldesley Coal Company and opened in 1867. The colliery had a short life and closed in 1893. The company built a brickworks using fireclay from the mine at Combermere and the railway to it operated until the mid-1930s.


Sanquhar

Sanquhar (, ) is a village on the River Nith in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies north of Thornhill and west of Moffat. It is a former Royal Burgh.
Sanquhar is notable for its tiny post office, established in 1712 and held to be the oldest working post office in the world. It was also the place where the Covenanters, who opposed episcopalisation of the church, signed the "Sanquhar Declaration" renouncing their allegiance to the King, an event commemorated by a monument in the main street.
The church of St Brides contains a memorial to James Crichton, a 16th-century polymath. The ruins of Sanquhar Castle stand nearby. Nithsdale Wanderers, the local team, were formed in 1897. In 1924–25, Wanderers won the Scottish Division Three.
History.
The name "Sanquhar" comes from the Scottish Gaelic language "Seann Cathair", meaning "old fort". There is a 15th-century castle ruin that overlooks the town, but the name predates even this ancient fort. The antiquary, William Forbes Skene even considered it the probable location of the settlement named Corda in Ptolemy's "Geographia". With its location along the River Nith, Sanquhar has been a major crossroads for centuries. Artifacts have been found here from Neolithic times. The remains of several prehistoric British forts can be found in the area as well as traces of a Roman outpost.
The ancient hill fort at Tynron Doon is located about 28 kilometres away from the town. This fort is described in "Archaeology of late Celtic Britain and Ireland" by L R Laing (1975) as "a well-preserved multivallate hillfort" which probably began its existence in the Iron Age and continued to be used throughout the Dark Ages and into the early Medieval period. During Roman times the fort would have been in Selgovae territory; after the Romans departed it lay on the borders of the Strathclyde Britons and the Galwyddel. This place is associated with a local legend of a "heidless horseman" who is supposed to have ridden down from it as an omen of death, a story which possibly has some origin in a Celtic head cult. The "Poetical Works" of Sir Walter Scott (1822) attest that Robert the Bruce hid in the forests about this hill after he had killed one of his rivals, John "the Red" Comyn.
In the 9th and 10th centuries, waves of Gaelic settlers came to the area from Ireland. These Scoto-Irish people replaced the native Britons and became the dominant inhabitants for hundreds of years. In the 12th century, Norman colonization of the British Islands brought a feudal system of government and squabbling barons and sheriffs ruled the land for several centuries. Sanquhar is in the county of Dumfriesshire, which rests along the English border. These border counties were constantly in a state of turmoil as groups raided each other across the dividing lines.
During the war of Scottish Independence the English army took over the old castle at Sanquhar. The Lord of the Castle, Sir William the Hardy, Lord of Douglas, learned of this and came up with a clever plot where one man sneaked into the castle and threw open the gates, allowing Lord Douglas to seize it. The English began a counter-attack, but William Wallace learned of the battle and came to the rescue. As the English army retreated, Wallace chased them down and killed 500 of them. Wallace visited the castle on several occasions.
Crichton family.
It is believed the Crichton family came to Britain from Hungary. During the reign of Robert the Bruce they obtained the lands round about Sanquhar and ruled over the area from the mid-14th until the mid-17th centuries. Mary, Queen of Scots, (cousin of Queen Elizabeth the 1st) came to Sanquhar in May 1568 after her defeat at the battle of Langside. Lord Crichton of Sanquhar was loyal to Mary, and harboured her until she escaped across the River Nith. For this, he was punished after the Scots lairds besieged and captured Sanquhar castle once again.
The end of the Crichton family power in the area was the result of a lavish party. In July 1617, the King of Great Britain, James VI and I, travelled through Scotland to Glasgow, and on his way home stopped at the castle in Sanquhar. The Crichtons welcomed him with a display so huge that it bankrupted them. It is said that Lord Crichton escorted the king to bed carrying a lighted torch made from £30,000 in bond notes that the king owed Lord Crichton. By 1639, the Crichtons had moved to Ayrshire, and sold their holdings in Sanquhar to the Earl of Queensberry.
A joke in the region is that many a young woman who worked for the Crichtons would "Go in the servants' entrance and come out the family way". However, one well-regarded member of Crichton family was James Crichton (known as 'The Admirable Crichton').
Religious upheaval.
A new period of disruption came in the form of religious rebellion. The Covenanters were dedicated Scottish Presbyterians devoted to maintaining Presbyterianism as the sole form of church organisation in Scotland. They led Scotland into England's civil wars of the period against King Charles I (and later against Cromwell). Throughout the 17th century, there was fighting and persecution by both sides.
Sanquhar was a hotbed of unrest during the Covenanting period. With its position as the only major town in a large area, and situated by the River Nith, it seemed that whenever any remarkable political movement was going on people would go to Sanquhar to proclaim their testimonies on the subject. It was here, in 1680, that Richard Cameron, with a band of armed supporters, posted on the town cross the first declaration of Sanquhar renouncing allegiance to Charles II.
The year 1685 saw the second declaration, by James Renwick, who also took a large armed party into Sanquhar, frightening all the townspeople who thought a battle was coming. The "Sanquhar Declarations", as they are known, set forth the basis of religious freedom in Scotland. Sanquhar's location also led those who were hunted and persecuted to pass through or hide in the area.
In the Victorian period the town's mercat cross was transformed into a monument bearing the inscription: In commemoration of the two famous Sanquhar Declarations, which were published on this spot, where stood the ancient Cross of the Burgh; the one by the Rev. Richard Cameron, on 22 June 1680; the other by the Rev. James Renwick, on 25 May 1685, the Killing Time.
The end of the Covenanting period in the early 18th century was not the last religious upheaval for the area. The Church of Scotland was torn by several disputes over the years. One of the major issues was whether the local populations or church headquarters could hire local ministers. In the 1830s many churches seceded and in 1843 a large number of churches broke away to form the Free Church of Scotland. The time was known as the “Great Disruption”. In Sanquhar the minister was leaning towards the new splinter groups, mostly at the urging of his wife. When she died he lost his nerve. The split came and he stayed behind, along with most of his parishioners. He kept his job and his church house, but lost the respect of the community. The creation of the Free Church in Sanquhar, and the wobbling of this minister, left many hard feelings in the town. There was hardly a family that wasn't torn apart by the disputes. At this point the parish records become a shambles, and hardly a birth or marriage was recorded until civil registration started in 1855.
Sanquhar was legally recognized by the crown as early as the 15th century and was made a royal burgh in 1598. Despite the political unrest in the area agriculture began to flourish in the early 18th century. Local industries came into their own, particularly coal mining. Coal had been dug in the area for hundreds of years, but more advanced methods helped the industry grow. Other industries that depended on coal, such as weaving, carpet making and forges began to appear.
Robert Burns.
In the 1780s, the legendary Scottish poet Robert Burns was a frequent visitor to Sanquhar. When he was renovating a farm in 1788, he often passed through on the way back to his wife, Jean, in Ayrshire. Afterwards, he became a well-known face because of his excise duties. Burns called the town "Black Joan" in his ballad "Five Carlins" in which he represented the local burghs as characters. He would stay overnight at the Queensberry Arms in the High Street, making friends with the owner and calling it "the only tolerable Inn in the place".
Post Office and wool trade.
Sanquhar is notable for its tiny post office, established in 1712 and held to be the oldest working post office in the world. The post office pre-dates the second oldest, in Stockholm, Sweden, by eight years while the third oldest in Santiago, Chile, opened in 1772. In November 2019 it was put up for sale at £275,000, including a three-bedroom cottage, a courtyard and some outbuildings. A spokesman said: "Post Office will be working with the local community to try to find a new postmaster to take on the branch and ensure it remains part of the Post Office network and Sanquhar's unique place in postal history is retained."
The wool trade had been an important one in the coastal trading towns of Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbright since medieval times and by the 18th century Sanquhar had developed as an inland market centre. The Sanquhar Wool Fair, held in July, regulated the prices for the whole south of Scotland. A distinctive two-coloured pattern of knitting which is widely known as 'Sanquhar knitting' takes its name from this small parish. A traveller's account early in the 18th century tells us: 'Gloves they make better and cheaper than in England, for they send great quantities thither.' Many a poor farm family supported themselves with extra income from these sought-after knitted garments. While knitting died out as an industry, the presentation of traditional Sanquhar gloves is an important part of local celebrations even today.
During the 18th century the life of a weaver was enviable. They earned good wages and worked at their looms indoors, often at their homes. They could work whatever hours they wanted, and could take time off in autumn to help farmers with their harvests. It was said that any time there was a noise in the streets all the weavers would be the first ones to drop their work, run out and begin gossiping about the matter. Towards the end of the 18th century, however, advances in technology made the home shops less profitable, and many of Sanquhar's weavers found themselves looking for other work.
Crawick Village.
Other work came in the form of a carpet factory, along the Crawick Water. At first, it consisted of a few separate looms, but by the 1830s, there was a large factory, boasting 54 looms at its height. The carpets made here were world-renowned for their durability and orders came from as far away as South America. A large proportion of their total production was shipped to Valparaíso, Chile.
The location along the Crawick River was also the home of John Rigg's forge. In the late 18th century, he had been persuaded to move here from Dalston in Cumbria to supply tools for the coalfields. He made a damhead opposite the village of Crawick and used the water to power his factory. The water separated the parishes of Sanquhar and Kirkconnel, and although the forge was on the Kirkconnel side, Sanquhar always laid claim to it. The forge produced shovels and other tools into the 20th century.
The village of Crawick had once been known as a haven for witches. One story is that the parish minister's cows began making milk that would not churn. He sent one of his servants to tie a branch from a rowan tree over the doorway of the witch's house in Crawick, which ended the curse. For a long time, a large rowan tree flourished in the front yard of the church, perhaps partly to keep these evil spirits away. Life in Crawick was described beautifully by James Brown, in his "History of Sanquhar":
“Crawick Mill was a clean tidy little hamlet pleasantly embosomed on the banks of the Crawick and sheltered from almost every wind that blew, and there was no happier colony of weavers to be found in any country district in Scotland. They were almost all natives, whose whole life associations were connected with the place. We have no pleasanter memory than that of the weavers playing quoits, of which they were very fond, on the summer evenings on the "Alley", a long strip of ground on the banks of the stream behind the Village, while their wives, with their clean "mutches" sat about or sauntered up and down chatting and gossiping, and the bairns were either scrambling along the wooded banks of the Crawick or "paidling" in its clear water, the pleasant babble of the stream as it rushed over the dam-head mingling with the voices of the men at their game and the joyous shouts and laughter of the children.”
Between 1885 and 1916, Crawick even had its own post office (known as Crawick Bridge); it also had gas-powered streetlights two years before the rest of the town of Sanquhar. All of this came to a sad end when one of the owners of the factory died, and the others squabbled. By 1860, the factory was shut down. Many of the weavers moved to larger cities to keep their trade. The forge, and the nearby colliery, kept people employed until the 20th century. During the period just before World War II many people moved away, and the little hamlet was all but deserted. Only a few homes stand here now, the occupants little aware of the industries that once thrived here.
Sanquhar more recently.
Sanquhar itself prospered through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The decline of traditional industries in the middle of this century hurt the town, but now new manufacturers are moving in and there is a strong sense of community in the burgh. Sanquhar had a public school as early as 1793. William Adam, a famous Scottish architect, designed the tollbooth in the centre of town, which is the only surviving building of this type designed by him. Built in 1731, much of the building materials for it were taken from the old castle in Sanquhar and it is currently used as the town museum, containing local artifacts and memorabilia. In 1800, the population of Sanquhar was 2,350. It grew to 3,268 by the year 1830, but by 1991 had collapsed again to 2,910. Today it stands at about 2,100.
The sport of curling runs in the blood of people from Sanquhar. The town has the world's oldest curling society, formed in 1774 with sixty members. James Brown, who wrote an important history of the town, is also credited with writing the rules universally used for the sport. The witches of Crawick were known for casting hexes on other teams. There were tournaments where the prize was a sack of grain. The winning team would get the food and distribute it to the poor and needy in their hometown.
In the arts, the Sanquhar Pantomime Group performs a traditional Christmas pantomime in aid of local charities. An annual occurrence during the 1990s, it now alternates with a production by the local primary School.
Every year, on the Saturday closest to 18 August, the Royal Burgh of Sanquhar holds its annual Riding of the Marches. This week-long event celebrates the Royal Burgh, through the selection of a "Queen" and her "Attendants" from fourth-year girls in the secondary school, and a parade of lorries and horses, to name but a few events. Many of the pubs are busy during this time, indeed it's been noted that some publicans begin to have delusions of grandeur during this period.
The railway line has remained open for freight and passenger traffic, however Sanquhar railway station was closed and only re-opened in recent years.
Cycling history.
In the late 1930s, Sanquhar was the home to Crawick Wheelers, a very successful Cycling Club which was instrumental in the setting of a number of Scottish Time Trial records. The Scott brothers were prolific in setting these records along with Jock Tudhope. The Scotts were predominantly miners in the local collieries and worked an 11-day fortnight finishing work on a Saturday morning. They would then ride from Sanquhar to Dundee or Perth and take part in Time Trial races before returning home on the Sunday. After the 1939-45 war, Jim Scott moved on from Crawick Wheelers and rode for Law Wheelers in Lanarkshire; the Crawick club seems to have folded at around this time.
25 Mile records.
1939 W.Scott Crawick Wheelers 1 hr 01 mins 21 secs

