Truman H. Aldrich

Truman Heminway Aldrich (October 17, 1848 – April 28, 1932) was a civil engineer, a mining company executive, and a paleontologist, and briefly served in the United States House of Representatives and as Postmaster of Birmingham. He is the sole Republican ever to represent Alabama's 9th congressional district, which existed from 1893 to 1963. His brother William F. Aldrich also represented Alabama in Congress, serving three partial terms during 1896–1901 from Alabama's 4th congressional district.
Early life and education.
Aldrich was born in Palmyra and suffered from poor health as a young boy. He attended public schools and a military academy at West Chester, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He graduated in 1869 with a degree in mining and civil engineering and took a job with the railroads in New York and New Jersey. In 1870 he married Anna Morrison of Newark.
Alabama coalfield development.
Aldrich's career was characterized by innovation and long-term vision. His strength was in finding new resources, developing them and then moving on to the next discovery. He was an honorable man in science as well as in business.
In 1872, Aldrich became a partner in a banking enterprise in Selma, Alabama. While in the region, he investigated the existing coal-mining operations at Montevallo and around the Cahaba Coal Field. The next year he secured a lease on the Montevallo coal mines and set to work extracting coal that summer. He purchased the mines outright in 1875 and named the surrounding settlement Aldrich, leasing the operation to his younger brother William while he prospected for new seams. He incorporated the Jefferson Coal Company in the town of Morris, from which he supplied fuel for the first successful coke-fired furnace in the Birmingham District, helping to establish the area as a center of iron and steel production.
In 1881 Aldrich founded the Cahaba Coal Company in Bibb County. After building a railroad connector, the company laid out a "model community" on the bank of Caffee Creek. After seeing a "ton block" of coal brought from the mine, Aldrich named the town Blocton. Blocton coal earned a reputation as an efficient fuel for steam locomotives and the profitable company embarked on a period of great expansion. Aldrich advertised widely for miners who arrived from all over the United States, as well as Western and Central Europe. By the summer of 1890 over 3,600 people were residents of Blocton and products from the companies' mines and ovens were being sold to customers throughout the Southeast and parts of Latin America.
In addition to his many business interests, Aldrich pursued a lifelong fascination with shell collecting, eventually amassing one of the largest amateur collections of his time, partly by purchase and partly by collecting in person. In the 1890s he joined a "Shell Syndicate" to support naturalists Herbert Huntington Smith and Amelia W. (Daisy) Smith, who collected freshwater and terrestrial mollusks in Alabama and Georgia. State Geologist Eugene Allen Smith encouraged Aldrich to concentrate his efforts in the Tertiary paleontology of the Coastal Plain, often sending him material to identify, and Aldrich collected thousands of fossils from now-classic sites along the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, such as Claiborne. He contributed an article to Bulletin 1 of the Geological Survey of Alabama on the state's Eocene fossil record, including nine plates illustrating new species. His collection of modern shells is now in the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, and his fossil shells are in the Geological Survey of Alabama Paleontological Collection and the Alabama Museum of Natural History.
Aldrich also supplied information on the coal fields he had surveyed to John Witherspoon Dubose and to Squire's "Report on the Cahaba Coal Field" published by the Geological Survey of Alabama in 1890.
Later career.
In 1890 Aldrich faced a major labor strike initiated by the United Mine Workers of America. He defeated this strike by hiring, for the first time, African Americans to operate the mine. In 1892 Aldrich sold the combined Cahaba and Excelsior Coal Company to the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. Aldrich became a second vice-president and general manager for TCI. As an executive of that company he secured investments that helped TCI survive the depression of 1893, including a contribution of grain and flour from B. B. Comer. He moved his residence from Blocton to Birmingham.
In 1896 Aldrich secured the Republican nomination to the 54th United States Congress by contesting the election of Oscar W. Underwood. As a Republican in a largely Democratic state, Aldrich served for less than a year before being defeated by Underwood in the 1896 election. He returned to the coal business as president of the Cahaba Southern Mining Company, which operated mines at Hargrove in Bibb County. In 1899 he became a vice-president of the Birmingham Machinery and Foundry Company and, two years later, was named the acting president of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Company. He also opened the Virginia mines, which were the site of a tragic explosion in 1905 in Hueytown, Alabama that killed over 100 miners.
In 1902 Aldrich joined his son in a prospecting venture in Tallapoosa County called the Hillabee Gold Company. In 1905 he bought the Montevallo Mining Company back and served until 1910 as its president. In 1911 President William Howard Taft, who had been a neighbor in Cincinnati, Ohio, appointed him as Postmaster of Birmingham.
Aldrich's paleontological hobby became his career in later life, when Eugene Allen Smith appointed him as Curator of Paleontology of the Alabama Museum of Natural History. He donated large collections of Southeastern fossils, many from sites that are no longer exposed today. Under Herbert Huntington Smith and Daisy Smith, who were hired in 1909, the Museum continued his species-based cataloging system for fossils and Aldrich continued to write short articles on Tertiary mollusks. His research into the area's paleontology earned him wide esteem and he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Alabama. He described over 200 species.
In 1930, the octogenarian Aldrich named new ichnogenera of fossil footprints that were discovered in a University of Alabama coalmine in Walker County, Alabama—his only venture into the field of ichnology. Although his descriptions were brief, the well-reproduced photographic plates brought this work to renewed attention when similar trackways were discovered in 1999 at the nearby Union Chapel Mine (now the Stephen C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site).
E. A. Smith was a close friend of T. H. Aldrich, and named one of his sons Truman Aldrich Smith in his honor. J.H. Blake was also a close friend of Aldrich and named his only son Truman Aldrich Blake. J.H. Blake's daughter, Laura Blake Murphy, named her first son Truman Burgess Murphy, and he named his first son Truman Burgess Murphy Jr.
Truman Aldrich died in 1932 at the age of 83 and was buried in Birmingham's Elmwood Cemetery.


