Clearwell Caves

Clearwell Caves, at Clearwell in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, is a natural cave system which has been extensively mined for iron ore. It now operates primarily as a mining museum.
The caves are part of a Natural England designated Site of Special Scientific Interest and the notification includes parts of Clearwell along with Old Bow, Lambsquay and Old Ham mine complexes.
Mining.
Clearwell Caves are a collection of six mines: Clearwell, Old Ham, Lambsquay, Old Bow, Oak Pit and New Dun, covering approximately 250 acres. The interconnected cave systems were formed by underground streams from around 180 million years ago. They have been mined originally for ochre, then for iron ore from Iron Age times Circa 100BC increasing from Roman times and extensively during the 19th century, which considerably enlarged and extended the network of natural caverns.
Ochre has been mined here for even longer.
The nearby scowles at the Secret Forest and Puzzlewood represent shallow surface mines which have been exposed from above and later became entrances to these deeper mines.
Clearwell Caves are still worked intermittently to produce coloured ochres for use by artists as natural pigments. These are washed and milled for sale in the mine's ochre workshop. A range of ochre colours are available from the mine shop, from golden yellow to English Reds. Clearwell is also known as one of the few locations where rare natural purple ochre, particularly caput mortuum is found.
Well lit chambers have been made easily accessible to visitors, with displays throughout. There is a small museum, shop and café. A network of much deeper workings can be visited in the presence of an experienced guide and with appropriate caving equipment for safety. The upper caves are open to the general visitor.
Recreational use.
Parts of the caves were originally opened to the public by Ray Wright (1930-2015) from 1968 and are now managed by his son Jonathan Wright, who is a Freeminer, still producing ochre from the workings. The caves have been used as a Santa's Grotto at Christmas time for many years, for easter egg hunts and in the summer barbecues, concerts and theatrical performances. One chamber is large enough to permit underground functions, including an annual Halloween Party hosting over 300 people. Parts of the "Doctor Who" episodes "The Christmas Invasion" (2005), "The Satan Pit" (2006) and "Time of Angels" / "Flesh and Stone" (2010) were filmed in the caves.
All the underground scenes of the BBC series "Merlin", were filmed in the Caves. The caves have also long been used for filming science fiction scenes, such as in "Blake's 7". The caves featured substantially in the children's series "The Changes", "The Jensen Code" and "Kidnapped" among many others. More recently the caves have been featured in episodes of "Britannia, Cursed and His Dark Materials".
Reported paranormal activity.
Claims of paranormal phenomena at the caves have been made over the years. These include reported sightings reports of the sound of metal clanging in the distance and many reported sightings of an old miner and the sound of footsteps and pick axes working.
In popular culture.
The caves were used as the interior for the Sycorax spaceship in the "Doctor Who" Christmas special, "The Christmas Invasion" in 2005.
See also.
Old Bow And Old Ham Mines


Itogon

', officially the ', (; ), is a in the province of , . According to the , it has a population of people.
The largest municipality in Benguet by land area, Itogon is a mining town, being the site of the first large-scale mining operations in the country.
Itogon is also the site of Binga Dam. managed and operated by the SN Aboitiz Power - Benguet, Inc.
History.
Spanish period.
During the Spanish Regime, a native of the historic pueblo of "Itogon" (or "Itokhon"), named "Codeng", was appointed by the Spanish authorities as "capitan" of another nearby village, "Balingway" (currently "Itogon Central/Proper"). Balingway was later established as a town site and renamed after "Codeng"'s native place.
American period.
During the American rule, Itogon was established as one of the 19 townships of the province of Benguet, upon the issuance of "Act No. 48" by the Philippine Commission on November 22, 1900.
Mining operations started in Itogon in 1903, after Benguet Corporation, the Philippines' first mining firm, was established in the town under the name, Benguet Consolidated Mining Company (BCMC), by Americans "Nelson Peterson" and "Harry Clyde".
On August 13, 1908, Benguet was established as a sub-province of the newly created Mountain Province with the enactment of "Act No. 1876". As a result, six townships of Benguet were abolished, but Itogon remained a constituent town of Benguet sub-province.
World War II.
Guerrilla forces in Northern Luzon launch a successful attack on the Itogon Mining District on October 15, 1942, drawing Japanese attention. This results in the Japanese pouring more troops in Luzon Island.
Post-war era.
In 1948, plans by the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) for a second dam construction along the Agno River in the province of Benguet started, after the Ambuklao Dam construction commenced in Bokod. Bulldozers started clearing the forested area of the Guissit Mountains in 1954 for the Binga Dam. Construction of the dam took 3 years and 9 months, from August 1956 until its formal operations opening in May 1960.
On May 15, 1951, the town was converted into a regular municipality from the former municipal district of the same name, with the enactment of "Republic Act No. 616".
On June 18, 1966, the sub-province of Benguet was separated from the old Mountain Province and was converted into a regular province. Itogon remained to be a component municipality of the newly established province.
Geography.
Itogon is located at , at the southeast end of the Benguet, forming a border with the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya (on the west) and Pangasinan (on the south). The town is bounded by Baguio and the municipality of Tuba on the west, La Trinidad and Tublay on the north-west, Bokod on the north-east, Kayapa and Santa Fe on the southeast, San Manuel and San Nicolas on the south, and Sison on the south-west.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the has a land area of constituting of the total area of Benguet.
Around 80 percent of the municipality's land area is protected as part of the Lower Agno Watershed Forest Reserve and Upper Agno River Basin Resource Reserve. The Agno River traverses the municipality and is impounded at Binga ( from the Ambuklao Dam in Bokod) forming the Binga Dam.
Barangays.
Itogon is politically subdivided into 9 barangays.
Demographics.
In the , had a population of . The population density was .
Generally inhabited by 60 percent Ibalois, 40 percent Kankanaey, and other ethnicities such as the Ilocano, Itogon was the most populous municipality in the province, with a population of 61,773 in the 1990 census. Its population abruptly declined five years after as illustrated in the census of 1995.
Economy.
Itogon’s main source of livelihood is mining. Secondary to mining is agriculture. Major mining companies which operate in the town include Benguet Corporation, Philex Mining Corporation, Atok Big Wedge Mining Company (now called Atok Gold Mining Company) and Itogon Suyoc Mines.
Tourism.
Known tourist destination areas in Itogon include the Binga Dam in Tinongdan and Balatoc Mines Tours in Balatoc, Virac. Other tourist spots include the open pit mines in Loacan, hot spring in Dalupirip, Mount Ugo in Tinongdan, Level 1300 swimming pools in Poblacion with hot steams and bath and the mummies in Domolpos also in Tinongdan.
Transportation.
Highways through Itogon:
Education.
Public schools.
As of 2014, Itogon has 39 public elementary schools and 7 public secondary schools.


George Miscovich

George J. Miscovich (1916–1999) was American-Croat politician and speaker of the Alaska territorial House of Representatives.
Biography.
He was born in Flat in family of scientist Peter Miscovich and Stane Bagoy, two Croatian emigrants. He got his name by his grandfather George (cro. Đuro). He attended high school in Fairbanks and he served with the US Army Air Forces in World War II. Afterward George was a miner near Flat and Poorman. George was elected to the Alaska territorial House of Representatives as a Republican in 1948. From 1953. to 1955, he was speaker of the House.


Siocon

', officially the ' (; Subanen: "Benwa Siocan"; Chavacano: "Municipalidad de Siocan"; ), is a in the province of , . According to the , it has a population of people.
Visitors describe Siocon as a "hidden paradise".
Local industry includes the Canatuan mine.
Barangays.
Siocon is politically subdivided into 26 barangays.
History.
In 1955, the following barrios were created:
In May 2003, The municipality was attacked by 150 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas and Abu Sayyaf. The attacked commenced at 12 a.m. in May 4. Small group of policemen led by 27-year-old police senior inspector Ranie Planilla Hachuela defended Siocon that lasted nine hours. Hachuela managed to rally his men in putting up stiff resistance against the wave of attacks by the rebels trying to overrun the municipal hall, police station and hospital. For this reason he was awarded the Medal of Valor for risking his life and for rescuing the town mayor and his family.
The rebel created a bullet proof plan of securing the entry and exit of the Poblacion (town center). Responding government troops were ambushed as they tried to aid the policemen who were so unmanned at the moment.
That frightening feeling was expressed by wiljun cubero as he narrated how the rebels stormed the municipal hall and fire station right next to their house at Micubo's compound.
13 of the 150 rebels were killed including Jairullah Hassan aka Commander Hairon of the MILF who headed the attacked.
In the case of casualties, eleven government troops and 25 civilians lost their lives in the assault including two seminarians. Public market was burned down and civilians were taken out from their home as a human shield as rebels withdraw. Some hostages were later released hours after while other strongmen were held for days as they were tasked to carry the rebel's wounded fellow in the thick forest in the municipality of Sibuco.
The day after the attached, MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu expressed that the attacked was a show of force by the MILF and Abu Sayyaf with in the area.
Education.
Most of its 26 barangays have their respective public elementary schools and only few have public secondary schools. In the town proper has its elementary and secondary public schools and a state university.


Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company

Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company was a Tasmanian mining company formed on 29 March 1893, most commonly referred to as "Mount Lyell". Mount Lyell was the dominant copper mining company of the West Coast from 1893 to 1994, and was based in Queenstown, Tasmania.
Following consolidation of leases and company assets at the beginning of the twentieth century, Mount Lyell was the major company for the communities of Queenstown, Strahan and Gormanston. It remained dominant until its closure in 1994.
The Mount Lyell mining operations produced more than a million tonnes of copper, 750 tonnes of silver and 45 tonnes of gold since mining commenced in the early 1890s - which is equivalent to over 4 billion dollars worth of metal in 1995 terms.
History.
In the early stage of operations, Mount Lyell was surrounded by smaller competing leases and companies. Eventually they were all absorbed into Mount Lyell operations, or were closed down. In 1903 the North Mount Lyell company was taken over, and in 1912 the most severe calamity to visit the Mount Lyell company was the 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster, also known at the time as the North Lyell fire.
During its history, Mount Lyell had exploration leases surrounding its main mining area, and had at one time or other explored most of the West Coast Range revisiting many of the smaller mines that had been worked on in the early 1900s. As a consequence the Mount Lyell company had utilised considerable resources on maintaining leases over areas of promising geology - as well as checking older mining locations on the west coast. At various stages it also shared costs and resources with other companies which would assist by investing in exploration by becoming partners in some leases.
The operations were conducted in various parts of the Mount Lyell Lease, and in the mid 1970s, prior to reduction in the workforce, "Cape Horn" was located just west of the "Comstock" operation which was on the north side of Mount Lyell, while most of the North Mount Lyell workings were finished, "12 West" was still in operation due to its rich copper ores. "West Lyell open cut" which had been dominant in the 1950s was finished, and various parts of the lease were disappearing into the opening above the "Prince Lyell" workings.
Following the first large layoffs in the mid 1970s, the town of Queenstown lost its dominance on the west coast by the mid 1990s, and being mainly a company town many services closed by the 2000s, and the separate west Tasmanian local government authorities were amalgamated into the West Coast Council.
Centenary.
On 29 March 1993 the company celebrated its centenary. At that stage it was known as the Copper Division of Renison Goldfields Consolidated Limited.
The Mount Lyell Mining Field, and the various activities of the company in Queenstown and the west coast of Tasmania were celebrated throughout the community.
Current.
The Mount Lyell Remediation and Research and Demonstration Program was conducted between 1994 and 1996 following the closing of the company, to reverse the ecological change upon the Queen and King Rivers, and Macquarie Harbour; caused by the release of mine waste and effluent into the rivers. It is estimated that 100 million tonnes of tailings were disposed of into the Queen River.
The Mount Lyell lease and mine was reopened by Copper Mines of Tasmania in 1995. This company in turn was acquired by Sterlite Industries, an Indian-based company, in 1999. As a consequence it is part of the Vedanta group of companies. Its concentrate material is shipped to India for processing. Government guidelines saw tailings dams created and special measures taken to prevent any further pollution of the rivers and harbour.
Mining was suspended at Mount Lyell due to accidents in the 2010s, and remains in mothball situation in the late 2010s.
Mine Operation.
The following locations were within the operating mine lease and indicate a separate orebody - the operating life is also indicated: -
Railway.
Mount Lyell was also the operator of the gauge Queenstown to Regatta Point railway from 1893 to 1963, which used the Abt rack system of cog railway for steep sections. This railway was rebuilt and recommenced operation in 2002 as the Abt Wilderness Railway, and is now known as the "West Coast Wilderness Railway" and was operated by Federal Hotels until 2013.
Archives.
The company has been significant in Australian business history works as Geoffrey Blainey, the Australian historian, began his career with the writing of the company history The Peaks of Lyell, which has now progressed to its sixth edition.
Also, due to circumstances at the winding up of Mount Lyell significant amounts of company records were deposited with Tasmanian state archives.
Environmental impact.
Pollution of the Queen and King Rivers, and Macquarie Harbour was caused by the release of mine waste and effluent into the rivers. It is estimated that 100 million tonnes of tailings were disposed of into the Queen River.
The environmental impacts included:
Smelting ended in the 1960s and CMT has built a dam to contain tailings.
Research by the Supervising Scientist published in 1997 overwhelmingly identified the lease site as the major source of acid drainage-related pollutants affecting the rivers and harbour, with metals contamination from tailing and slag deposits being very minor in comparison.
Within the lease site, the North Lyell Tunnel has water derived in part from underground workings and has approximately 78% of the lease site copper loading. Discharge from other tunnels and waste rock dumps accounts for 21%. The remaining 1% is from smaller sources.
Downstream, chemical modelling and toxicological testing indicates that 95% to 99% of the acid drainage from the site must be neutralised or stemmed for the resultant water quality to meet downstream environmental quality objectives. Contaminated sediments in the King River and Macquarie Harbour contribute relatively little of the total pollutant load entering the harbour.


Shenandoah-Dives Mill

The Shenandoah-Dives Mill or Mayflower Mill is an intact and functional but inactive historic ore mill east of Silverton, Colorado, United States. The mill was built in 1929 to recover gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper from ore mined at the Mayflower mine and brought to the mill by an aerial tramway. Regularly active until 1945, it houses still-functional equipment for the separation by flotation of metals from crushed ores. It is the only intact and functional mill of its kind in Colorado. It was included in the expanded Silverton Historic District in 1997, and was declared a National Historic Landmark on its own in 2000. The mill is owned by the San Juan County Historic Society, which staffs an information and gift shop at the mill under the name Mayflower Mill. The mill is open for self-guided tours in the summer months.
Description and history.
The Mayflower Mill stands east of the town center of Silverton, on the north side of County Road 2 in Arrastra Gulch overlooking the Animas River. The principal mill building is a multistory wood frame structure covered with corrugated metal roofing, its setting in the hillside designed to facilitate the feed of materials by gravitation. Many of its original window openings have been covered by metal. Attached to it are a series of smaller structures, all of which together house the ore processing infrastructure. The process includes equipment for conveying the ore, crushing it, introducing it into a large tank designed to facilitate the separation of metals by weight from the ore slurry. The mill recovered metals from the ore by gravity separation and by selective flotation. The sulfide ore minerals were concentrated by froth flotation, an innovative method in the early twentieth century that allowed processing of ores that would previously have been too difficult for feasibility. The original mill equipment is still in working order. It is the only intact and functional mill of its kind in Colorado.
The mill was built in 1929 for the Shenandoah-Dives Mining Company to process ore from the nearby Mayflower Mine. Ore from the mine was delivered to the mill via an aerial tramway over in length. At its peak, the mill processed 1,000 tons of ore per day. It remained in regular operation until 1945, and was largely shut down thereafter to a decrease in government demand for metals occasioned by the end of World War II. It was operated sporadically until 1992 under a variety of owners, and was then taken over by the San Juan County Historical Society as a museum.


Jim Allen (playwright)

James Allen (7 October 1926 – 24 June 1999) was an English socialist playwright from Miles Platting, Manchester, Lancashire, best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach.
Early life.
Allen was born in the Miles Platting area of Manchester, Lancashire, on 7 October 1926, the second child of Kitty and Jack Allen, Roman Catholics of Irish descent. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Allen left school at the age of 13 to work in a wire factory. He had various jobs during the war, before being called up into the Army in 1944. He joined the Seaforth Highlanders, and served with the British occupation forces in Germany. After leaving the army in 1947, he worked at a variety of jobs, including a builder's labourer, a fireman in the Merchant Navy, and a miner at Bradford Colliery in Bradford, Manchester.
Politics.
During his military service, Allen was imprisoned for assault and a fellow inmate introduced him to the ideals of socialism. Allen was a passionate socialist for the rest of his life, although he detested Stalinism and refused to be associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1958, he joined the Socialist Labour League (SLL), the forerunner of the Workers' Revolutionary Party (WRP) led by Gerry Healy, a small group then pursuing entryist tactics within the Labour Party. The SLL objected to the close association between the CPGB and the National Union of Mineworkers, and Allen was a prominent campaigner for the SLL. In 1962, the Labour Party declared the SLL a "proscribed organisation", leading to Allen's expulsion from the party. He subsequently resigned his membership of the SLL, but did not join any other party.
Writing career.
Allen began to write during his time as a miner. In 1958, he was involved in the launch and publication of "The Miner", which actively recruited for the SLL. The proscription of the SLL, together with the closed shop system of the time, made it impossible for him to find work in the mining or building trades, and he decided to adopt writing as a full-time profession. In 1964, he submitted a script to Granada Television, and was taken on as a scriptwriter for the soap opera "Coronation Street" (1965–67), a series for which he had little sympathy. His later play, "The Talking Head" (1969), recounts the experience of a talented writer driven to a nervous breakdown by the pressure of "episode delivery dates".
Allen's first play, "The Hard Word" (1966), directed by Ridley Scott, was broadcast as part of the "Thirty-Minute Theatre" series on BBC 2. It was followed by "The Lump" (1967), the first fictional work directed by Jack Gold, who had begun his career on documentaries, and broadcast as part of "The Wednesday Play" drama anthology series. Both plays were based on his experiences in the building trade, and "The Lump" features an activist worker who frequently quotes Lenin and Jack London, establishing the political nature of Allen's work which was to continue throughout his career.
Allen was introduced to Ken Loach in 1967 by Loach's regular collaborator at the time, producer Tony Garnett, who had produced "The Lump". The first of Allen's plays to be directed by Loach was "The Big Flame" (1969), again for "The Wednesday Play" series. The play depicts a strike among the dockers of Liverpool, led by a Trotskyite docker against the wishes of the established union; the strike is violently broken by the army and police.
In 1975, Allen wrote, Garnett produced, and Loach directed "Days of Hope", Allen's best-known work. A serial of four episodes, it tells the story of the British Labour movement between the Great War in 1916 and the General Strike of 1926. The series' depiction of the British Army was the subject of much hostile criticism in the press at the time.
Allen also wrote five plays ("The Rank and File" (1971), "A Choice of Evils" (1977), "The Spongers" (1978), "United Kingdom" (1981) and "Willie's Last Stand" (1982)) for the BBC's "Play for Today" drama series, and several episodes of the Granada series "Crown Court" (1975–76).
Allen and Loach's most controversial project was Allen's stage play, "Perdition". Presented as a courtroom drama, the play dealt with an allegation of collaboration between Hungarian Zionists and the Nazis during the Holocaust. The play was due to open at the Royal Court Theatre in January 1987, but was cancelled 36 hours before the opening night. Lord Goodman wrote in the "Evening Standard" on 23 January 1987: "Mr Jim Allen's description of the Holocaust can claim a high place in the table of classic anti-Semitism." The script was read in public at the Edinburgh Festival the following August, but was not produced as a stage play until 1999 in a much revised form.
With Loach as director, Allen wrote the screenplays for three feature-length films: "Hidden Agenda" (1990), which portrays the murder of an American civil rights activist in Belfast, "Raining Stones" (1993), a kitchen-sink tragicomedy set in Middleton, near Manchester, and, Allen's final dramatic work, "Land and Freedom" (1995), telling the story of an idealistic young Communist from Liverpool who joins the Government forces in the Spanish Civil War.
Death.
Allen was diagnosed with cancer in February 1999, and died the following June.