1940 W.Scott Crawick Wheelers 1 hr 00 mins 54 secs

1944 D.Scott Crawick Wheelers 59 mins 55 secs

1949 J.Scott Law Wheelers 59 mins 40 secs

1950 J.Scott Law Wheelers 59 mins 37 secs

1952 J.Scott Law Wheelers 59 mins 11 secs

The 1944 time set by Dave Scott was the first time a Scottish rider had posted a time of less than 1 hour for the 25 mile distance.
25 mile Team Records.
1950 Law Wheelers J.Scott, A.Williams & A.Hamilton 3 hrs 01 mins 39 secs
30 Mile Records.
1939 W.Scott Crawick Wheelers 1 hr 13 mins 59 secs
1950 J.Scott Law Wheelers 1 hr 13 mins 22 secs
The 30 mile record set by Bill Scott stood for 11 years before being beaten by his brother Jim.
30 Mile Team Records.
1943 Crawick Wheelers D.Scott, J.Scott & J.Tudhope 3 hrs 50 mins 56 secs
50 Mile Records.
1939 W.Scott Crawick Wheelers 2 hrs 04 mins 52 secs
1944 J.Tudhope Crawick Wheelers 2 hrs 04 mins 50 secs
1949 J.Scott Law Wheelers 2 hrs 02 mins 45 secs
50 Mile Team Records.
1944 Crawick Wheelers J.Tudhope, D.Scott & J.McKay 6 hrs 30 mins 27 secs
A number of cycling trophies won by Dave Scott are on display in the Sanquhar Tollbooth Museum
Neighbouring hills.
Sanquhar sits in Nithsdale in close proximity to ranges of interesting hills on either side, the Carsphairn and Scaur range to the west and the Lowther hills to the south east. These hills offer excellent possibilities for the outdoor enthusiast. The Southern Upland Way passes through the town on its way from Portpatrick on Scotland's west coast to Cockburnspath on the east.