Ian Telfer

Ian Telfer is a British-born Canadian mining executive, entrepreneur and former Chairman of Goldcorp Inc. Besides leading Goldcorp, he is known for founding and leading other Canadian mining companies, including TVX Gold, Silver Wheaton Corp., and Uranium One, as well as for his philanthropic efforts that include a donation of $25 million to the University of Ottawa's School of Management, now the Telfer School of Management.
Early life and education.
Ian Telfer was born in Oxford, England. Telfer's father, John Telfer, served as a Royal Air Force pilot, then as an accountant, while his mother worked as a schoolteacher. When Telfer was two years old, his family moved from England to Canada.
Telfer's family first lived in Moose Jaw, Canada for five years before moving to the Downsview neighbourhood of Toronto, which is where Telfer was raised. Telfer attended the University of Toronto, graduating from the university with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and economics in 1968. Telfer graduated with an uncertainty as to what to do with his life and what his next step would be.
At age twenty-five, following five years of working at "nondescript" sales jobs, Telfer realized he needed to "reboot" his life and applied to a number of MBA programs in Canada. Because of his grades, he was rejected by all of the schools. The day before classes began, Telfer was accepted to the University of Ottawa’s MBA program. In Telfer’s words, being accepted to this university’s MBA program changed his life and "kick-started everything".
After earning his MBA from the university in 1976, Telfer earned his certified accountant credentials, becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Career.
Telfer first worked at Hudson Bay Mining as a financial analyst. At Hudson Bay, Telfer learned the essentials of the mining business, such as strategic planning and how to evaluate businesses. As Telfer has explained in the past, "Everything I learned (about the mining business), I learned there." Though Telfer had no long-term plans of working in the mining industry, he credits getting a job at Hudson Bay as a "coincidental opportunity" and something that lit up his entrepreneurial ambitions.
After working at Hudson Bay, in 1983, Telfer, along with several other colleagues in the mining industry, formed TVX Gold, with Telfer serving as the company's Chief Executive Officer. The ambition behind TVX Gold was to take advantage of the gold rush occurring in Brazil at the time. Telfer moved to Rio de Janeiro and spent the next six years leading TVX Gold in Brazil and working with mining executive and entrepreneur Eike Batista. TVX Gold would later merge with Kinross Gold Corp.
Vengold Inc..
After TVX Gold, in the 1990s, Telfer formed and led Vengold Inc. as its Chief Executive Officer. Vengold was a gold mining company with ambitions of becoming the largest shareholder in Lihir Gold, a gold mining company based in Papua New Guinea.
In order to achieve this goal, Telfer led Vengold in purchasing shares of Lihir Gold from the government of Papua New Guinea through a line of credit. While doing so, the price of gold decreased, leading Vengold to have more debt than equity.
As Telfer recalls, seeing that the end was near for Vengold, on September 29, 1999, gold experienced a brief uptick in price. Taking advantage of the brief window, Telfer sold all the shares of Vengold to pay off the banks, leaving him and his shareholders with a shell company with $30 million to its name.
As Telfer describes, at the time, dot-com companies were the "flavour of the moment" and for the sake of investors, Telfer morphed this shell company into a dot-com venture called Itemus Inc., an Internet incubator.
Itemus stock ran up from $0.06 to $5 and some investors did make money. However, lacking a sustainable revenue source, Itemus filed for bankruptcy in 2001.
Wheaton River Minerals Inc..
After a five-year lull, in 2002, the price of gold began to see a rebound. In 2001, Telfer was approached by mining financier, Frank Giustra. At the time, gold was still trading at a low $300 an ounce level. Together, Telfer and Giustra discussed plans of re-entering the gold market and finding an appropriate investment vehicle to do so. Giustra pinpointed Wheaton River Minerals, which at the time was a shell company with $5 to $10 million and 6 employees.
Telfer and Giustra raised the capital to buy into Wheaton River, and in October 2001, Telfer became Wheaton River's Chief Executive Officer. By December of the same year, with gold prices rebounding, Telfer began looking for gold assets to acquire and first acquired the Luismin mine in Mexico for roughly $75 million in April 2002. Over the next three years, buoyed by a gold bull market, Telfer led Wheaton River in acquiring several other gold mines. In a three-year span, Telfer guided Wheaton River from a roughly $10 million company to one with an approximately $2.4 billion valuation.