Silver mining in the United States

Silver mining in the United States began on a major scale with the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1858. The industry suffered greatly from the demonetization of silver in 1873 by the Coinage Act of 1873, known pejoratively as the "Crime of 73", but silver mining continues today.
United States mines produced 1,170 tons of silver in 2014, 17% of the silver it used. 63% of consumption was imported, from Mexico, Canada, Peru and Chile, and the remainder was derived from recycling. Three US mines had silver as their primary product, and 39 mines reported silver as a byproduct of gold and base metals production. Alaska was the country's leading silver-producing State, followed by Nevada and Idaho.
Interest in silver mining increased in recent years because of an increased price for the metal: the average silver price increased from $4.39 per troy ounce for the year 2001, to $13.45 per troy ounce for 2007. In 2011, silver prices rose to almost $49 per troy ounce in April before dropping to around $34 per troy ounce in late June. In March 2016, the silver price was around $15 per troy ounce.
By state.
Alaska.
In 2015, Alaska was the nation's leading silver-producing state. Two Alaska mines were significant silver producers. The Greens Creek mine, owned by Hecla Mining, produced 8,452,153 troy ounces of silver. Teck Resources' Red Dog mine, the world's largest source of zinc, in 2014 produced 7.56 million troy ounces of silver as a byproduct of lead and zinc production.
Arizona.
More than 80% of the state's silver was a byproduct of copper mining; other silver came as a byproduct of lead, zinc, and gold mining. The most productive silver district in Arizona that was mined primarily for silver was Tombstone in Cochise County, discovered in 1877. In 2006, all the silver mined in Arizona came as a byproduct of copper mining.
California.
Most of the silver produced in California has been a byproduct of mining other metals, such as copper (Copperopolis), tungsten (Pine Creek mine in Inyo County), or gold (Randsburg). However, there have been mines where silver was the principal product.
Silver mines at Panamint in Inyo County produced silver from 1873 until the town was destroyed by a flash flood in 1876.
The Cerro Gordo Mines in Inyo County started producing lead and silver in 1860. Ore bodies were replacements and fissure fillings in Paleozoic limestone. In the 20th century zinc became the principal product.
Silver was discovered at Calico in San Bernardino County in 1881, and mining was prosecuted strongly there until 1896.
Silver was discovered in 1919 in the eastern Rand district, near Randsburg and Johannesburg, in San Bernardino County. The Rand district had already been an established gold district. The Kelly Rand mine produced silver from miargyrite and pyrargyrite ores from 1919 to 1928.
Colorado.
Silver veins were first discovered in the Montezuma district of Summit County in 1864. Despite the early silver discoveries, Colorado's largest silver district, Leadville, was not discovered until 1874.
The largest current source of silver in Colorado is as a byproduct of gold mining at the Cripple Creek & Victor mine, a large open-pit heap leach operation owned by AngloGold Ashanti at Victor, Colorado. In 2006, the mine produced 4.0 metric tons (130,000 ounces) of silver.
Idaho.
The Coeur d’Alene (Silver Valley) district of Shoshone County in northern Idaho has produced more silver than any other mining district in the United States, and is historically one of the top three silver districts in the world in total silver produced. (It competes with Potosi in Bolivia and Pachuca-Real del Monte in Mexico for the title of greatest silver district, each having produced more than a billion troy ounces of silver.) Through 2006, the Coeur d’Alene district has produced a total of more than 37,000 metric tons (1.2 billion ounces) of silver.
Two silver mines are currently operating in the Coeur d’Alene district: the Lucky Friday mine, the third largest in the US, owned by Hecla Mining Company; and the Galena mine, owned by Americas Silver Corporation. The Lucky Friday mine produced 3.0 million troy ounces of silver in 2015; the Galena mine produced approximately 1.54 million troy ounces of silver in 2015.
Missouri.
Silver mining began in 1879 at the Einstein mine, nine miles northwest of Fredericktown in Madison County. The settlement of Silver Mine, complete with US Post Office was established to serve the miners of the Einstein, Ozark, and Apex mines. The mines closed within a few years, but reopened briefly in 1916 and again in 1927 to mine tungsten.
Montana.
Butte, Montana is historically the second-greatest source of silver in the United States, second only to the Coeur d’Alene district in Idaho. Butte started as a placer gold camp in 1864, and the placers were exhausted by 1867. But in 1874 prospectors discovered silver veins. Butte flourished as a silver-mining district until miners tunneled into large copper veins in 1882. From then until the 1980s, Butte was primarily a copper-mining district, but with a lot of silver as a byproduct. Butte produced more than 716 million troy ounces (22,300 mt) of silver through 2005.
Silver was discovered at Phillipsburg in 1864, and the district was one of the most prolific silver producers in Montana. Major mines included the Granite Mountain mine, the Bi-Metallic mine, and the Hope mine. In 1887, the district produced 2.2 million troy ounces (68 metric tons) of silver, making it the largest silver producer in the US for that year. The district suffered greatly from the fall in the price of silver in 1893, and remained moribund until World War I, when the manganese deposits of the district became valuable, and Philipsburg became one of the top US producers of that metal. Silver occurs in veins filling fracture zones through Paleozoic limestone. Minerals in the silver-ore veins include polybasite, pyrargyrite, proustite, sphalerite, galena, and tennantite. Manganese occurs as replacement bodies of pyrolusite and rhodochrosite in limestone adjacent to the fracture zones. No mines are presently active in the district.
Nevada.
The discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1858 inaugurated large-scale silver mining in the United States. The Comstock was the first important silver-mining district in the United States, and its discovery stimulated a great deal of prospecting for silver across the Great Basin area of the United States. The resulting silver rush led to many other silver discoveries in Nevada, including El Dorado Canyon (1861), Austin (1862), Eureka (1864), and Pioche (1869).
The Rochester Mine is the only operating primary silver producer in Nevada and the second largest in the USA (after the Greens Creek mine in Alaska). In 2015 it produced 4.6 million ounces of silver and 52,588 ounces of gold from an open pit and heap leaching operation. Nevada produces a larger amount of silver, 6,744,703 ounces
in 2014, as a byproduct of the mining of gold.
New Hampshire.
Silver-bearing galena was mined from three districts in New Hampshire.
The Silver Lake mine near Madison in Carroll County operated intermittently from 1826 to 1918. Ore was extracted from underground workings until 1915, when a small open pit was dug.
The Mascot mine and the Shelburne mine worked veins in schist and granite on Mount Hayes, between Gorham and Shelburne in Coos County. The Shelburne mine operated intermittently from the 1830s into the 1850s; a final attempt at mining took place in 1880. The Mascot mine worked from 1881 to 1885 and in 1906.
The North Woodstock mine, near the town of the same name in Grafton County, apparently mined and milled lead-silver ore, although no production records are known.
New Mexico.
No silver is known to have been mined in New Mexico prior to the silver discovery in 1863 near Magdalena in Socorro County. The major silver-mining area of Silver City in Grant County was discovered in 1866.
A rancher found the Lake Valley silver deposits in Sierra County in 1876. The deposits are bedded manto-type deposits in Paleozoic limestone. The mines, promoted by Whitaker Wright, produced well for a few years after miners tunneled into a silver-lined cavity they named the “bridal chamber” that alone yielded 2.5 million troy ounces (78 metric tons) of silver. But no more bridal chambers were discovered, the mines struggled and were worked periodically into the 20th century. The district produced manganese during World Wars I and II. Total production of the Lake Valley district through 1931 was 5.8 million ounces (180 metric tons) of silver.
Almost all the silver produced today in New Mexico comes as a byproduct from the two large open-pit copper mines in southwest New Mexico.
North Carolina.
The Silver Hill mine in Davidson County, also known as the King mine and the Washington mine, was discovered in 1838. Excluding Mexican silver mines in land later acquired by the US, the Silver Hill mine was the first silver mine in the United States. It produced silver, gold, lead, copper, and zinc intermittently from its discovery until the mid-1870s.
Oklahoma.
Copper and silver occur in a sandstone roll-front-type deposit in the Wellington sandstone of Permian age at Paoli, Garvin County, Oklahoma. About 1900, several wagon loads of ore were shipped from the deposit.
Oregon.
Most silver in Oregon was produced as a byproduct of gold and copper mining. Two mines operated primarily for their silver were the Bay Horse mine in Baker County, which produced 125,000 ounces (3.9 metric tons) of silver, and the Oregon King mine in Jefferson County, which produced 300,000 ounces (9.3 metric tons) of silver.
Pennsylvania.
The Pequea silver mine near Conestoga in Lancaster County was worked from before the Revolutionary War to 1875. A minor amount of mining was done about 1900. The ore is silver-bearing galena in the Cambrian Vintage Dolomite. Production is unknown.
Texas.
The Allamoore-Van Horn silver-mining district in Hudspeth County and Culberson counties was discovered in 1880, and mined intermittently. Silver and copper were mined from Precambrian igneous and sedimentary rocks. No reliable production figures are available.
Silver mineralization was discovered in 1880 or 1881 in Presidio County, Texas. Mining began in 1883 at what became the town of Shafter. At least six mines were worked. The deposits are manto-type deposits in Permian limestone of the Mina Grande formation, related to an igneous intrusive. Silver minerals include argentite and native silver. Associated minerals include the lead minerals anglesite and galena, the zinc minerals sphalerite, hemimorphite, and smithsonite, and gangue minerals quartz, calcite, goethite, and dolomite. Total production to 1999 was 35 million troy ounces (1090 metric tons) of silver, along with some gold. Aurcana Corp. of Vancouver has announced plans to reopen the silver mine.
Utah.
The beginning of silver mining was delayed in Utah, due to its remote location. The completion of the transcontinental railroad spurred prospecting in Utah, and led to major silver discoveries.
The first mining claim in the Park City district was staked in 1868, and the first ore shipment made in 1871. Prominent mines included the Flagstaff mine, Ontario mine, and Silver King mine. Ore occurs in veins and replacement deposits in sedimentary and igneous rocks.
The Horn Silver Mine was discovered in 1870 with the first discovery of significant value occurring in 1875. On September 24 of that year, Samuel Hawks (or Hawke) and James Ryan uncovered silver-bearing rock at the Horn Silver Ledge in what later became the San Francisco mining district near Milford, Utah. Significant mining began the next year. By 1882, the Horn Silver Mine was the largest silver producer in the world.
The Little Cottonwood district came into prominence in the 1870s with large ore shipments from the Emma Silver Mine, the Flagstaff Mine, the Emily Mine, and others.
Silver ore was found in sandstone formations in the Silver Reef district in 1866, although large-scale mining operations did not begin until 1875.
Today almost all the silver produced in Utah comes from the Bingham Canyon Mine, which produces silver as a byproduct of copper mining.
Virginia.
Virginia has produced about 90 thousand ounces of silver as a byproduct of mining other metals.
Washington.
The Chewelah district in Stevens County produced 1.7 million troy ounces (53 metric tons) of silver and 5,000 metric tons of copper from quartz-carbonate veins. Chalcopyrite is the principal ore mineral. The deposits are hosted in shear zones in argillite of the Precambrian Belt Supergroup. Silver-mining stocks were a mainstay of the Spokane Stock Exchange.