Itmatinskoye mine

The Itmatinskoye mine is a large iron mine located in eastern Russia in the Far Eastern Federal District. Itmatinskoye represents one of the largest iron ore reserves in Russia and in the world having estimated reserves of 3.7 billion tonnes of ore grading 41.6% iron metal.


Sandpiper mine

The Sandpiper mine is a Namibian mine located off the coast of the harbour town of Walvis Bay. Sandpiper represents one of the largest phosphate reserves in Namibia, having estimated reserves of 1.82 billion tonnes of ore grading 19.5% P2O5. Although phosphate mining is controversial in Namibia because of its potential impact on the fishing industry, the mining license was granted in 2011.


Kiveton Park

Kiveton Park , informally Kiveton, is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, in South Yorkshire, England. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, from the Norman conquest to 1868, Kiveton was a hamlet of the parish of Harthill-with-Woodall. It subsequently transferred to the civil parish of Wales which takes its name from the neighbouring village.
Geography.
Kiveton Park is located at approximately , at an elevation of around above sea level, and is located west of Worksop, and south-east of both Sheffield, and Rotherham respectively. It lies on the B6059 road (Station Road) and is served by two railway stations: Kiveton Bridge and Kiveton Park. The Chesterfield Canal lies to the south, while the villages of Todwick and South Anston are to the north and east. Kiveton Park lays claim to being in Rotherham Borough Council, has a Sheffield postcode, a Worksop telephone code, and has the Chesterfield Canal running through it. The village has two railway stations: Kiveton Bridge railway station in the centre of the village; and Kiveton Park railway station.
History.
Kiveton gets its name from the Anglo-Saxon for "the settlement in the hollow". In the "Domesday Book" it is written "Ciuetone", and was under the ownership of William de Warenne. It subsequently transferred to the "de Keuton" family, who sold the estate to the heirs of the former Lord Mayor of London Sir William Hewett (of the neighbouring hamlet of Wales, died 1567) in 1580. One of his descendants was Thomas Osborne who became the first Duke of Leeds. He arranged the building of a stately home in the village, Kiveton Hall (also spelled Keveton, Keeton or Keton Hall), in 1698. The building was demolished by George William Frederick Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds in 1812, with local legend stating that the demolition was the result of a bet with the then Prince of Wales (subsequently George IV of the United Kingdom). After Kiveton Hall was demolished, Hornby Castle became the main seat of the Dukes of Leeds. The traditional burial place of the Dukes of Leeds was All Hallows Church, Harthill.
A Community History Project has been set up to record and encourage an understanding of the history of Kiveton Park and neighbouring Wales, particularly mining heritage. This was based in the Old Colliery Offices.
Economy.
Coal mining has traditionally been the principal industry of Kiveton, and dates back to the Middle Ages. Much of the coal is near to the surface, and as early as 1598, the area was extracting 2,000 tons a year. By the middle of the 19th century, the coal-fields were being served both by canal and by rail, and in 1866, the Kiveton Park Colliery was sunk, making it one of the earliest deep mines in the world. As a result of the new colliery, the population of Kiveton increased from 300 to 1,400 over a period of ten years.
The pit closed in 1994, resulting in the loss of 1,000 jobs. As a consequence, Kiveton is now essentially a commuter base for adjacent towns.
Kiveton contains a steelworks at the bottom of Redhill, which was damaged by fire on 27 August 2009.
All of the colliery buildings have since been demolished, including the originally protected pit-head baths (built in 1938), with the exception of the 1870s office building with its gothic clock tower, which still remains. The Kiveton Park and Wales Community Development Trust uses the office building as a base. The trust's aims are to provide services and increase development within the community sector.
Sport.
Kiveton's sporting history extends back to 1879, when Kiveton Park Colliery Cricket Club was formed. The club has been a member of the Bassetlaw and District Cricket League since its inception in 1904. The first team did compete in an ECB Premier League competition (the Nottinghamshire Premier League) for the 2011 season after winning the Bassetlaw League a year earlier, but were relegated back after one year.
In 1881, Kiveton Park Football Club was formed. The club has played in the FA Cup and FA Vase on numerous occasions. They currently play in the Sheffield County Senior League, having previously been members of the Yorkshire League, Northern Counties East League and the Central Midlands League.
The village is the birthplace of football manager Herbert Chapman, and his brother Harry, a Sheffield Wednesday player. At one time the village football club was reputed to have produced more professional footballers than any place its size in England, with the Chapman brothers, Derek Ashton (Aston Villa), Bert Morley (Notts County and England), Sidney Cartwright (Arsenal), Leslie Hoften (Manchester United), Eric Oakton (Chelsea) and Walter Wigmore (Birmingham City) all coming from the village.
Patrick Barclay, in his book about Herbert Chapman, wrote: "Kiveton Park could claim to have been a cradle of two revolutions, one industrial and the other sporting, and beyond question it is the birthplace of at least one great man, widely considered the father of football as we have come to know it. "
Radio.
Following broadcasts since 2000, on Saturday 27 March 2010 Kiveton gained its own community radio station on a 5-year licence under Redroad FM on 102.4FM. This licence was extended again by OFCOM in 2015 to 2020.


Vastan Mines

Vastan Mines are lignite and limestone mines in Gujarat state of India. They are under administration of Gujarat Industries power company limited (GIPCL)
Scientists have discovered bat fossils there