Goldcorp Inc..
In 2004, Wheaton River Minerals announced plans of merging with IamGold Corp. When IamGold shareholders rejected the merger, it left the door open for a different merger.
In 2004, Wheaton River merged with established Goldcorp Inc. in a $2.4-billion share swap that saw Goldcorp absorbing Wheaton River. Following the merger, Goldcorp's Board of Directors appointed Telfer as Goldcorp's new Chief Executive Officer. In 2006, Telfer led in Goldcorp's friendly acquisition of Glamis Gold, a merger that at the time created the world's third largest gold mining company. The new, larger company retained the Goldcorp name. The merger also shifted Telfer from Chief Executive Officer of Goldcorp to the company's Chairman.
Silver Wheaton Corp..
In April 2005, Wheaton River Minerals faced a hostile bid for its silver assets by Coeur Mining Inc., then called Coeur d’Alene Mines. Rather than accepting the hostile bid, Telfer led in separating off Wheaton River Minerals’ silver assets into a new company to be called Silver Wheaton Corp. Telfer was also instrumental in brainstorming the concept behind Silver Wheaton, which is a mining company that does not do any mining itself, but instead acquires silver byproduct from other mining companies that are focused on other precious metals.
In April 2006, Telfer stepped down from his role as director of Silver Wheaton Corp.
Other companies.
In addition to his work with Wheaton River Minerals and Goldcorp, Telfer has founded and led other mining companies. In 2006, Telfer and Frank Giustra formed UrAsia Energy, a uranium producer operating a mine in Kazakhstan. Telfer served as UrAsia's Chairman. In 2007, UrAsia merged with Uranium One Inc., with Telfer continuing on as Uranium One's Chairman.
Telfer contributed in launching Terrane Minerals, Tahoe Resources, Peak Gold and Primero Mining.
Telfer is also the co-founder of Renaissance Oil Corp., an oil company currently developing shale and oil fields in Mexico. Telfer launched Renaissance Oil after Mexico began privatizing its oil and gas industry.
World Gold Council.
Ian Telfer served as Chairman of the World Gold Council (WGC) from 2009 to 2013.
Charitable work.
Over the years, Ian Telfer has contributed to a number of philanthropic causes. In a 2011 interview, Telfer commented that because personal wealth came to him relatively late in life, it has allowed him to think beyond his own personal gain and place a higher value in philanthropic endeavors.
Telfer has been a supporter of the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation and the Vancouver Playhouse. Telfer and his wife donated $1 million to West Vancouver's Collingwood School between 2009 and 2013. Telfer has also been a supporter of The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, donating $500,000 to the foundation in 2014.
In 2008, Telfer pledged $3 million to the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative.
University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management.
In 2007, Telfer donated $25 million to the University of Ottawa's School of Management, which at the time was the largest donation ever given to the University of Ottawa. It was also believed to be at the time the largest single gift ever given to a Canadian business school. Following Telfer's donation to the school, the University of Ottawa's School of Management was renamed the Telfer School of Management.
In addition to this donation, Telfer established a scholarship at the Telfer School of Management awarded each year to the MBA student accepted to the school with the lowest grades.
In 2015, Telfer donated another $2 million to the Telfer School of Management.
Recognition.
Telfer has been the recipient of various awards and accolades during his professional career. In 2013, Telfer was listed in Canadian Business Magazine's "The Power 50". Telfer was awarded Ernst & Young's 2007 Western Canada Entrepreneur of the year. In 2015, Telfer was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame. That same year, Telfer was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Ottawa.
In 2015, the philanthropic contributions of Telfer and his wife were recognized at the "10th Annual Global Forum on Human Settlements" held at the Headquarters of the United Nations In New York.
In 2016, Telfer was inducted into the Business Laureates of British Columbia Telfer has also been the recipient of the Murray Pezim Award presented by The Association for Mineral Exploration.
Telfer often speaks on lessons he has learned during his career and has emphasized the importance of taking advantage of an opportunity when it presents itself.
Personal life.
Telfer is married and has two children.