New Zealand Steel

New Zealand Steel Limited is the owner of the Glenbrook Steel Mill, the steel mill located 40 kilometres south of Auckland, in Glenbrook, New Zealand. The mill was constructed in 1968 and began producing steel products in 1969. Currently, the mill produces 650 000 tonnes of steel a year which is either domesticity used or exported. Over 90% of New Zealand's steel requirements are produced at Glenbrook while the remaining volume is produced by Pacific Steel, a steel recycling facility in Otahuhu, Auckland. The mill is served by the Mission Bush Branch railway line, which was formerly a branch line to Waiuku. Coal and lime trains arrive daily. Steel products are also transported daily. The mill employs 1,150 full-time staff and 200 semi-permanent contractors.
New Zealand Steel is notable due to its unique utilization of ironsand as its ore. Because ironsand is a low grade ore with many contaminants, the mill's primary plants' operations and equipment are unusual.
History.
The west coast beaches of the North Island of New Zealand, between Kaipara Harbour and Whanganui, contain ironsand deposits rich in the mineral titanomagnetite. From the late 19th century to the 1950s, there were many unsuccessful attempts to smelt steel from the ironsands. In 1954, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research began investigating smelting from the ironsands. In 1959, The New Zealand Government established the NZ Steel Investigating Company under the Iron and Steel Industry Act 1959 as a vehicle for the investigations.
New Zealand Steel Limited was incorporated by the New Zealand Government in 1965. In 1967, construction started on a mill at Glenbrook. Commercial operations began in 1968, with imported feed coil being used to produce steel for domestic and Pacific Island markets. The company pioneered the direct reduction process for reducing iron oxide (ironsand) into metallic iron. This culminated in the commissioning in 1970 of iron and steelmaking facilities to produce billets for domestic and export markets. Expansion continued with the commissioning of a pipe plant in 1972 and a prepainting line in 1982. Total output at this time averaged 300 000 tonnes a year.
In the Think Big era of New Zealand industrialisation, the mill was upgraded. In 1987, New Zealand Steel was acquired by Equiticorp. However, Equiticorp was bankrupted in the New Zealand sharemarket crash of 1987. In 1989 New Zealand Steel was acquired by Helenus Corporation, which consisted of Fisher & Paykel, Steel & Tube, ANZ Bank and BHP. In 1992, BHP took up a controlling interest with an 81% shareholding by acquiring the shares of Fisher & Paykel and Steel & Tube. The company was initially renamed BHP New Zealand Steel Limited, but in 2002 it was renamed New Zealand Steel when BHP Steel was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange as BlueScope.
The ore.
The ironsand ore is mined at an opencast mine at Waikato North Head. The ironsand is then mixed to form a slurry and transported to the mill by an 18 kilometre long pipeline. Approximately, 1.2 million tonnes of ironsand ore are delivered to the mill annually.
The processes.
Glenbrook's iron plant contains four multiple hearth furnaces (MHFs), four rotary kilns, and two melters. The rotary kilns reduce the ore to metallic iron. This process is unusual as most mills use blast furnaces for this reduction process.
In the steelmaking plant, vanadium recovery and removal is done due to the high vanadium content of the ironsand ore. Oxidation of the molten metal and contaminants is achieved by a basic oxygen steelmaking facility. The process used in the converter is the second unusual piece of equipment the mill operates : oxygen is blown on both top and bottom of the converter (Klöckner Oxygen Blown Maxhütte process, or KOBM converter), whereas oxygen is only blasted at the top of the converter in most steelmaking plants.


Jadugora

Jadugora (also spelt as Jadugoda or Jaduguda) is a census town in Purbi Singhbhum district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It is a small township of Uranium Corporation of India in the Singhbhum district of Jharkhand state in Eastern India. It is 35 km by road and 20 km by train from the city of Jamshedpur. This was the first mines where Uranium was produced in India on a reasonable scale. The township was established in 1965, and it was way ahead of its time with modern school, clubs with tennis courts and a full-fledged hospital. The school here was part of the chain of schools called Atomic Energy Central School.
Etymology.
The name "Jadugora" or "Jadugoda" has been derived from the word "Jadagoda", which means 'land of elephants in a local tribal language. It is said that there was a time when this was home to many Asian elephants. But with time as many mines and factories were established, they moved to denser forests due to loss of habitat.
Demographics.
 India census, Jadugora had a population of 19,003. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Jadugora has an average literacy rate of 72%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 63%. In Jadugora, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Jadugoda is blessed with diverse flora and fauna and rich tribal culture. The place is also home to some indigenous major tribes like the santhals, Gonds, mundas and hill kharia. The place is surrounded by hills and rivers. Many species of birds, reptiles and animals are found here. The culture of Jadugoda is influenced by the culture of West Bengal, Odisha and Bihar, which are the neighbouring states of Jharkhand. The major festivals celebrated here are Durga Puja, Diwali, Chhath and Tusu Parva, which is a local tribal festival.
Tourist attractions.
Rankini Temple is a famous temple located on the road side of state highway connecting Jadugoda to Tiring and it is just 2 km from Jadugoda market square. This temple is dedicated to Maa Rankini. Large numbers of devotees can be seen at this temple from nearby places including Jamshedpur city. According to a legend, a local tribal spotted a tribal girl taking the form of Devi to kill a demon. When he tried to follow the girl she disappeared into the woods. In the same night Devi appeared in his dreams and directed him to build a temple at the same place.
Galudi Bridge, which is around 5 km from UCIL colony towards Musabani, is the largest bridge/stop dam on Subarnarekha River. River Gudru, which is an important tributary of Subernarekha meets with it here. As per tradition, gold was mined near the origin of the river at a village named piska near Ranchi. This is why it was named Subarnarekha, meaning "streak of gold". Legend has it that traces of gold were found in the river bed. Even now, people look for traces of gold particles in its sandy beds. The name is a combination of two words meaning gold and line/ streak in Indian languages.
UCIL Residential colony is very close to the small hills, and Aam Jharna is located just opposite of the UCIL residential colony.
There are many abandoned open cast copper mines nearby. Many ghost stories have been associated with these places. The place most famous among local people is Jobla Pahad.
Uranium mines at Jadugoda & Narwapahar.
Jadugora or Jadugoda is the headquarters of Uranium Corporation of India Limited (A Govt of India Enterprise). It was established in the late 1960s due to presence of rich ore of Uranium. The Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. (UCIL) recently completed its project of uranium Mining and Mill at Narwapahar, Jharkhand. Adequate resources of uranium in Jaduguda uranium mine have been identified to meet the requirements of India's nuclear power program. The uranium deposit at Jaduguda, Singhbhum district, Jharkhand, has been under exploitation since 1962. The uranium deposits at Bhatin and Narwapahar are currently being exploited. Ore from the three deposits is treated in a mill at Jaduguda in the Singhbhum region, and the yield is 300 tons of uranium per year. The Narwapahar mine, 12 km nor th west of Jaduguda, is one of the most modern mines in the country. The new uranium mine, Narwapahar Mine, was built with Russian technology. Trackless mining equipment are in use for the first time in the country. Mine development progress rates of over 300 meters per month have been achieved and the underground output per man shift is 1.9 tonnes. The Narwapahar mine is worked by a decline and a vertical shaft. The decline has the advantage that heavy equipment can be lowered to the working area without dismantling. The shaft is used for hoisting ore and movement of personnel.
An exposé of India’s nuclear program,”Tailing Pond”, produced and directed by debutant Saurav Vishnu, investigates the horrifying effects of uranium extraction on the health of the indigenous population of Jadugoda, in eastern India. These are particularly severe for young children, many of whom are falling ill and dying due to radioactive waste pollution. “Tailing Pond”, is narrated by Cynthia Nixon, who is back in the news of late because of the “Sex and the City” revival “And Just Like That.”


Percy Summers

Percy Summers was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper in the Football League for Grimsby Town. He notably made over 130 Midland League appearances for Chesterfield Town.
Personal life.
Prior to becoming a professional footballer, Summers worked as a mechanic in a coal mine near Rhondda. Summers served as a private in the Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment during the First World War. In 1916, he received hand and stomach wounds during the Battle of the Somme and was medically discharged from the army.


Zhernovskoye coal mine

The Zhernovskoye Coal Mine is a coal mine located in southern Russia in Kemerovo Oblast. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 163 million tonnes of coking coal, one of the largest coal reserves in Asia and the world. The mine has an annual production capacity of 3.6 million tonnes of coal.


Cripple Creek District Museum

The Cripple Creek District Museum is a museum located in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Founded in 1953 by Blevins Davis and Richard Wayne Johnson, the Museum has five historic buildings: The 1894 Colorado Trading & Transfer Company building, the 1895 Midland Terminal Depot that was used as a depot until 1949; a turn-of-the-century Assay Office, the former one-room home of French Blanche LeCroix from the Cripple Creek District town of Midway, and a miner's cabin circa 1890–1930.
Today the Museum has four living areas illustrating life in the Victorian Era, an Art Gallery, a 15-minute video on the Assay Process, and numerous displays exhibiting photographs, maps, newspapers, books, wagons, minerals, mining equipment, the history of businesses, lodges, churches and schools, thousands of furnishings and personal items belonging to former pioneers to the District, information on towns and camps within the District and Teller County, and a Museum Gift Shop with hundreds of books and unusual items.