Thoothukudi violence

Thoothukudi Massacre (also known by various other names such as the Thoothukudi violence, the Thoothukudi police firing, the Sterlite protest firing and so on) denotes events that took place on 22 and 23 May 2018 in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, India. The violence took place during an ongoing protest against proposed expansion of a copper smelter plant run by Sterlite Corporation in Thoothukudi town. Police opened fire on the protesters, killed 13 people and left 102 injured. Several policemen were also injured during the protests.
On 22 May morning, the 100th day of the anti-Sterlite protests, thousands of people marched towards the Thoothukudi Collectorate, against legal prohibitory orders passed by the district administration. The agitated protesters overpowered police, started pelting stones and torched vehicles. Police opened fire killing 12 persons on 22 May, at various places in Thoothukudi Town and as the protest continued, one more person was shot dead on 23 May. In a related incident, a woman was killed when miscreants, during Anti Sterlite protests torched a bus on 25 May at Srivaikuntam. Another man died after 5 months of being in coma in October 2018, after getting injured in lathi-charge by police.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in November 2018, registered cases on several unidentified police personnel and revenue department officials of Tamil Nadu for the death of the 14 protesters, including cases of criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy. The United nations condemned the firing by the police as excessive and disproportionate.
Background.
Sterlite Copper has been facing resistance from the local fishermen's groups in the area ever since the plant was given permission to be established by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board in 1994. Sporadic protests have occurred in Thoothukudi since 1999, directed against the Sterlite Copper smelting works, the factory owned by Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources. Protesters opposed the soil, water and air contamination caused by the factory.
Pollution studies.
An epidemiological study carried out by Tirunelveli Medical College in 2006–07 found an increased prevalence of respiratory diseases and ear, nose and throat (ENT) morbidity in the 5-km radius of Sterlite Industries. The study reported the prevalence of respiratory diseases in the area at 13.9% which was far higher than the state average. The prevalence of asthmatic bronchitis is 2.8%, which more than two-times the state average of 1.29%. Myalgia (general body pain) is another extensively reported symptom and women were often found to have menstrual disorders, like menorrhagiae and dysmenorrhagiae in the area. Their report blamed it on the air pollution caused by the industry's thermal power plants and automobiles in the area. The groundwater iron content in the area of the plant has been found to be 17–20 times the allowable limit, causing additional health problems for the population already experiencing higher than average incidence of respiratory diseases. During the time of this Study at 2007, Sterlite was operating at about 18 to 42 percent, compared to its 4 Lakh Tonnes per Annum in the year 2017-2018.
The 1998 report by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), the levels of selenium, arsenic and lead in treated effluent were higher than specified standards. The team also found dead birds after they consumed the water mixed with the effluent and also reported that the industry's process of cooling the effluents can cause health hazards to the staff and residents in the local region. In another instance, the NEERI reported water samples from dugwells and borewells around the spot were found to be non-drinkable due to its high chemical content. During 1998, the industry was operating at 10% capacity, compared to that of 2018.
In a 2005 environmental audit by NEERI, the samples from a village 2-km northwest of the factory had levels of cadmium, copper, lead, chromium, and arsenic 2 to 9 times higher than allowed levels. Soil Samples were also analyzed in areas surrounding the plant during the study and arsenic levels ranged from 133 mg/kg to 287 mg/kg, where soils containing more than 50 mg/kg of arsenic are supposed to treated as a 'hazardous wastes' under the Indian Law.
In October 2010, sampling tests by an NGO, Community Environmental Monitoring, found salinity level in an open well to be of 7854 mg/litre while levels exceeding 2000 mg/litre can badly damage the crops. Another water sample from a bore-well had sulfate levels 10 times higher than the average. A soil sample from the same spot contained 335 g/kg of iron and an ingestion of just 3.5 grams by a child can be a serious case of iron poisoning.
A scientific study in 2017, found most of the ground water samples in the area are highly contaminated with heavy metals like arsenic, lead, boron etc. which were higher than the World Health Organization's prescribed limit.
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) observed that the unit has been releasing poisonous gas in the air. TNPCB identified that the sulphur dioxide levels went off the scale on the night of 23 March 2013. It showed a reading of 2939.55-mg/cubic meter against the decreed limit of 1250 mg/cubic meter.
On 9 April 2018, the TNPCB accused the Sterlite Copper of causing groundwater pollution.
Gas leaks.
On 6 July 1997, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board told the company to shut down after a sulphur dioxide gas leak which hospitalized more than 90 people.
The Sterlite Copper factory also made headlines in 2013 after a suspected sulphur dioxide gas leak from one of its smelter. The plant was blamed for health issues observed in the area related to gas leakage and residents near-by complained of coughing, wheezing, eye irritation, and miscarriages following the leak. Following the alleged gas leak in March 2013, the then chief minister, the late J. Jayalalithaa, ordered its closure. The company appealed to the National Green Tribunal, which overturned the government order. The state moved the Supreme Court against it, where the petition was still pending. The plant closed on 27 March 2018, with the company citing a 15-day maintenance process. The Supreme Court ordered the company to pay a 100-crore fine for polluting the water, air and soil around the plant and the factory was temporarily shutdown by the pollution regulator. About 150 people were arrested in protests against the plant.
In June 2019, the Tamil Nadu government reported that there were 84 incidents of gas leaks at Sterlite Copper in the year 2013 alone, to the Madras High Court.
Protests in 2018.
The wave of protests started when Sterlite's plan to increase the capacity from 400000 tonne to 800000 tonnes per year. In corporate statements, Sterlite has said it would make the plant "one of the world's largest single-location copper smelting complexes". Residents started calling for an indefinite dharna and hunger strike on 12 February and over 250 people started an indefinite hunger strike. Over 500 people, including many women and schoolchildren, blocked the company gates until they were rounded up and arrested on 14 February 2018.Since then protests have been ongoing, day and night.
On 24 March of thousands of protesters gathered in Thoothukudi town to demand closure of the plant, which was supported by the traders of the town by shutting down the shops. Media reports suggests that this was comparable to the 2017 pro-jallikattu protests and Thoothukudi protest has shaken the state. The Sterlite management responded by stating that they have got necessary permission for expansion of the plant. Actor turned politician Kamal Haasan visited Kumarareddiapuram village in support of the protest on 1 April. Meanwhile the plant was shut for 15 days for taking up maintenance works on 29 March. The protesters claimed that the company went on to expand despite the rejection by the government. The protests were joined by traders of Thoothukudi city central trade association on the same day following calls for a bandh by coordinator of the protest M Krishnamoorthi. It is also reported that section of the traders and lorry owners association did not participate in the 24 March protest. According to media reports police sources confirmed the company's allegation that 'external forces' instigating agitations. One of the company representative D. Dhanavel rubbished the agitation as "false propaganda" and said the smelting plant maintained "very low" emission level. Vaiko has sought an injunction against the functioning and extension of the copper smelting plant, in the Madurai Bench of High Court of Madras. A division bench of he the Court sought a counter be filed for the existing unit and posted the case for further hearing on 7 June.
Meanwhile, Sterlite moved the Madras High Court for passing prohibitory orders under IPC section 144, as it feared the protest to be organised on 22 May may turn violent. The petitioner alleged that there was a plan to unleash violence and even "burn down the factory", and said the regulatory order banning assembly of four or more persons could prevent such incidents.
By 11 May, various organizations protesting against the plant had joined together and formed Thoothukudi District Anti-Sterlite Forum and planned to mark the 100th day of the ongoing round of protest.