Luita

The Luita plant will be the largest copper and cobalt processing plant in Africa, and the largest cobalt facility in the world. It is being built in modules by the Central African Mining and Exploration Company (CAMEC) in Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Luita plant is designed to process copper and cobalt concentrate from Mukondo Mountain, which may be the richest cobalt reserve in the world. In July 2008 CAMEC said the resource estimate at Mukondo was 70 million tons of ore containing 1.5 million tons of copper and 500,000 tonnes of cobalt. The cobalt grade averages 1.2%, an exceptionally high concentration.
The ore is concentrated at the Dense Media Separation (DMS) plant at Kakanda before being trucked to Luita.
In February 2008 CAMEC and their partner, Dan Gertler's Prairie International, announced that the Mukondo Mountain operations had restarted.
In July 2008 CAMEC said the Luita facility, due to be completed later that year, would be the largest of its kind in the world.
The target was to produce 100,000 tonnes per year of copper cathode.
By the end of March, 2008, CAMEC had invested $200 million in Luita, and had three SX/EW copper cathode trains in operation, and a small cobalt concentrator. Eventually there were plans for nine copper cathode trains and one cobalt train, each wide and in length. The under-roof plant will be in size.
When running at full production, the plant was planned to produce 12,000 tons per year of cobalt cathode at 99.9% purity, about one third of total global production of cobalt in 2008.
However, in July 2009 CAMEC announced a long term agreement under which CAMEC would deliver its entire annual production of cobalt in concentrate from Mukondo Mountain to Zhejiang Galico Cobalt & Nickel Materials of China. At that time production was running at between 6,000 and 8,000 tons per year of cobalt in concentrate.


Sino Gold Mining

Sino Gold Mining Limited or Sino Gold () was a gold mining company headquartered in Sydney and conducting most of their mining operations in Jilin, Heilongjiang, Guizhou, and Shaanxi provinces in the People's Republic of China. In addition to being listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, they completed a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Morgan Stanley appointed as financial advisor early in its history. They were later acquired by Canadian mining group Eldorado Gold in 2009 for US 1.8 billion dollars.