Llywernog Mine

Llywernog Mine is an 18th-century silver-lead mine in Llywernog, Ponterwyd, Ceredigion, Wales, currently run as an industrial heritage museum and tourist attraction. It is one of many silver-lead mines in Wales, and unlike many others it still has a large number of intact buildings and mining equipment, much of which has been restored as part of the museum.
The first vein of galena, an ore consisting of silver and lead, was discovered around 1742, and active mining commenced in the 1770s. Intermittent mining interspersed with phases of idleness and many changes of management continued for over a century until 1891, when low lead prices forced the mine to close. The mine was briefly active again from 1907 to 1911, when zinc was extracted.
In 1974 restoration work began, and the site opened as a museum later that year.
Related mines.
There were four mines, including Llywernog, within a one-mile radius. The other three are Powell's mine to the West of Llywernog, Clara mine to the East, and Ponterwyd mine East of Clara, but Llywernog is the only one with any visible buildings left.
Another mine called the Bog, or Craignant Bach, is located to the North-East of Llywernog, or North of Ponterwyd.
Bodcoll mine is to the South-East of Llywernog, near Devil's Bridge.
History.
Early history (1742–1825).
The discovery of the first galena vein was made around 1742. The site was leased to Lewis Morris by D. Jones in 1749, but there is no evidence of work at the mine from before Moris' death in 1765. No lease records can be found until October 1, 1789, when Margaret Pyrse leased the mine to John Pierce, William Poole, and John Jones.
Mining likely begun in the 1770s, after the construction of a turnpike road which made ore transport by pony easier. By 1791 there were 60 employed miners. At this time, there was at least one water wheel, called the "engine", and jobs included deepening the main shaft, pumping water, mining and raising ore, cutting ground, and making preparations for the engine.
By 1795 there were at least two water wheels in operation, but work stopped in the Summer of that year due to water shortages.
Around 1810 another water wheel was constructed for draining the mine. At this time the mine was in the possession of Poole, and after this period the mine is sometimes known as "Poole's mine".
A draft lease suggests that the site was leased to Michael Williams and William Williams of Scorrier House, Gwennap, Cornwall, partners of Williams, Foster, and Co., in 1825, who leased many other mines in Cardiganshire between 1825 and 1840. However, just two years later they tried to rescind their lease, as the price of lead had fallen to a level which made Llywernog unprofitable.
Rheidol United Mines Company and Llywernog Mines Company (1840–1852).
The next records of the mine are from 1840, when it was being worked by William Lewis, who was trying to sell it and the nearby Powell's mine for £500, including tools, pumps, two water wheels, and twelve tons of ore. The original plan was for the mine to be run by a new company with shareholders consisting of the buyer Robert Dunkin of Llanelli, the seller Lewis, Matthew Francis who advised Dunkin on the sale, and a J.H. Shears.
Dunkin also bought the Rhiwrugos (now known as Erwtomau) and Nantglas mines, located a couple of miles south-west of Llywernog in the Rheidol Valley. Together with Llywernog, the three mines were all run under a single company, the Rheidol United Mines Company, managed by Lewis, Dunkin, and Francis.
By 1843 Shears and Dunkin had fallen into disagreement, and Shears bought Dunkin's shares. The three mines were now in the hands of Shears, which he ran under the name Llywernog Mines Company. By 1845 he had relinquished the three mines.
J. Holdsworth held a take-note for the mine in 1851, and took out a lease in 1852, but no records show any ore sold by his company.
Llywernog United Mining Company (1858–1861).
In 1858 the new Llywernog United Mining Company was formed to run the Llywernog, Ponterwyd, and Bog mines. Work continued at Llywernog, sinking the main shaft to below the adit, and in early 1859 it was drained to below the level, but the 20-foot wheel was unable to drain to the bottom of the shaft. Not much work was done during this period.
John Barton Balcombe (1861–1875).
Balcome & Co., run by John Barton Balcombe, Took over running of the Clara mine in 1861, and Llywernog a few months later in the same year. They paid £2,000 to the Llywernog United Mining Company for Llywernog. They installed a 40-foot water wheel from Bodcoll mine to fully drain the mine. By December 1862 the mine had been drained to the level, and plans were made to sink it to .
In 1863 there were 14 men working at the mine, and work continued throughout the 1860s.
The Llywernog Mining Company was formed in 1868, managed by Balcombe. By the summer of the next year the main shaft had been sunk to , but a lack of water to turn the wheel allowed the mine to flood back to the level. In response to this, a 16-horsepower steam engine was installed in December. The price of purchasing and transporting coal was high, so the engine was only used when the water wheels could not be run. In 1871 ponds began to be used to store water to keep the wheels running during dry periods, and this allowed the main shaft to be sunk again to its final depth of .
The yield and price of lead during this period were low, leading to a new Llywernog Mining Company being floated in 1872, retaining Balcombe but replacing the mine captain. Plans were drawn up to sink the shaft to , but the existing 40-foot water wheel was already struggling with the depth. Work continued until 1873, but water began to rise in the mine again and work stopped. Some work was done from 1874, but there are no records of ore being sold after 1873. A 50-foot water wheel was constructed in 1875, powered by a 6- or 7-mile leat system.
Powell Mines Company (1875–1891).
In 1875 Balcombe was imprisoned for embezzlement, but work continued as an annexe of Powell's mine. By the end of the 1870s the mine was idle, but in 1882 the Powell Mines Company, run by Nicholas Bray and Evan Hanson took over at Llywernog. Balcombe's lease from 1870 was still valid, but though the terms had been violated, mining continued. In 1886 a Deed of Revocation was served for violation of the lease, but Bray and Hanson instead paid £16 a year until it expired in 1891. Little was accomplished during this time, but the main shaft was renamed to "Hanson's Shaft", after the co-director of the company.
Low lead prices in 1891 forced many mines, including Powell's and Llywernog, to close.
Zinc mining and closure (1907–1914).
In 1907, Scottish Cardigan Mines, Ltd. leased the mine for its zinc prospects. The 50-foot wheel completely pumped out the mine and Hanson's Shaft was re-timbered, but by 1911 the price of zinc had fallen again and the mine was closed.
There is record of some work done by Thomas Jenkins in 1914, but he did not have much success.
The 50-foot water wheel, which could be seen from the A44, was demolished in 1953 after falling into a state of disrepair.
Restoration and mining museum (1973–).
In 1973, Peter Lloyd Harvey, Dr S. H. Harvey, and Bob Griffin formed the Mid Wales Mining Museum Ltd., and obtained a lease to develop the site. Restoration work began in 1974, and after restoring some of the mine buildings the site opened to the public as a heritage museum in August. Work continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s, restoring the buildings and mining equipment, and clearing the underground tunnels.
Balcombe's Level, the prospecting adit last opened by Balcombe, was the first underground area to be cleared and made accessible to the public.


Khotoidokh mine

The Khotoidokh mine is one of the largest silver mines in Russia and in the world. The mine is located in Siberia. The mine has estimated reserves of 32 million oz of silver.


SouthGobi Resources

SouthGobi Resources is a coal mining company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange. The company's primary asset is a coal mine and development projects of coal assets in Mongolia.
A proposed acquisition of the company by a Chinese state owned mining firm in 2012 was thwarted by resource nationalism in Mongolia. The blocked deal led to a chain of events that negatively affected the Mongolian economy for the rest of the decade. Quickly in response to the announced deal, Mongolia passed an investment review law in Mongolia (shortly repealed after enactment) that while only briefly in force stunted for years foreign investor confidence in the country, which had been a darling in emerging markets investment circles before 2012.
After the blocked deal, SouthGobi would itself face an equally dramatic fall from grace as the Mongolian economy. By 2015, the company lost 98% of its once sky high $3 billion Canadian dollar market capitalization that had peaked in 2012.
Corporate affairs.
The company is publicly listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEX: 1878) and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: SGQ). Its principal shareholders according to its 2018 annual report are the China Investment Corporation with 23.8%; Novel Sunrise with 17.0%, and Voyage Wisdom with 9.5%. Novel Sunrise is 100% controlled by China Cinda Asset Management. Both the China Investment Corporation and China Cinda Asset Management are central state owned enterprises of China.
History.
Early history.
The company was founded in 2002. SouthGobi listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2007 and Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2010.
In 2009, the China Investment Corporation funded a $500 million convertible debenture issued by SouthGobi. In March 2010, $250 million of the convertible debenture was converted into SouthGobi common shares. This move lowered the interest held by Ivanhoe Mines (later renamed Turquoise Hill Resources) to 57.6%.
Blocked Chalco sale.
By 2012, Ivanhoe Mines had come under the influence of its largest shareholder Rio Tinto, which wanted to sell non-core assets, which included SouthGobi. In the same year, Ivanhoe Mines attempted to sell its 57.6% of SouthGobi to Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chalco) for $889 million. The attempt announced in April 2012 failed. Chalco called off the deal in September 2012 after estimating "chances for obtaining approval from the Mongolian government were slim".
Negative public opinion in Mongolia based on resource nationalism opposed the sale. The masses did not want majority ownership by foreign state-owned enterprises of companies in their mining industry. Harassment by the Mongolian government targeting SouthGobi and its personnel also took its toll. During and after the sale process, the Mongolian government jailed SouthGobi employees and suspended its mining license for several months. In October 2012, its chief legal counsel Sarah Armstrong was detained and prevented from leaving the country. The Mongolian government alleged the company management had bribed Mongolian state officials. The allegations resulted in the shutdown and search of SouthGobi headquarters in Mongolia by a Mongolian anti-corruption agency. In May 2013 Justin Capla, another company executive, was prosecuted and later sentenced to prison for five years. He was later pardoned by President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj in February 2015.
Fallout from Chalco sale failure.
The aggressive actions of the Mongolian government against SouthGobi succeeded in blocking the deal with Chalco but had the effect of terrifying foreign investors, resulting in a large slump in investment to Mongolia that continued for several years after 2012.
SouthGobi would dramatically lose value after the blocked sale. The company had been valued at $3 billion Canadian dollars at its high point in 2012. However, by 2015, SouthGobi had lost 98% of its market capitalization compared to its 2012 peak. In 2015, Turquoise Hill tried to unload all of its shares in SouthGobi in 2 separate deals. One of the deals was closed with Novel Sunrise Investments to sell 48.7 million shares in SouthGobi for about $17 million Canadian dollars.
Operations.
The company holds the Ovoot Tolgoi Mine and development projects at the Soumber Deposit and Zag Suuj Deposit.