The original plan of the protestors was to storm the Collectorate, district administration called 23 people belonging to the trader associations and anti-sterlite activists from the protesters including the environmental activist Fatima Babu on 20 May for a peace meeting. The members agreed to shift the venue after pressure from the government, from the Collector's Office to SAV ground and to convert the protest as ‘attention seeking protest’. Fatima was soon expelled by the protesting group after she agreed to the shift. The members present in the meeting said they agreed, but the activists pointed out that it was impossible to communicate this shift of venue to people inside the district and out of the district, as there already had been an aggressive campaign for the protest notifying its venue as Collectorate.
Two groups of people protested separately on 22 May. One of them was protesting an attention-seeking protest at SAV ground and the other was marching towards the Collector's office. Soon both the groups joined together and marched toward the Collector's office. Police resorted to lathi charge and fired tear gas shells at the crowd after disagreeing with the protesters who wanted to stage a sit-in. There were about 2000 police personnel and a crowd of over 20,000 protesters. The district administration played down the intelligence reports of mass mobilization of over 18,000 people in the district, assuming that expulsion of Fatima and imposition of Section 144 would de-escalate the protest.
An employee of the Sterlite Copper claimed the involvement of groups like Makkal Athikaram and Foil Vedanta in the protests.
Rally and Police firing on 22 May.
On 22 May morning the people from coastal area started marching to the collector's office from the Our Lady of Snows church around 10 am. Police tried to stop the crowd at the church, but the crowd were determined to march. Media persons were beaten up by the crowd and one of them got a hand fractured. Camera of one press photographers was damaged. In spite of picketing on the way, crowd swelled as the march progressed. Meanwhile, police had barricaded roads near the villages close to Sterlite, and as a result, a majority of the original protestors — villagers from Kumareddiyapuram and its neighbouring areas — could not reach the protest site at all. An argument started between the police and the protesters in front of the first barricade after some protesters asked them why they were siding with the Sterlite, the police started to lathi Charge against the people after seeing that they were uncompromising.
Another section of protesters,joined the attention seeking protest at the SAV ground, but later joined the rally for besieging the collector's office by seeing the larger crowd in it. At VVD Traffic signal, a four-road junction in the Tamil Salai, about 6 km from the Collectors office,police stopped them with barricades. The crowd was about 5000-10000 as per various sources. The police started lathi charging, but the crowd proceeded to Collectors office. Several protesters said that the police let loose two huge bulls at the protesters in an attempt to disperse the protesters. The crowd pelted stones and hurled footwears at the police who were wearing protective gears. One police van was pushed down, when the police retreated. Police tried another attempt to stop the crowd near Third Mile bridge on the Palayamkottai Road and tear gas was used to quell the rioting mob, which continued to regroup. An explosive substance was thrown at the police. The mob torched two police vehicles near P&T Colony and torched few bikes stationed beneath the bridge connecting Thoothukudi-Madurai national highways.
By the time the mob reached the Collector's office, the size was about 20,000. The mob continued entering to Collector Office Campus despite attempts of Police to stop them.
The police started shooting against the protesters, "without any formal warning" after tear gas and lathi charge proved ineffective.
The police started shooting at the protesters and were also accused of shooting without any formal warning. Police were also reported of intentionally shooting at the heads of the protesters. 13 protesters were killed including a 17-year old school student, and dozens were injured. Another man injured in lathi-charge by the police passed away in October 2018, after being in coma for five months. Thus, taking total death toll increased to 14.
FIRs filed in local police stations, claimed that the order to shoot was issued by officers in the rank of deputy Tehsildars and people pointed out that only collectors have the authority to issue shooting orders.
The Tamil Nadu government ordered a shutdown of Internet in the entire districts of Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari for five days after the firing.
Investigations.
Autopsy results.
The Autopsy results revealed that 12 of the 13 members killed during the protests got hit by bullets in their head or chest while half of the those died got were shot from behind. In the case of a young girl, the bullet entered through the back of her head and exited through her mouth. While the police rules allowed them to use live bullets to stop protests, the gun should be aimed below the waist level and policemen should not shoot to kill. A video shot from the proximity of the policemen during the protests shows a policeman aiming at protesters from atop of a van with a gun and a voice in the background can be heard saying, "At least one must die."
Central Bureau of Investigation.
In November 2018, the CBI filed cases against police personnel and revenue department officials in Tamil Nadu for the death of the thirteen people killed during the protests. The CBI charged the accused with criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy and disobeying law with the intention to cause injury to people. This comes after the several environmental activists questioned the National Green Tribunal's appointed panel which said that the state government's action to close the plant after protests was illegal.
Government response.
On 28 May 2018, the Sterlite factory was sealed after an order given by the Tamil Nadu Environmental pollution and Forests Department. The next day, State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) announced that it would take back 342.22 acres of land that it had given for expansion of the facility. Many political leaders including M.K.Stalin, Seeman and Anbumani Ramadoss criticized the sealing order, saying that it would not stand up to legal scrutiny since the government had given no reason for shutting down the factory.
Controversy.
Disappearance of S. Mugilan.
On 15 February 2019, Shanmugam Thangasamy, an environmental activist better known as S. Mugilan, held a press conference in Chennai where he claimed that the senior Police officials in Tamil Nadu conspired with the officials of the Sterlite copper to carry out the gun shooting which killed 13 people, during the meeting he also voiced his fear that "his life is in danger" after releasing the video evidence. Separately, in a press release, he accused the police of burning vehicles and vilifying anti-Sterlite protesters. He also went missing on the same day in a train while travelling from Chennai to Madurai. A week ago, he released the video titled ‘"Sterlite: Hidden Truth"’ where he accused two senior police officers and the Officials of the Sterlite for plotting the attacks. The two police officers he named were transferred out of the area by June 2018. The "Amnesty International India" reported that Mugilan had a history of fighting against sand mining mafias and polluting factories. After 100 days after his disappearance his wife alleged of constant harassment by the CB-CID. In July 2019, Mugilan was found after missing for 5 months in a railway station at Tirupathi where he was arrested by the police and handed over to the CB-CID.
On 2 March, a demonstration was held in Chennai, demanding that an activist be found urgently, by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the Communist Party of India.
On 12 November 2019, Mugilan was brought for a one man commission for questioning regarding the Thoothukudi incident. He said that he was kidnapped from the railway station and the abductors threatened him to stop working against the sterlite and showed him a newspaper clipping which mention his wife and son had died in a road accident. He claimed they also threatened to embarrass him in public, injected him with drugs to keep him unconscious and left him in a village in Jharkhand where a nomadic group helped him recover and he wandered with the nomads for 2 months devastated with the fake news about his family before reaching Tirupathi. He also claimed he was not allowed to speak his claims before the Judicial Magistrate in Karur. The Madras High court dismissed his affidavit as a fabricated story. He also demanded the commission to investigate Rahul Gandhi for linking the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with the firing incident.
Aftermath.
On 28 October 2018, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board reported that the sulphur-dioxide levels in the air had reduced significantly after the Sterlite plant's closure.
In November 2019, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board reported that the ambient air quality had improved dramatically after the closure of the plant.
On 27 April 2021, the Supreme Court of India allowed Vedanta Limited to operate its oxygen production unit at its Sterlite Copper premises in Thoothukudi in order to meet the national demand for oxygen for the Covid-19 affected patients. The order will hold ground till 31 July 2021.