Sam Watson (trade unionist)

Samuel Watson CBE (11 March 1898 – 7 May 1967) was Agent of the Durham Miners' Association and member of the British Labour Party’s National Executive Committee.
Watson was born on 11 March 1898 in the village of Boldon Colliery, in County Durham. After an elementary education, at the age of 14 he became an underground coalminer at Boldon Colliery. By the age of 20 he had become secretary of the Boldon Miner's Lodge, continuing to work down the pit until 1936, when he became an agent of the Durham Miners' Association. In 1947 he became General Secretary of the recently reorganised National Union of Mineworkers (Durham Area).
He was active in the Labour Party, was for 22 years a member of its National Executive Committee, and served as its chairman for the year 1949–1950. He declined the possibility of seeking political office in London, however, preferring to remain in Durham.
He was a member of committees of the National Coal Board and undertook many other charitable and educational activities. He was made a CBE in 1946. He died at his home in Durham on 7 May 1967.


Jamuria (community development block)

Jamuria is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Asansol subdivision of Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Geography.
Bahadurpur, a gram panchayat, is located at .
Jamuria CD Block is part of the Ajay Damodar Barakar tract. This area is sort of an extension of the Chota Nagpur Plateau. It is a rocky undulating area with laterite soil, with the Ajay on the north, the Damodar on the south and the Barakar on the west. For ages the area was heavily forested and infested with plunderers and marauders. The discovery of coal, in the eighteenth century, led to industrialisation of the area and most of the forests have been cleared.
Jamuria CD Block is bounded by Nala CD Block, in Jamtara district of Jharkhand, and Khoyrasole CD Block in Birbhum district, on the north, Pandabeswar CD Block on the east, Asansol (municipal corporation) and Raniganj CD Block, on the south and Barabani CD Block on the west.
Jamuria CD Block has an area of 158.10 km2. It has 1 panchayat samity, 10 gram panchayats, 93 gram sansads (village councils), 46 mouzas and 38 inhabited villages. Jamuria police station serves this block. Headquarters of this CD Block is at Bahadurpur.
Gram panchayats of Jamuria block/panchayat samiti are: Bahadurpur, Chinchuria, Churulia, Dobrana, Hijalgora, Kendra, Madantore, Parasea, Shyamalya and Tapsi.
Demographics.
Population.
As per the 2011 Census of India Jamuria CD Block had a total population of 123,176, of which 75,144 were rural and 48,032 were urban. There were 64,578 (52%) males and 58,598 (48%) females. Population below 6 years was 15,141. Scheduled Castes numbered 37,793 (30.68%) and Scheduled Tribes numbered 10,272 (8.34%).
As per 2001 census, Jamuria block had a total population of 112,799, out of which 59,839 were males and 52,960 were females. Jamuria block registered a population growth of 12.96 per cent during the 1991-2001 decade. Decadal growth for Bardhaman district was 14.36 per cent. Decadal growth in West Bengal was 17.84 per cent. Scheduled castes at 39,449 formed around one-third the population. Scheduled tribes numbered 10,575.
Census Towns in Jamuria CD Block are (2011 census figures in brackets): Kunustara (5,127), Topsi (4,329), Nimsa (3,549), Chinchuria (6,617), Kenda (15,731), Parasia (8,894) and Kendra Khottamdi (part) (3,875).
Large villages (with 4,000+ population) in Jamuria CD Block are (2011 census figures in brackets): Churulia (8,173) and Hijalgora (5,374),
Other villages in Jamuria CD Block include (2011census figures in brackets): Bahadurpur (2,514), Dobrana (3,254), Madantore (2,813), Semalya (3,395) and Chhatrish Ganda (2,894). Villages are Andharia, Bagdiha, Baguli, Bahadurpur, Bamanband, Barul, Bataspur, Benasol, Bhaterdaha, Bhuri, Bijaynagar, Birkulti, Chak Dola, Chichurbil, Churulia, Dahuka, Darbardanga, Desher Mohan, Dhasla, Dhasna, Dobrana, Hijalgora, Jamsol, Jayantipur, Jaynagar, Jote Janaki, Khamarsol, Kumardiha, Laikapur, Lalbazar, Madhabpur, Madhudanga, Manpur, Patharchur, Rakhakura, Sarakdihi, Sattar, Shankheri, Sidhpur and Taltore.