Queenston Mining

Queenston Mining, Inc. was a Canadian resource company focused on the exploration and development of gold deposits on “Proven Mine Trends” in geopolitically stable areas. The objectives of the Company were to expand upon its exploration areas to enlarge existing deposits and to target new discoveries, and to return to producer status through the development of its 100% owned properties.
Queenston Mining was purchased in 2012 by Osisko Mining
Queenston's company headquarters was located in Toronto, Ontario, and its two main properties were located in the Kirkland Lake Gold Camp, Ontario, and the Cadillac Gold Camp, Quebec.
Projects.
Kirkland Lake.
Kirkland Lake is one of the most well known historic gold camps in North America. This mining and lumbering community is located just a 6-hour drive from Toronto (about 580 km North). Gold was first discovered in 1906, in Swastika and Larder Lake but the first gold in the camp was produced at the Swastika mine in 1910. Production was continuous for 90 years, until 2000 when the Macassa Mine was closed. In 2002, Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. re-opened the Macassa Mine where they are currently producing gold. Some mines in the Kirkland Lake area have produced continuously for over 50 years and to date the region has produced more than 40 million ounces of gold. The camp ranks second in Canada, next only to Timmins with respect to total ounces of gold produced.
Queenston's main focus was an assemblage of gold properties in the historic Kirkland Lake gold camp, where it was undergoing a resurgence as a result of new discoveries made by Queenston and Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. Queenston's holdings included over 35 properties or over 230 km2. The primary area of focus was in Gauthier Township where the company was advancing five of its 100% owned gold properties (Upper Beaver, McBean, Anoki, Bidgood and Upper Canada) towards production. The goal was to outline enough of a mineral resource of gold to feed a central milling facility to be constructed in Gauthier Township. In addition to the production preparation scenario, in 2012 exploration continued to be a prime focus of the Company.
Cadillac.
The Cadillac mining camp currently ranks as the top gold-producing region in Quebec. The first gold discovery was in 1924 on the O’Brien property which entered into production in 1932. Between 1936-1949 several other mines were brought into production including Pandora, Central Cadillac and Wood Cadillac. The camp did not produce again until 1979 when the Bousquet and Doyon mines started up. The subsequent start up at LaRonde, Bousquet 2 and Mouska marked the second mining era in the camp. Currently the camp has four producers in the Mouska, Doyon, Lapa and LaRonde.
Queenston maintained two past producing gold properties along the Cadillac Break adjacent to the LaRonde and Lapa gold mines operated by Agnico Eagle mines. The Wood-Pandora property was a 50-50 joint venture with Globex Mining and the Pandora was 100% owned. In 2012 the joint venture continued drilling to further evaluate the economic potential of the Ironwood deposit.


Edward L. Berthoud

Captain Edward Louis Berthoud was a military officer, statesman and engineer in the western United States during the late 19th century. He is primarily known as the chief engineer and secretary of the Colorado Central Railroad during its expansion throughout Colorado in the 1870s. The town of Berthoud, Colorado, as well as Berthoud Pass in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver, are named for him.
Biography.
Berthoud was born Edouard Louis Berthoud (pronounced "bare-too") in Geneva, Switzerland on March 29, 1828. He came to the United States in 1830 with his parents and spent his childhood along the Mohawk River and in Oneida County in Upstate New York. In the United States, the family Americanized the pronunciation of their name to "ber-thud".
Berthoud graduated with a degree in engineering from Union College in 1849. In the early 1850s he worked as a surveyor on the Panama Canal. In 1855, he was living in Leavenworth in the Kansas Territory where he became interested in the effort to build the first transcontinental railroad. In 1860, during the Colorado Gold Rush, Berthoud and his wife Helen settled in the western part of the territory in the new town of Golden. Helen was a daughter of a founding Golden family, the Ferrells, and an original street of the town was named in her honor. In 1861, the town became part of the Colorado Territory. Berthoud spent much of his career surveying roads and railways throughout the region, and became an active citizen in Golden.
In 1861, in an effort to establish a more direct route from Denver to Salt Lake City, he surveyed the first road to Middle Park and discovered and surveyed the pass that now bears his name (current route of U.S. Highway 40). He also named Vasquez Peak. In 1862, after the outbreak of the American Civil War, he volunteered for the Union Army and received a commission in the 2nd Colorado Volunteer Infantry. That same year he received commendations for his design of fortifications to save Jefferson City, Missouri, during a rebel attack.
He returned to Golden in 1866 and proceeded to run for the Colorado Legislature. He also served as the librarian of the Colorado Territorial Library in Golden from 1867–1868. As a member of the legislature, he helped authorize the foundation of the Colorado School of Mines and served as the college's first registrar, and on its Board of Trustees. Berthoud surveyed the lines of the Colorado Central Railroad, the first railroad to penetrate the Colorado mountains, and he became the longtime proprietor of the Overland Hotel in downtown Golden. Berthoud served as the Colorado State Historian and was Mayor of Golden from 1890–1891.
Berthoud died in Golden in 1910 as a result of injuries sustained in a fall at the Overland, joining his wife who preceded him in the 1880s. The Colorado School of Mines dedicated Berthoud Hall in his honor in 1940.


Bolshoy Kuranah mine

The Bolshoy Kuranah mine is one of the largest gold mines in Russia and in the world. The mine is located in Sakha Republic. The mine has estimated reserves of 7.4 million oz of gold.


David Yurdiga

David Yurdiga (born March 26, 1964) is a Canadian politician, who was elected to represent the riding of Fort McMurray-Athabasca in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2014 by-election. He was subsequently elected to the newly formed riding of Fort McMurray-Cold Lake in the 42nd Canadian general election. He is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Personal background.
Yurdiga studied power engineering at a technical school in Alberta. Beginning in the early 1990s, Yurdiga sold industrial chemicals and safety equipment out of Fort McMurray. He then branched out and created a consulting and property management business in Lac La Biche.
In 2007, Yurdiga was elected to Athabasca County's council, representing Grassland. He was named deputy reeve in 2008, and then served as reeve from 2009 to 2013.
He is married, and has a son and daughter.
Electoral record.
With the departure of Brian Jean in 2014, Yurdiga was selected to be the Conservative candidate in the by-election to represent Fort McMurray-Athabasca.


Suke mine

The Suke mine is one of the largest nickel mines in Kosovo. The mine is located in Glogovac in Pristina district. The mine has reserves amounting to 0.63 million tonnes of ore grading 1.36% nickel, 0.06% copper, 30.56% iron, 49.17% silica and 9.48% magnesite thus resulting 8,600 tonnes of nickel, 378 tonnes of copper, 192,500 tonnes of iron, 309,800 tonnes of silica and 59,700 tonnes of magnesite.


Minong Mine Historic District

The Minong Mine is a historic mine site located west of McCargoe Cove campground on Isle Royale National Park, Michigan, United States. The district contains both the remnants of a 19th-century copper mine and remains of pre-contact mining activity. Pre-contact archeological sited in the district include a Late Archaic copper mining pit site designated 20KE24 and a nearby site designated 20KE73. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021.
Pre-historic mining.
Native Americans first began mining copper at the Minong Mine site 4500 years ago, using stone implements to extract the pure copper available at the site and cold-hammering the metal to form spear points and other implements. These prehistoric miners created pits, some as much as 30 feet deep, that can still be seen at the site. Some pits showed evidence of early engineering efforts, using boulders to support the walls of the pit and drains to remove water. There was evidence that these ancient miners utilized fire-setting, where rocks were split by heating them with fire and rapidly cooling them with water to extract the copper within.
When re-discovered in the 19th century, the prehistoric excavations in the Minong Mine area were described as extending "in almost a continuous line for more than two miles, in most instances the pits being so close together as barely to permit their convenient working." A number of ancient mining artifacts were collected from the Minong site; primarily smooth cobbles used as hammers which were, it was said "collected by the cartload." In addition, a fragment of a wooden bowl about three feet across, a wooden shovel, and a rawhide string were also discovered at the site.
The Minong Mine (1872-1885).
Modern copper mining on Isle Royale was begun in the 1840s and 1850s, although not at the Minong Mine site. This activity ceased in 1855, and for a number of years there were no permanent inhabitants on the island. In 1871, a group of explorers working for the North American Mineral Land Company arrived on the island. In the fall of that year, the explorers found the old Native American pit mines west of McCargoe Cove. In 1872, a group of prospectors returned and staked out the Minong Mine.
In late 1874, the Minong Mining Company was organized in Detroit to mine the copper deposits in the area. The name "Minong" was taken from an Ojibwa word for "island" in general and Isle Royale in particular. This company purchased land from the North American Mineral Land Company and commenced a mining operation in 1875.
Most of the copper mining was still done in open pit mining, but two shafts, one over 300 feet, were also sunk at the mine. In 1875, more than 50 people were working at the Minong Mine and living in the nearby settlement of Cove, at the end of McCargoe Cove. Later, at the height of the Minong operation, some 150 miners were employed at the mine. A railroad ran between the mine proper and Cove, and the mining settlement had a post office, a dam, a stamp mill (built in 1876), a dock, and a blacksmith's shop.
The mine produced some large nuggets of copper; the first, in 1874, was a 5720-pound nugget which was subsequently displayed on the courthouse lawn in Detroit and at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. This copper mass showed evidence of being worked by prehistoric miners, "the surface of the mass had evidently been beaten up into projecting ridges... depressions, several inches deep, and the intervening elevations, with their fractured summits, covering every foot of the exposed superficies." In 1878, a copper mass weighing six tons was discovered, and in 1879 two nuggets of 3317 and 4175 pounds were discovered.
In 1879, the Minong Mining Company was reorganized to form the Minong Copper Company, with its headquarters also located in Detroit. The Minong Copper Company continued work until June 1883, when they suspended mining operations, due in part to the low price of copper. A few individuals continued mining operations for another two years or so, but by 1885 all activity had ceased.
In the ten years between 1875 and 1885, Minong Mine produced 249 tons of copper. However, the amount of copper produced slowly dwindled, and the mine was abandoned in 1885.
The site today.
The area around Minong Mine sports small prehistoric pits, as well as the larger pits (now filled with water) and shafts from the 1870s mine. Piles of tailings, the wreckage of a smithy, railroad tracks, and ore carts also are at the site. As of 1994, the dam near McCargoe Cove was still intact.