Ankaizina mine

The Ankaizina mine is a large mine in the southern part of Madagascar in Atsimo-Atsinanana. Ankaizina is one of the largest bauxite reserves in Madagascar or all of Asia, having estimated reserves of grading 40.7% aluminium oxide.


Charles Steen

Charles Augustus Steen (December 1, 1919 – January 1, 2006) was a geologist who made and lost a fortune after discovering a rich uranium deposit in Utah during the uranium boom of the early 1950s.
Early years.
Charlie Steen was born in 1919 in Caddo, Stephens County, Texas, the son of Charles A. and Rosalie Wilson Steen, and attended high school in Houston. As a teen Steen worked summers for a construction company that helped finance his education, this is the same company that his first stepfather Lisle had died working at. He went on to study at John Tarleton Agricultural College in Stephenville, Texas where he met his wife Minnie Lee Holland, and in 1940 transferred to the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy (now the University of Texas at El Paso), receiving a B.A. degree in geology in 1943.
Ineligible for the draft because of his poor eyesight, Steen spent World War II working as a petroleum geologist in the Amazon Basin of Bolivia and Peru. Returning to Texas in 1945, he married Minnie Lee ("M.L."). He started graduate school at the University of Chicago but after a year returned to Houston to take a job doing field work for the Standard Oil Company of Indiana. However, within two years he had been fired for insubordination and had trouble getting any job as a geologist anywhere in the oil industry.
The uranium boom.
While unemployed, Steen read in the December 1949 issue of "The Engineering and Mining Journal" that the United States federal government had issued incentives for domestic uranium prospectors. Under the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission had the authority to withdraw lands from the private sector in order to examine them as possible sites for uranium mining. During World War II, the Manhattan Project had received most of its uranium from foreign sources in Canada and the Belgian Congo. However, it had also received some from vanadium miners in the American Southwest, where uranium was often a by-product of mining (before the atomic bomb uranium was not a valuable metal). There was a concern that the United States would not have enough domestic supply of uranium for its nuclear weapons program.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s the Atomic Energy Commission established itself as the only legal buyer of uranium in the U.S. and artificially manipulated prices to reflect their current uranium needs. By raising the price of uranium, they created an incentive for prospectors in the Four Corners region.
Despite the fact that his three sons, Johnny, Andy and Charles Jr. were all less than four years old and his wife was expecting another child, Steen borrowed $1,000 from his mother and headed for the Colorado Plateau, determined to strike it rich. After being in Colorado for several months the Steens moved into a tarpaper shack in Cisco, Utah. Steen and his family were struggling to get by and were often hungry so Charlie made the decision to move his family to Tucson, Arizona. Steen worked as a carpenter in Tucson for about a year before he returned to his claims in Utah. He and his family once again packed up and headed to their claims. This final trip back to Utah would be the most detrimental for the family because M.L. Steen's wife contracted pneumonia, and her medical bills consumed the $350 remaining from the sale of Steen's trailer.
Steen could not afford the standard radiation-detecting equipment used by uranium prospectors - the Geiger counter. Instead, he used a secondhand diamond drill rig and his geologic training for his prospecting. At the time, each prospector had his own idiosyncratic theory about where to find uranium. The uranium industry was composed primarily of individual prospectors and geologists who would attempt to find a large deposit and either mine it for themselves or mine it for a large company (such as Union Carbide) who would transport the ore from the mine to the uranium mill where it could be converted into yellowcake. Steen's theory on uranium deposits was that they would collect in anticlinal structures in the same manner as oil, which others on the Plateau dismissed as "Steen's Folly".
Mi Vida uranium deposit.
On July 6, 1952, Steen hit it big but he didn't realize until three weeks later. He was drilling down through the layers of sandstone when his drill bit broke off at a depth of 197 feet, just 3 feet short of his goal. Finding this massive deposit of uranium ore only became apparent when he took a piece of the blackish core he found while drilling weeks earlier back to Cisco. He stopped to fill up his jeep and decided to have the core tested by a friend with a Geiger counter and they found that the piece made the Geiger counter needle fluctuate wildly. The high grade uranium deposit was located at Big Indian Wash of Lisbon Valley, southeast of Moab, Utah (). Sometimes recognized as one of the most important deposits of any kind found during the last century, Steen named the claim the "Mi Vida" mine (My Life). The Mi Vida mine was one of the first big strikes of the uranium boom. Steen made millions off his claims, and provoked a "Uranium Rush" of prospectors into the Four Corners region, similar to the Gold Rush of the 1850s in California.
In Moab, Steen built a $250,000 hilltop mansion to replace his tarpaper shack, with a swimming pool, greenhouse, and servants' quarters. The home he built still stands today and has been transformed into a restaurant called The Sunset Grill named so because the house looks over the valley towards the sunset in the west. He also formed a number of companies to continue his uranium work, including the Utex Exploration Company, the Moab Drilling Company, the Mi Vida Company, Big Indian Mines, Inc., and later the Uranium Reduction Company. He made his money well known, inviting the entire population of Moab to annual parties in a local airport hangar, having his original worn prospecting boots bronzed, and flying to Salt Lake City in his private plane for weekly rumba lessons. He donated $50,000 towards a new hospital in Moab and gave land for churches and schools.
Political involvement.
Steen was elected to the Utah State Senate in 1958, but quickly became disillusioned with politics. He resigned from office in 1961 and moved to a ranch near Reno, Nevada, building a 27,000 square foot (2,500 m2) mansion near the residence of the Comstock millionaire miner, Sandy Bowers. He sold the Utex Exploration Company and the Uranium Reduction Company in 1962.
After the uranium rush.
By the late 1950s, the US government had enough uranium for its needs and had stopped supporting high prices of the ore, killing the market by 1960. Steen attempted to diversify his interests by investing in Arabian horse breeding, a marble quarry, an airplane factory, a pickle plant, and real estate. He met with financial losses and misfortune. In 1968 he filed for bankruptcy after the Internal Revenue Service seized his assets to pay back taxes. In 1971 he suffered a severe head injury working on a copper prospect.
Death.
Long suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Steen died on January 1, 2006, in Loveland, Colorado. Minnie Lee died on July 14, 1997. Their ashes were scattered at the Mi Vida mine site.
Legacy.
Steen's legacy lives on through his four sons who were once the recipients of a $130 million fortune that their father lost after the decline of the uranium market in the late 1950s. Although Steen lost most of his fortune after the uranium crash due to poor money management and frivolous spending, he is still recognized for his Cold War contributions for supplying the United States with all of the uranium it needed for its weapons program. His story about finding the Mi Vida mine inspired two films and several books along with getting the small desert town of Moab, Utah on the map as "The Uranium Capital of the World" and the "Richest Town in America". After Steen struck it rich he requested that congress allow him to build his own mill without government funding, resulting in the only major atomic facility to be privately funded. That mill at the entrance of Moab just off Route 191 and next to the Colorado River and is all that stands to remind people that the now "Mountain Biking Capital of the World" was founded on the opposite end of the spectrum with uranium mining that had lasting effects on the environment.
On November 4, 2016, a historical marker commemorating the Lisbon Valley's uranium heritage and noting Charlie Steen's discovery was dedicated on the Anticline Overlook road off U.S. 191. The marker was funded entirely by private donations. Artist Michael Ford Dunton created an arch to frame the historical marker and the view to the location of the Mi Vida mine, seven miles to the east of the marker.


Blue Heron, Kentucky

Blue Heron, also known as Mine 18, is a former coal mining community or coal town on the banks of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in McCreary County, Kentucky, United States, that has been recreated and is maintained as an interpretive history area in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
Blue Heron was operated as a company town of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company. Its coal mines opened in 1937 and operated until December 1962, when the underground mines closed down for lack of profitability. The town was abandoned, and its buildings were either removed or decayed. The community was "re-created" in the 1980s as an outdoor museum. Some of the original structures have been replicated as open, metal shells of buildings, referred to as "ghost structures," on the approximate sites of the original buildings. Structures include a railroad depot, a full-scale model of the coal tipple, a school, and homes. Photographic exhibits and audio programs in the ghost structures tell about various aspects of life in the isolated mining community.


Johnnie, Nevada

Johnnie is a populated place in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada about 15 miles north of Pahrump.
History.
The Johnnie Mine, located about 4 miles northeast of Johnnie, was established in 1890 when a group of five prospectors were exploring the area in search of the Lost Breyfogle mine. The Johnnie Mine produced between $382,681 and over a million dollars by 1913. Outcrops of gold were discovered in the nearby Spring Mountains, and the discovery led to a rush of miners to the area. The community was named after Indian Johnnie, an acquaintance of early prospectors. By May 1891, a hundred people were in the camp. Houses, stores and saloons were built. One source states that a post office was established later that year. Another source states that the post office was named Johny Post Office from June 1898 until April 1899.
Availability of water was a problem for the bustling camp. Water was retrieved from a spring four miles away, packed in canvas bags and hauled back to town by donkeys. The camp started to decline after 1893. The settlement revived in 1898 when new investors bought the two largest mines in the district, the Johnnie and the Congress mines. After 1904, Johnnie was swept up in the rush to the area near Goldfield and Bullfrog. A post office was reopened in May 1905 and a new town site was established closer to the mines. In 1907, the town had a population of 300. The Johnnie Mine and mill continued production until 1914. The Johnnie Post Office closed in December 1914, reopening in April 1916 and closing again in November 1935. Placer gold was found in gulches every few years and the area was worked off and on for the next thirty years. The Johnny settlement had less than 10 people by the late 1930s. The Johnnie Post Office was closed in 1935. The Johnnie Mine Post Office operated from September 1937 until June 1942.
In 2014, ownership of the abandoned April Fool, Johnnie, Teddys and the Teddys Terror were transferred to the Pahrump Valley Museum and Historical Society.


Felin Fawr Slate Works

Felin Fawr Works is a former slate works to Penrhyn Quarry Railway in Bethesda, Wales. It dates back to 1803; This is when the first mill was supposedly built. Felin Fawr closed in September 1965 with its current owners being Felin Fawr Cyf. Most of the buildings, if not all of them, are listed.
History.
Felin Fawr's earliest building dates back to 1803 with the Penrhyn Tramway incorporating from the Llandegai Tramway. which started in 1798 & opening in 1801. The first building was the Western Slab Mill. Later buildings were added that included the Second Slab Mill opening in c.1830, a foundry, engineering facilities, a quarry railway and several slate mills. There are several other buildings on the site.
Present Day.
In the present day Felin Fawr is currently owned by Felin Fawr Cyf with most of the buildings being rented out to a diverse range of local companies.
Layout.
The site has a number of buildings as shown above. There was also a lot of train track laid out around the site. Felin Fawr Cyf has restored a fraction of this track.