Literacy.
As per the 2011 census the total number of literates in Jamuria CD Block was 75,001 (69.42% of the population over 6 years) out of which males numbered 45,006 (79.41% of the male population over 6 years) and females numbered 29,995 (58.40% of the female population over 6 years). The gender disparity (the difference between female and male literacy rates) was 21.01%.
As per 2001 census, Jamuria block had a total literacy of 67.29 per cent for the 6+ age group. While male literacy was 79.09 per cent female literacy was 53.86 per cent. Bardhaman district had a total literacy of 70.18 per cent, male literacy being 78.63 per cent and female literacy being 60.95 per cent.
See also – List of West Bengal districts ranked by literacy rate
Language and religion.
As per census definition, mother-tongue is the language spoken in childhood by the person's mother to the person. As a mother-tongue, Bengali has decreased its share from 82.3% of the population of Bardhaman district in 1961 to 79.9% in 2001, Hindi has increased its share from 8.5% in 1961 to 10.9% in 2001 Santali has remained steady at around 4.9% during the period, and Urdu has increased its share from 2.4% in 1961 to 2.6% in 2001. Other mother-tongues spoken in 2001 were: Odiya (0.3%), Punjabi (0.2%), Koda/Kora (0.2%), Telugu (0.1%), Bhojpuri (0.1%), Nepali (0.1%) and Kurukh/ Oraon (0.1%).
As of 2017, CD Block-wise/ other region-wise break-up of mother tongue is not available in census/ other official sources. There have been reports in the media about the Hindi speaking population being substantial in the Asansol (Lok Sabha constituency). Bardhaman district provided attractive livelihood opportunities for immigrants from Bihar/ Jharkhand.
According to the West Bengal Official Language Act 1961 and the West Bengal Official Language (Amendment Act) 2012, the Bengali language is to be used for official purposes in the whole of West Bengal. In addition to Bengali, the Nepali language is to be used for official purposes in the three hills subdivisions, namely Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong, in the district of Darjeeling, and Urdu is to be used for official purposes in district/subdivision/ block/ municipality where the population speaking Urdu exceeds 10% of the total population. The English language will continue to be used for official purposes as it was being used prior to the enactment of these laws.
The West Bengal Official Language (Second Amendment) Bill, 2012, included Hindi, Santhali, Odiya and Punjabi as official languages if it is spoken by a population exceeding 10 per cent of the whole in a particular block or sub-division or a district. Subsequently, Kamtapuri, Rajbanshi and Kurmali were also included in the list of minority languages by the West Bengal Official Language (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018. However, as of 2019, there is no official / other reliable information about the areas covered.
In the 2011 census Hindus numbered 108,613 and formed 88.18% of the population in Jamuria CD Block. Muslims numbered 13,804 and formed 11.21% of the population. Christians numbered 121 and formed 0.10% of the population. Others numbered 638 and formed 0.52% of the population.
Rural poverty.
As per poverty estimates obtained from household survey for families living below poverty line in 2005, rural poverty in Jamuria CD Block was 22.99%.
Economy.
Livelihood.
In Jamuria CD Block in 2011, amongst the class of total workers, cultivators numbered 4,897 and formed 11.91% of the total workers, agricultural labourers numbered 11,168 and formed 27.16%, household industry workers numbered 805 and formed 1.96% and other workers numbered 24,250 and formed 58.97%. Total workers numbered 41,120 and formed 33.38% of the total population, and non-workers numbered 82,056 and formed 66.82% of the population.