John Marley (mining engineer)

John Marley (11 November 1823 – 4 April 1891) was an English mining engineer from Darlington who together with ironmaster John Vaughan made the "commercial discovery" of the Cleveland Ironstone Formation, the basis of the wealth of their company Bolckow Vaughan and the industrial growth of Middlesbrough. He was an effective leader of engineering operations at Bolckow Vaughan's mines and collieries. He ended his career as a wealthy independent mine-owner and president of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (NEIMME).
Life and career.
Marley was born at Middridge Grange, by Shildon, County Durham, England, not far from the town of Heighington. He was educated at Denton near Darlington. From 1840 he served as assistant at several Durham collieries (coal mines). In 1845 he worked as a surveyor for the Stockton and Darlington Railway.
In 1846 he became resident viewer at Woodifield Colliery, the start of his career at Bolckow & Vaughan. Over the next two decades, he became the head of engineering operations for Bolckow and Vaughan's mines and collieries, capably organising a wide range of mining operations. In 1850, Vaughan and Marley made their famous "discovery" of the main seam of Cleveland Ironstone. The existence of iron in the Cleveland hills was in fact well known, possibly since ancient times and certainly since at least 1811, as repeated attempts had been made to sell it, but without success.
In 1852, Marley, then at Bishop Auckland, became a founding member of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (NEIMME); he joined the NEIMME council in 1856, giving his address as Mining Offices, Darlington. He became Vice-President in 1872. He served as President from 1888–1890.
In 1863, Marley discovered a deposit of rock salt at Middlesbrough while drilling for water. He resigned from Bolckow Vaughan in 1867, but continued to consult with them until 1869.
In 1870, Marley became chairman of his own company, the newly registered North Brancepeth Coal Co. Ltd. It grew to include 4 collieries.
Family.
By 1881, John Marley was living at Thornfield House, Darlington with his wife Sarah, four daughters, Caroline, Florence, Ethel and Isabel, and a son, Hugh. Another son J.W. Marley wrote a posthumous biographical note about Marley for the Institution of Mining Engineers. His nephew, Thomas William Marley followed him as chairman of the North Brancepeth Coal company.
"Discovery".
History and geology.
Iron has been worked in Cleveland on a small scale since before Roman times. The Cleveland Ironstone Formation consists of seams of marine ironstone alternating with shale and siltstone, of Lower Jurassic age.
The Cleveland Ironstone Formation represents the Middle Lias or Upper Pliensbachian-Domerian. Two Ammonite zones (rock layers identified by particular fossils) are (largely) included: those indexed by "Pleuroceras spinatum" and "Amaltheus margaritatus".
Legend.
The local newspaper "The Northern Echo" records the legend of Marley's discovery: "Legend has it that on June 8, 1850, the two men were out shooting rabbits in the Cleveland Hills. Marley tripped over a burrow. As he sprawled down the hole, his hand landed on the purest ironstone he had ever seen. "Eureka!" he shouted." The "Echo" at once adds "This does the men a disservice."
Commercial reality.
The discovery was no serendipitous accident. Marley was asked by his employer, John Vaughan, co-founder of the company Bolckow Vaughan to study the geology of Cleveland, to help him locate a profitably thick seam of ironstone, conveniently close to Middlesbrough. Bolckow Vaughan had already in 1848 "collected and shipped to Middlesbrough several thousand tons found on the coast between Redcar and Skinningrove"; Vaughan guessed that the same thick seams including the main bed might be found inland, in the Eston and Upleatham hills near the railway.
On 8 June 1850, Marley and Vaughan walked the coast to survey it for workable iron ore, expecting to find places where they could "bore" down to find useful amounts. They discovered seams of the ironstone running from the North Yorkshire coast at Staithes inland to the Eston Hills, outcropping at the surface. This find was swiftly exploited, and Middlesbrough grew very rapidly to support the new ironworks developed by Bolckow Vaughan and others in the area. The main ironstone seam (see illustration) in the Eston Hills is 16 feet thick.
Marley is recorded as doubting "whether the Romans or the Monks [of Rievaulx] ever smelted any part of the main bed of ironstone, which has in recent years proved such a source of wealth to the North, because in the various remains of slag and refuse left by them in Bilsdale, Bransdale, Rosedale, Furnace House in Fryupdale, Rievaulx Abbey, and other places, no traces of the main seam of ironstone have been found, although 'dogger band' (or thin clay bands of ironstone) and 'nodules' have been so found along with the charcoal and slag."
Marley described his discovery as follows: "Mr. Vaughan and myself, having gone to examine the hills for the most suitable place for boring, we decided to ascend to the east, adjoining Sir J. H. Lowther's grounds, and so walk along to Lady Hewley's grounds on the west. In ascending the hill in Mr. C. Dryden's grounds, we picked up two or three small pieces of ironstone. We, therefore, continued our ascent until we came to a quarry hole, from whence this ironstone had been taken for roads, and next, on entering Sir J. H. Lowther's grounds to the west, a solid rock of ironstone was lying bare, upwards of sixteen feet thick."
The legend about the rabbit-hole did have some basis in reality: the many rabbit and fox holes provided the prospecting geologists with samples of the underlying rock (away from surface exposures of the geology at natural cliffs) at intervals along the ironstone outcrop. Marley stated "I need scarcely say that, having once found this bed, we had no difficulty in following the outcrop in going westward, without any boring, as the rabbit and fox holes therein were plentiful as we went."
The commercial benefit of the "discovery" was simple: the ironstone was exposed at the surface, "which rendered boring unnecessary." The rock could simply be quarried, and rolled in tramway wagons down to a 2-mile extension of the railway. The rate of growth of ironstone production was prodigious. In 1850, just 4,000 tons of Cleveland Ironstone were extracted. The railway extension opened on 6 January 1851, and in that year, 187,950 tons were extracted.
In 1857, Marley published a paper in the "Transactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers" on the Cleveland Ironstone, which begins: "To the members of this Institute, this ironstone cannot but be an interesting subject, whether they be mining engineers, coal owners, iron masters, or simply a part of the public personally disinterested, as I believe that nothing has been discovered, within the last twenty years, having so direct an influence on the landed, railway, and mineral wealth, in the North of England, on the South Durham coal field, and on the iron trade generally, as the discovery and application of this large ironstone district." Marley continued: "I suppose it may now be taken as an admitted fact, that the prosperity or depression of the iron and coal trades regulates, in a very material degree, the prosperity or depression of nearly all other commercial pursuits in the same locality."
Marley was correct. In 1864, just 14 years after the discovery of the rich source of ironstone, Bolckow, Vaughan and Company Ltd was registered with capital of £2,500,000, making it the largest company ever formed up to that time. Middlesbrough more than doubled in population from 7600 in 1851 to 19,000 in 1861, and then doubled again to 40,000 in 1871, driven by the iron industry.


Nurbinskaya diamond mine

The Nurbinskaya mine is one of the largest diamond mines in Russia and in the world. The mine is located in the north-eastern part of the country in the Sakha Republic. The mine has estimated reserves of 67.8 million carats of diamonds and an annual production capacity of 6.95 million carats.


Zavalye mine

The Zavalye mine is one of the largest graphite mines in Ukraine and in the world. The mine is located in the center of the country in Kirovohrad Oblast. The mine has estimated reserves of 6.4 million tonnes of ore 7% graphite.


Frank Hodges (trade unionist)

Frank Hodges (30 April 1887 – 3 June 1947) was an English trade union leader, who became General Secretary of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. A Member of Parliament (MP) for one year, he was Civil Lord of the Admiralty in the first Labour Government.
Early life.
Hodges was born in Woolaston in Gloucestershire in 1887, but moved to Wales at a young age. At the age of 14 he was working at the Powell Tillery Pit in Abertillery, and due to his desire to read, he came to the attention of one of the mining officials, who sponsored him to attend night school. At the age of sixteen, inspired by the preacher Evan Roberts, he became a Methodist and was soon preaching in the evenings. Like many trade unionists before him, he found his religious beliefs tied into the plight of the coal-miners, and joined the Trade Union movement. At the same time his political views led him to become a member of the Independent Labour Party.
At the age of eighteen, Hodges heard Philip Snowden addressing a crowd. He found Snowden inspirational and from that moment he saw the politician as his 'ideal'. Hodges was also shaped by the views of the Welsh syndicalist Noah Ablett, whose Plebs' League he later joined. Through his trade union links, Hodges secured a scholarship to Ruskin College, Oxford, and spent two years there from 1909. Although many of the students from Ruskin were not treated with the same equality as those at other Oxford colleges, Hodges found the life away from the coal mines to be to his liking, describing it as the great time of his life. In 1911, after the end of his studies, Hodges spent a brief time in Paris, where he stayed with the Marxist Paul Lafargue and his wife Laura Marx, only a few months before their joint suicide.
Political and union career.
After leaving Oxford, Hodges returned to work in the mines. After his time at Oxford he found the manual work as a hewer unbearable and attempted to find more intellectual work. He answered an advertisement for a job as a trade union agent, and was accepted as the Garw district representative of the South Wales Miners' Federation. Now twenty four, Hodges was in a career where he felt he could change the lives of others for the better, and started reforming his district's organisation. His work as a union agent was rewarded when in 1919 he became the Permanent Secretary of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. In this role he negotiated terms and conditions for the mining industry with the Government which included meetings with Lloyd George.
In 1921, The South Wales Miners' Federation called for strike action after the coalowners demanded a reduction in wages from the miners. The miners rejected the terms and were locked out. The Miners' Federation called upon the aid of the Triple Alliance and a strike was called for 12 April. While preparations were taking place for the strike, the leaders of the Triple Alliance pushed the strike back to 15 April; in the interim, Hodges approached MPs independently in the hope of securing a temporary solution. When asked by the MPs if the miners would accept a wage that would not fall below the cost of living, Hodges stated that "any such offer...would receive very serious consideration". This action was seen as an act of betrayal by the miners' executive and Hodges lost the support of his own union. The Alliance fell apart and many unions withdrew their support, leaving the workers in an impossible situation as solidarity broke down; the event became known as 'Black Friday'.
In 1923, Hodges ran for political office, as Member of Parliament for Lichfield as a Labour candidate. He won the seat becoming part of the first Labour Government, under the leadership of
Ramsay MacDonald and was given the office of First Lord of the Admiralty. It was during his period as a Member of Parliament that Hodges was invited to the Rhondda to play at Ton Pentre golf club in a game with the Duke of York before he became King George VI.
Now a government minister, and seen as an increasing moderate, the Miners' Federation took the opportunity to replace Hodges as Secretary. Hodges understood his position was no longer secure and resigned before he was pushed out. His replacement was the far more radical Arthur Cook from the Rhondda district. The next year, Hodges left his political post and was appointed a member of the Central Electricity Board in 1926.


Bentley, South Yorkshire

Bentley is a suburb of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England two miles north of the town of Doncaster. The population of the ward within the Doncaster MBC borough at the 2011 Census was 14,191.
Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, the village was once owned by Edmund Hastings of Plumtree, Nottinghamshire, who had inherited it from his wife Copley's Sprotborough family. Hastings subsequently sold the manor to John Levett, a York lawyer born at High Melton who married the niece of Hastings's wife, who then conveyed it to Sir Arthur Ingram of York, High Sheriff of Yorkshire.
A former mining village, it lies on the River Don. Bentley Colliery, which is now Bentley Park, closed in December 1993. Bentley and the nearby hamlet of Toll Bar were badly affected by floods in June 2007.
The local parish church of St. Paul's dates back to 1891. A second church, Church of SS Philip and James in the New Village area was dedicated in 1915
Bentley is made up of many parts; West End, New Village and Rostholme. Streets in Bentley include Cooke Street and High Street.
During the 2019 United Kingdom floods residents of Bentley were asked to leave their homes after the area suffered flooding.