Gorebridge

Gorebridge is a former mining village in Midlothian, Scotland.
Gorebridge has an annual Gala Day which always takes place on the 3rd Saturday in June. This is much like a town fair, with rides and games. The gala day has a tradition of picking a Town King and Queen from the primary schools.
Gorebridge has four primary schools, Gorebridge Primary, Stobhill Primary, St Andrews RC Primary and Gore Glen Primary. Greenhall High school used to serve the town but closed down in 1994. Local children attend nearby Newbattle Community High School, St David's RC High School or Lasswade High School. There is a leisure centre, library and Vogrie Country Park in Gorebridge.
Gorebridge's local football team is Arniston Rangers who were founded in 1878 and play home games at Newbyres Park in the .
Annette Crosbie, known to many as the long suffering wife of Victor Meldrew, played by fellow Scot Richard Wilson in the BBC comedy series "One Foot in the Grave", is a former resident of Gorebridge. The Reverend David Arnott, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for 2011–12, was minister at Gorebridge Parish Church in the 1970s.
On 6 September 2015 Gorebridge saw the return of the Waverley Line with a new station built on the site of the original station. This gives rail access to the Borders and Edinburgh Waverley railway station.
In the Gore Glen there is a shallow cave, named "The King's Cave". According to legend a thief used to steal cattle and hide in this nearby cave. It is not, as some think, named after Robert the Bruce, who was said to have hidden here after defeat at the hands of the English. There are 29 listed buildings in Gorebridge including one Category B building (Harvieston Lodge), and two Category C buildings (Gorebridge old station and the Post Office).
On 30th August 2020, police broke up a party of 300 people at the Mansion house of Kirkhill in Gorebridge and issued a fine to the organiser. Scottish Government rules during the coronavirus pandemic at the time were for a maximum of eight people from three households to meet inside at one time.
History.
The village got its name from the bridge across the River Gore, a tributary of the South Esk. It was the home of Stobsmill, Scotland's first gunpowder mill, at the Gore Water, that started operating in 1794 and closed in 1875. In the 1860s century a coal mine called Emily Pit was opened, the village grew as miners came and a railway was built to take the coal from the mine. The Emily Pit and Gore Pit (another coal mine) were together renamed the Arniston Colliery which closed in 1962. The railway line was closed in 1969 and reopened in 2015.


Chuitna Coal Project

The Chuitna Coal Project is a proposed coal strip mine that, if granted state and federal permits, would be built about southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, in an area known as the Beluga Coal Fields near the Chuitna River and the small communities of Tyonek and Beluga in upper Cook Inlet.
Proposal.
The Chuitna Coal Project is a proposal of PacRim LP, a Delaware-based corporation owned by the Texas-based energy company Petro-Hunt LLC. PacRim holds a state lease to of Alaska Mental Health Trust property where an estimated 1 billion metric tons of low-sulfur, sub-bituminous coal is thought to exist. Proven reserves are reported to be 771 million tons. The company is in the advanced stages of state and federal mine-permitting processes. PacRim has surveyed three Logical Mining Units, or LMUs, within its lease. If permitted, the company has said it plans to extract up to 12 million metric tons of coal from the first of these units over a minimum period of 25 years. Other LMUs, could be developed in future years.
The surface coalmine itself could eventually spread to cover , but the project also would include assorted support facilities, a mine road and a long, covered conveyor system to transport coal to Cook Inlet at Ladd Landing where a port facility would be built. Ladd Landing is property owned by the Kenai Peninsula Borough and subject to a lease-option held by PacRim. A letter of intent to exercise the Ladd Landing option was filed by PacRim in March, 2009. For more, see Lease-Option History section below.
Only about 10 percent of Alaska's electricity is generated by coal, all of which is produced by the Usibelli Coal Mine, near Healy, Alaska. That operation supplies six Interior Alaska power plants and ships its surplus overseas. Currently, Alaska's coal-fired generating capacity has no need for the coal that would be produced at Chuitna. Thus, coal extracted from the Chuitna project would most likely be shipped to Asian markets, including South Korea, Japan and Mainland China, with other possible markets being Mexico and Chile.
Interest in exploiting the resources in the Beluga Coal Fields has waxed and waned over the decades since the late 1960s, with the lease passing through a succession of corporate hands. The proposed Chuitna Coal Project has both proponents and opponents and is becoming increasingly controversial in the Cook Inlet region.
Geography.
The proposed Chuitna Coal Project mine site is located within PacRim's lease area designated as follows: Sec 14, 15, 21-28 and 33-36, T13N, R12W, Seward Meridian.
Land ownership.
Land within and around PacRim's lease area is owned by a variety of entities, including the State of Alaska, the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, the Kenai Peninsula Borough, the Tyonek Native Corp., Cook Inlet Region, Inc. (CIRI), and private owners. The state of Alaska owns about (including mental health lands), and coal leases have been issued on some , including the leased to PacRim. Two state wildlife refuges are near the project zone. They are the Susitna Flats Wildlife Refuge to the northeast, and the Trading Bay Wildlife Refuge to the southwest. According to the state, neither would be affected by the mining project. Tyonek Native Corp. owns more than to the southeast. CIRI owns a scattering of properties around the mine site. The Kenai Peninsula Borough owns south of the mine lease boundary and a small area of land around Beluga and Ladd Landing. Private land is mostly along the Cook Inlet coastline in Beluga, Tyonek, as well as at North Forelands and south of Granite Point, which are coastal locations south of Tyonek.
Lease-option history.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough-PacRim Ladd Landing lease-option document shows that in 1987, the borough entered a lease-option agreement with Tidewater Services Corp, which merged with Midgard Energy Co., in 1994. That year, Midgard assigned its option to Richard Bass, William Herbert Hunt, and William Herbert Hunt Trust Estate. The option was extended multiple times through years while coal mining in the state lease area remained financially impractical. Early in 2008, Bass, Hunt and the Hunt Trust Estate assigned the Ladd Landing option to PacRim Coal LP. In March 2009, PacRim signed a letter of intent to exercise its Ladd Landing option. As of April 2009, the Kenai Peninsula Borough's Land Management Office had begun the process of bringing that lease to closing under the existing 1987 terms, a process that had to be completed within 180 days. According to borough officials, the two sides will renegotiate terms they have mutually agreed are outdated and in need of revision.
Access.
No roads connect the project area to Alaska's highway system. The areas is accessible only by sea and air. Airstrips exist at Beluga and Tyonek. PacRim proposes to build a third airstrip in the project area. ConocoPhillips has a private strip south of the Beluga Power Plant. Gravel roads connect Tyonek and Beluga, and there are remnants of old roads used for logging, oil, gas and coal exploration efforts. Barge landing areas exist at Ladd Landing, Tyonek and Granite Point, and are used to supply local residents.
Risks and rewards of development.
Extracting coal from the Beluga Coal Fields is an idea decades old, but several factors have so far discouraged construction, including the costs associated with developing a mine, the market price of coal, the lack of demand for coal in Alaska, among others. In recent years, opposition to mining the fields has grown, specifically with respect to PacRim's Chuitna Coal Project, the project most advanced in state and federal permitting processes. Many Alaskans, including fisheries biologists, are voicing opposition because of the mine's proposed location amid environmentally important wetlands and because of the nature of coal itself. Critics charge that development would devastate more than of critical wildlife habitat and destroy of salmon spawning streams. There is no precedent in Alaska for permitting mining in active salmon streams, and no guarantee that post-mine mitigation would restore the ecosystems. Chuitna would be the first if permits were granted. Regarding coal itself, the U.S. has about a quarter of the world's reserves; it has been called the Saudi Arabia of coal. U.S. coal-fired power plants generate roughly half the nation's electricity, according to the United States Department of Energy. But coal is problematic. It is dirtiest of fossil fuels, and burning it produces a third of the nation's carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.
Because of PacRim's proposal, the non-profit organization American Rivers named the Chuitna one of America's 10 "Most Endangered Rivers" in 2007 and again in 2015.
Chuitna's developers predict mine construction and operation will produce between 300 and 350 good-paying jobs, and royalties to the state upwards of $350 million over the 25-year lifespan of the first Logical Mining Unit project. PacRim also expects numerous service contracts with the local business community. PacRim will develop Ladd Landing as a port (see above) for loading large vessels that would transport the coal to Asian markets. That port could be important for the future development of public and private property on the west side of Cook Inlet. The 300 million tons PacRim expects to excavate from its Chuitna mine is thought to equal two-thirds of the total recoverable coal in the Beluga Coal Fields. Some estimates put the total at around 500 million tons. If the transport infrastructure to Cook Inlet is built, it is likely that, over time, coal mining in the region would expand.
Environmental issues of the mining phase.
2006 revisions to PacRim's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) filing with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows the company expects to discharge more than of mine area runoff daily into salmon-bearing tributaries of the Chuitna River, including Creek 2002 (Lone Creek), Creek 2003 (Middle Creek) and Creek 2004. That effluent would reach Cook Inlet. The NPDES documents demonstrate that PacRim anticipates a variety of discharge pollutants, including organic carbon, assorted suspended solids, ammonia, nitrates, oil and grease, and metals including aluminum, iron, and manganese. In addition, housing and other operational facilities would be expected to discharge small amounts of fecal coliform and residual chlorine. According to the NPDES filing, PacRim would build four sedimentation ponds to remove some suspended solids. Three ponds would receive runoff from areas affected by mining operations, the fourth would receive runoff from mine facilities. Four outfall locations would discharge effluent to the fresh water creeks, waterbodies that support all five species of Pacific salmon, as well as Dolly Varden and trout.
PacRim's mining project would carve through more than of Middle Creek. To date, no permit allowing mining operations to mine through and destroy a salmon stream has ever been issued by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Such a permit would be precedent-setting. Alaska has strict laws governing the protection of natural systems such as salmon streams. A clean, clear-water environment is crucial for successful natural salmon rearing. How those laws might be applied during the permitting process remains to be seen.
PacRim's planned port at Ladd Landing would affect existing shoreline salmon set net fishing sites and the coal-loading trestle necessary to reach deep water would affect fish migration zones and the habitat of an endangered species of beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas also known as white whale) that is distinct to Cook Inlet. Under provisions of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service placed the Cook Inlet species on the nation's Endangered Species list. What effect that may have on permitting PacRim's port facilities has yet to be determined.
Post-mining environmental concerns.
Repairing the damage surface strip mining leaves behind is costly and a considerable physical enterprise. A specific federal law governs such recovery phases, and would apply to a Chuitna Coal Project. It is called the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. The act created the Office of Surface Mining within the U.S. Department of the Interior. State programs - in Alaska's case, the Alaska Division of Mining, Land & Water - generally regulate mines, but among the OSM's jobs is inspecting state programs to ensure they are meeting federal requirements.