Coalmines are spread across the Andal, Pandaveswar, Raniganj, Jamuria, Barabani and Salanpur region, including municipal areas. Livelihood in this region is coal-centred. The area does not produce much of agricultural products. Overall work participation rate, and female work participation rate, in the mining area are low. Interestingly the work participation rate in the predominantly agricultural rural areas of erstwhile Bardhaman district is higher than in the predominantly urbanised mining area. Human development in the mining area does not at all look good. However, in the composite livelihood index the mining area performs much better than the non-mining areas of erstwhile Bardhaman district. The decadal (1991-2001) change in composition of workers shows the growing pressure of population growth, as well as of migrants from adjacent Jharkhand.
Infrastructure.
All 46 or 100% of mouzas in Jamuria CD Block were electrified by 31 March 2014.
43 mouzas in Jamuria CD Block had drinking water facilities in 2013-14. There were 37 fertiliser depots, 3 seed stores and 34 fair price shops in the CD Block.
Coal mining.
It is in the heart of the coal mining zone. With plenty of coal seams near the surface, illegal mining has been a long-standing problem in the area.
See also – Sripur Area, Satgram Area, Kunustoria Area and Kenda Area of Eastern Coalfields
Agriculture.
Although the Bargadari Act of 1950 recognised the rights of bargadars to a higher share of crops from the land that they tilled, it was not implemented fully. Large tracts, beyond the prescribed limit of land ceiling, remained with the rich landlords. From 1977 onwards major land reforms took place in West Bengal. Land in excess of land ceiling was acquired and distributed amongst the peasants. Following land reforms land ownership pattern has undergone transformation. In 2013-14, persons engaged in agriculture in Jamuria CD Block could be classified as follows: bargadars 15.12%, patta (document) holders 18.66%, small farmers (possessing land between 1 and 2 hectares) 6.03%, marginal farmers (possessing land up to 1 hectare) 23.49% and agricultural labourers 36.71%.
In 2003-04 net cropped area in Jamuria CD Block was 14,130 hectares and the area in which more than one crop was grown was 2,579 hectares.
In 2013-14, Jamuria CD Block produced 5,425 tonnes of Aman paddy, the main winter crop, from 1,981 hectares and 13 tonnes of wheat from 6 hectares. It also produced pulses and oilseeds.
Banking.
In 2013-14, Jamuria CD Block had offices of 8 commercial banks and 1 gramin bank.
Transport.
Jamuria CD Block has 1 ferry service and 5 originating/ terminating bus routes.
The Andal-Jamuria-Sitarampur branch line passes through this CD Block and there is a station at Jamuria.
Education.
In 2013-14, Jamuria CD Block had 65 primary schools with 6,645 students, 6 middle schools with 773 students, 6 high schools with 3,786 students and 7 higher secondary schools with 4,889 students. Jamuria CD Block had 1 general college with 557 students, and 198 institutions for special and non-formal education with 7,632 students.
Kazi Nazrul Islam Mahavidyalaya was established in 1981 at Churulia. It is affiliated with Kazi Nazrul University.
Culture.
Kazi Nazrul Satabarshiki Bhawan at Churulia, birthplace of Kazi Nazrul Islam, in Jamuria block came up in the year of his birth centenary.
Healthcare.
In 2014, Jamuria CD Block had 1 block primary health centre, 2 primary health centres and 2 central government/ PSU medical centres with total 93 beds and 20 doctors (excluding private bodies). It had 14 family welfare sub centres. 3,373 patients were treated indoor and 161,780 patients were treated outdoor in the hospitals, health centres and subcentres of the CD Block.
Bahadurpur Rural Hospital, with 30 beds at Bahadurpur, is the major government medical facility in the Jamuria CD block. Akalpur Block Primary Health Centre functions at Akalpur with 10 beds. There are primary health centres at Churulia (with 6 beds), Sirishdanaga, PO Mandi (with 6 beds), Birkulti (with 2 beds) and Chinchuria (with 6 beds).