North Onezhsky mine

The North Onezhsky mine (, "Severo-Onezhsky Boksitovy Rundnik")
is a large mine located in the northern part of Russia in Arkhangelsk Oblast. It operates on one of the sections of the Iksinskoye bauxite deposit ().
North Onezhsky represents one of the largest bauxite reserve in Russia and one of the largest in Europe, having estimated reserves of 120 million tonnes.
The miners' town near the mine is called Severoonezhsk.


Denis Murphy (British politician)

Denis Murphy (born 2 November 1948) is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wansbeck from 1997 until 2010.
Early life.
He attended the (Roman Catholic) St Cuthbert's Grammar School on "Gretna Road" in Newcastle upon Tyne. He then attended Northumberland College in Ashington.
He had previously led Wansbeck District Council. He is a member of the NUM and was the only member of the 1997 parliamentary intake to be backed by that union. Denis Murphy formerly worked down the mines himself. From 1965 to 1969, he was an apprentice electrician. From 1969 to 1994, he was an electrician at Ellington Colliery in Ellington, which closed in 2005.
Parliamentary career.
On his proudest achievement in government since 1997 Denis Murphy said: "I was proud of the major role I played to secure funding for the UK mining industry, safeguarding hundreds of jobs in my constituency and the future of the last deep mine in the Great Northern coalfield, Ellington colliery in Northumberland." Ellington Colliery subsequently closed on 26 January 2005.
On 5 November 2009, Murphy announced his decision to stand down at the next general election. His successor in the constituency is Ian Lavery, the President of the National Union of Mineworkers.


FCI Aravali Gypsum and Minerals (India) Limited

FCI Aravali Gypsum & Minerals India Ltd. is a public sector enterprise in India operating in the field of mining operations since 1952, supplying mineral Gypsum .


Petrila Coal Mine

Petrila Coal Mine is an underground mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Petrila, one of six cities in the Jiu Valley region of Hunedoara County. The legal entity managing the Petrila mine is the National Hard Coal Company which was set up in 1998. The mine has reserves of 16.5 million tonnes of coal.


Strezovce mine

The Strezovce mine (Serbian Cyrillic: Рудник Стрезовце, Albanian: "Strezovc") is one of the largest magnesite mines in Kosovo. The mine is located in Kosovo Polje in Pristina district. The mine has reserves amounting to 3.66 million tonnes of ore grading 40.49% magnesite and 9.29% silica thus resulting 1,482,000 tonnes of magnesite and 340,000 tonnes of silica.


Lake Way

Lake Way is a dry saline lake located in the Mid West region of Western Australia, approximately south of Wiluna. It also gives its name to a nearby cattle station, the Lake Way Station.
Description.
The lake, dry except during exceptional floods such as occurred in 1900, 1942, 1963, repeatedly from 1992 to 2001 and in 2006, runs roughly parallel to the Leinster-Wiluna road, which is part of the Goldfields Highway.
The lake is the site of one of the most advanced uranium mining projects in Western Australia, the Centipede–Lake Way project, which is pursued by Toro Energy. Toro Energy has acquired the Lake Maitland uranium project and in 2010 proposed to operate both projects.
Mining.
Gold.
The lake has been the site of an open-pit gold mining operation, which was part of the Wiluna Gold Mine. The "Williamson" pit, located within the lake and accessed through a causeway, was mined from 2005 to 2007, but the pit only contained low grade ore of approximately 1.75 g/t. After initial high expectations and reported grades of up to 25 g/t, the operation was a disappointment, with less-than-expected production. The open pit was also the site of a fatal mining accident in July 2005.
Agincourt Resources, the owner of the mine at the time, spun off its uranium exploration by forming Nova Energy in April 2005. After the takeover of Agincourt through Oxiana Limited, Nova Energy became part of Toro Energy in August 2007.
Uranium mining project.
The six-year Western Australian ban on uranium mining was lifted in 2008, after the 2008 state elections, which saw the Australian Labor Party replaced in government by the Liberal Party of Australia. Two uranium mining projects in the state were expected to begin production by 2012-13, the U3O8 Lake Maitland project, located at Lake Maitland, pursued by Mega Uranium, and the U3O8 Centipede–Lake Way project undertaken by Toro Energy.
The uranium mining projects in Western Australia have attracted opposition from organisations like the Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia, which have attempted to put a hold on them before they reach active mining stage.
Uranium mining at Lake Way is not a new project but dates back to 1978, when it was first proposed by the Wyoming Mineral Corporation and Delhi International Oil. In 1982, the Australian Government granted Delhi International permission to develop the mine, but the project was suspended in the following year. Mining would have been carried out in the form of small open pits, spread over nine square kilometres.
Current mining activities at Lake Way are scheduled to be carried out at two locations, at the "Lake Way" deposit at the northern end of the lake and the "Centipede" deposit on the southwestern side of the lake. Toro plans to extract the uranium oxide through a heap leach process, with an annual production of and a mine life of 10 years.
In February 2010, Toro received advice from the Western Australian Minister for Environment, Donna Faragher, that the government had dismissed an appeal against the level of environmental assessment protocols for the Wiluna project. Previous to that, the government granted approval for a resource evaluation test pit at Lake Way, with the trial also receiving approval from the native title holders. Following this, in May 2010, Toro carried out an eight-week operation of a test pit.
Western Australian MP Robin Chapple queried why radioactive uranium oxide and ore was still lying around unburied and unfenced at Lake Way in 2010, after an earlier question on the same subject had been raised in 2000. The Department of Mines and Petroleum confirmed the material as naturally occurring uranium-bearing rock through laboratory testing.


Coal Region

The Coal Region is a historically important coal-mining area in Northeastern Pennsylvania in the central Ridge-and-valley Appalachian Mountains, comprising Lackawanna, Luzerne, Columbia, Carbon, Schuylkill, Northumberland, and the extreme northeast corner of Dauphin counties. Academics have made the distinction between the North Anthracite Coal Field and the South Anthracite Coal Field, the lower region bearing the further classification Anthracite Uplands in physical geology. The Southern Coal Region can be further broken into the Southeastern and Southwestern Coal Regions, with the divide between the Little Schuylkill and easternmost tributary of the Schuylkill River with the additional divide line from the Lehigh watershed extended through Barnesville the determining basins.
The region's combined population was 898,834 people as of 2015. Many of the place names in the region are from the Delaware Indians (the self-named Lenape peoples) and the powerful Susquehannock nation, an Iroquoian people who dominated the Susquehanna valley in the 16th and 17th century when Dutch, Swedish and French migrants were exploring North America and founding settlements along the Atlantic Seaboard.
The Coal Region or Pennsylvania Anthracite Region or fields is home to the largest known deposits of anthracite coal found in the Americas, with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons.
Geography.
The region lies north of the Lehigh Valley and Berks County Regions, south of the Endless Mountains, west of the Pocono Mountains, and east of the Susquehanna Valley. The region lies at the northern edge of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, and draws its name from the vast deposits of anthracite coal that can be found under several of the valleys in the region. The Wyoming Valley is the most densely populated of these valleys, and contains the cities of Wilkes-Barre, Greater Pittston, and Scranton. Hazleton and Pottsville are two of the larger cities in the southern portion of the region. The Lehigh and Schuylkill Rivers both originate within the region, while the much larger Susquehanna River skirts the northern edge.
History.

The population of the Amerindian tribesmen of the Susquehannock nation was reduced 90 percent in three years of a plague of diseases and possibly war, opening up the Susquehanna Valley and all of Pennsylvania to settlement as the tribe was all but eliminated. Settlement in the region predates the American Revolution: both Delaware and Susquehannock power had been broken by disease and Indian-on-Indian warfare before the British took over the Dutch and Swedish colonies and settled Pennsylvania.
The first discovery of anthracite coal in the region occurred in 1762, and the first mine was established in 1775 near Pittston. In 1791, anthracite was discovered by a hunter atop Pisgah Ridge, and by 1792 the Lehigh Coal Mining Company began producing and shipping coal to Philadelphia via Mauch Chunk from the Southern Anthracite Field and Summit Hill, built atop the line between Schuylkill County and what would be renamed Carbon County. By 1818, customers fed up with the inconsistent mismanagement leased the Lehigh Coal Mining Company and founded the Lehigh Navigation Company: construction soon began for navigation; the locks and dams on the Lehigh River rapids stretches, later known as the Lehigh Canal (finished in 1820).
In 1822, the two companies merged as the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N), and by 1824 the company was shipping large volumes of coal down the Lehigh and Delaware Canals. Meanwhile, three brothers had similar ideas from near the turn of the century, and about the same time began mining coal in Carbondale, northeast of Scranton, but high enough to run a gravity railroad to the Delaware River and feed New York City via the Delaware and Hudson Canal. Pennsylvania began the Delaware Canal to connect the Lehigh Canal to Philadelphia and environs, while funding to build a canal across the Appalachians' Allegheny Mountains to Pittsburgh. In 1827, LC&N built the second railroad in the country, a gravity railroad from Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway, running Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk.
Population rapidly grew in the period following the American Civil War, with the expansion of the mining and railroad industries. English, Welsh, Irish and German immigrants formed a large portion of this increase, followed by Polish, Slovak, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Jewish, and Lithuanian immigrants. The influence of these immigrant populations is still strongly felt in the region, with various towns possessing pronounced ethnic characters and cuisine.
The anthracite mining industry loomed over the region until its decline in the 1950s. Strip mines and fires, most notably in Centralia, remain visible. Several violent incidences in the history of the U.S. labor movement occurred within the coal region as this was the location of the Lattimer Massacre and the home of the Molly Maguires.
The Knox Mine Disaster in 1959 served as the death knell for deep mining which faded away in the mid 1960s; almost all current anthracite mining is done via strip mining. Tours of underground mines can be taken in Ashland, Scranton, and Lansford, each of them also having museums dedicated to the mining industry. Also evident are patch towns, small villages affiliated with a particular mine. These towns were owned by the mining company. Though no longer company owned, many hamlets survive; one of them, the Eckley Miners' Village, is a museum and preserved historical town owned and administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which seeks to restore patch towns to their original state.


RJB Mining