Dwight I. Douglass

Dwight Ireneus Douglass (1884–1940) was an American mining engineer and short story writer who was one of four founders of Phi Kappa Tau fraternity in 1906.
Douglass was the son of a prominent Colfax, Illinois physician, David T. Douglass. He graduated from Colfax High School and attended college for two years at Ohio Wesleyan University, transferring to Miami University in 1904. He played football at Miami and became associated with a group of independent students who formed the Non-Fraternity Association which would evolve into Phi Kappa Tau.
Douglass maintained close ties with the organization he helped found until he entered World War I where he served as a sergeant with the 27th Engineer Battalion in heavy fighting where he was gassed. He returned the United States from France and attempted to take up farming in southern Illinois. About 1920, he disappeared and his family did not hear from again until sometime in the 1930s. In the meantime, he had married in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and later moved to Hammond, Louisiana where he died and was buried in 1940, having worked for the Veterans Administration and written short stories under a secret pen name.


Dalnyaya diamond mine

The Dalnyaya mine is one of the largest diamond mines in Russia and in the world. The mine is located in the Sakha Republic. The mine has estimated reserves of 10.2 million carats of diamonds and an annual production capacity of 0.5 million carats.


Ulaan Tolgoi mine

The Ulaan Tolgoi mine is a large niobium mine located in central Mongolia. Ulaan Tolgoi represents one of the largest niobium reserves in Mongolia having estimated reserves of 200 million tonnes of ore grading 0.06% niobium.


T. Glynne Davies

Thomas Glynne Davies (12 January 1926 – April 1988), usually known as T. Glynne Davies, was a Welsh poet, novelist and television and radio broadcaster. Davies was born at 64 Denbigh Street, in Llanrwst, Denbighshire, Wales.
Literary achievements.
Davies was crowned as a bardd in the 1951 National Eisteddfod in Llanrwst for composing the winning poem "Adfeilion" ("Ruins").
His other literary output includes the elegy "Hedydd yn yr Haul" ("Skylark in the sun") (1969) and the epic novel "Marged" (1974).
Work and legacy.
During the Second World War Davies worked at a colliery in Oakdale near Caerphilly, as a Bevin Boy.
Davies worked as a news reporter for BBC Radio from 1957 and presented the popular Welsh language radio programme "Bore Da" ("Good morning") from 1970 to 1976.
In 2011 Welsh television channel S4C announced the "T.Glynne Davies Scholarship" for the year 2011-12.
Personal life.
T Glynne Davies had four sons, including the composer and broadcaster Gareth Glyn and Geraint Glynne Davies who is a member of the Welsh folk group Ar Log. Geraint is also the founder of Geraint Davies Hearing.
Aled Glynne was the Editor of BBC Radio Cymru before launching Goriad independent production company
Owen Glynne Davies is a leading puppeteer in the Welsh language and stars in the DVD series "Fflic a Fflac", who has also worked with Vagabondi puppets, Living Daylights, as well as his own company Cwmni Cortyn.
T Glynne Davies died in Cardiff in 1988.


Colquiri mine

The Colquiri mine is an underground tin-zinc mine located in the western part of Bolivia in La Paz Department. Colquiri is the smaller of two tin mines owned by the state mining company, Comibol, the other being the Huanuni tin mine near Oruro.


Kaunisvaara

Kaunisvaara is a village in northern Sweden, in Pajala Municipality, 100 km north of the Arctic Circle.
Mining.
There are large magnetite (iron ore) deposits in this area; Northland Resources began constructing the first mine in December 2011. Ore production was expected to begin in 2012, with annual iron ore production reaching 12 million tonnes by 2014. Reserves are estimated at 176 million tonnes. The mine went bankrupt in October 2014 because of low iron ore prices and high debts.
History.
In 2009, archaeologists commissioned by Northland Resources found evidence of stone-age settlements, dated to 9300BCE, in the area; this has shed new light on the timeline of deglaciation and human settlement in northern Europe.


Caijiaying mine

The Caijiaying mine is one of the largest lead and zinc mines in China. The mine is located in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province. The mine has reserves amounting to 33.8 million tonnes of ore grading 2.73% lead and 4.26% zinc thus resulting 0.92 million tonnes of lead and 1.44 million tonnes of zinc.


Mwetaung mine

The Gullu Mual (Mwetaung) is a large mine in the east of Burma in the Chin State. Gullu Mual (Mwetaung) represents one of the largest nickel reserve in Tedim Township having estimated reserves of 36.1 million tonnes of ore grading 1.48% nickel. The 36.1 million tonnes of ore contains 0.53 million tonnes of nickel metal.


Tsaidam Lake coal mine

The Tsaidam Lake Coal Mine (, "swampy lake") is a coal mine being developed in the Bayan sum of Töv aimag in central Mongolia.
The mine has coal reserves amounting to 6.8 billion tonnes of brown coal.