Shalozersky mine

The Shalozersky mine is a large mine in the north of Russia in the Republic of Karelia. Shalozersky represents one of the largest nickel reserve in Russia having estimated reserves of 306.1 million tonnes of ore grading 0.14% nickel, 4.56 million oz of platinum, 3.91 million oz of palladium and 0.85 million oz of gold. The 306.1 million tonnes of ore contains 0.43 million tonnes of nickel metal.


Skinner Normanton

Sidney Albert Normanton (20 August 1926–1995), known as Skinner Normanton, was an English coal miner and part-time footballer who played for Barnsley and Halifax Town of the English Football League.
Throughout his career, Normanton gained a reputation for a highly aggressive and physically uncompromising style of play, earning him a "hard man" image on and off the field. A heavy tackle contested with Alex Forbes in 1952 left Normanton with torn knee ligaments, which hastened the end of his Football League career.
Normanton was brought to wider notice in the writings of Michael Parkinson.


Shakerley Colliery (Greens)

Shakerley Colliery was a coal mine on the Manchester Coalfield near Shakerley, Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It was sunk in 1867 and was operating in 1878.
The colliery on Shakerley Common had a single shaft which was sunk to the Rams mine at 300 feet by George Green to exploit the Middle Coal Measures of the Lancashire Coalfield and became part of the Tyldesley Coal Company in 1870. It had the first iron headgear in the country but closed by 1886.


Midgeholme Coalfield

The Midgeholme Coalfield is a coalfield in Midgeholme, on the border of Cumbria with Northumberland in northern England. It is the largest of a series of small coalfields along the south side of the Tyne Valley and which are intermediate between the Northumberland and Durham Coalfields to the east and the Cumberland Coalfield to the west. Like the other small coalfields to its east, this small outlier of the Coal Measures at Midgeholme occurs on the Stublick-Ninety Fathom Fault System, a zone of faults defining the northern edge of the Alston Block otherwise known as the North Pennines. It is recorded that coal was being mined at Midgeholme in the early seventeenth century. In the 1830s coal trains were being hauled from Midgeholme Colliery along the Brampton Railway by Stephenson's Rocket. The early workings have left a legacy of spoil heaps, bell pits, shafts and adits. There is no current coal production. However in January 2014, Northumberland County Council gave planning permission for the open-cast extraction of 37,000 tonnes of coal at Halton Lea Gate. This may open the way for other applications to mine the coalfield. In 1990 a proposal to mine reserves of 60,000 tonnes of good-quality coal at Lambley, Northumberland was rejected, but the prospect for a successful application has now changed, since the Planning Inspector allowed the development to proceed at Halton Lea Gate on appeal.
The following coal seams are recognised from the Pennine Lower Coal Measures within this coalfield. The list is organised stratigraphically, with the uppermost seam first:


Shandong Gold Group

Shandong Gold Group is a state-owned Chinese gold mining company under the provincial government of Shandong. The company is the second-largest producer of gold in China by output and its publicly-listed subsidiary ranked #1,898 in the Forbes Global 2000.
Corporate affairs.
Shandong Gold Group is the parent company of Shandong Gold Mining, which is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Following a pact announced in September 2018 with Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold miner by output, both companies agreed to strengthen ties with each other by cross-investing up to $300 million in each other's shares, with Barrick Gold buy shares in Shandong Gold via the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The cross-investment agreement followed the purchase of a 50% interest by Shandong Gold in Barrick Gold's Veladero mine in Argentina in April 2017.
As a Shandong provincial state-owned enterprise, the company is directly supervised by the Stated-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the Shandong Provincial Government.
The company is a member of the World Gold Council, a trade body that promotes the gold industry and promulgates social and environmental standards for gold mining.
Operations.
Domestic gold mining.
The company primary gold mining and exploration activity are domestic. The gold production from its 12 domestic mines in Shandong, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Fujian account for 6.6% of national output. A gigantic discovery was announced in September 2018 when the company found a site with at least 382 tonnes of gold worth an estimated $22 billion in the Laizhou-Zhaoyuan area of the Shandong Peninsula.
International gold mining.
In April 2017 Shandong Gold purchased a 50% interest in Barrick Gold's Veladero mine in Argentina for US$960 million and also formed a partnership to explore joint-development of the Pascua-Lama deposit. In May 2020, Shandong Gold entered into an agreement to purchase a gold mining project in Nunavut. In October 2020, the Canadian government commenced a national security review of Shandong Gold's proposed purchase agreement in Nunavut. The Canadian government rejected Shandong Gold's bid for national security reasons in December 2020.
Non-gold businesses.
The company has several non-gold related businesses including nonferrous metal, tourism and real estate. It has financial services subsidiaries in both China and Hong Kong (SD Gold Financial Holdings Group and SDG Asset Management (HK) Limited).


Edward Wadham

Edward Wadham (22 May 1828 – 1913) was appointed mineral agent to Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch in 1851 and later, steward of the Manor of Plain Furness. He kept detailed diaries throughout his adult life, now in the possession of the Cumbria Archive Service, many of which cover the growth and development of the town of Barrow-in-Furness, then in Lancashire now in Cumbria, England.
Together with Sir James Ramsden, Henry Schneider and Josiah T. Smith, and as three-times Mayor of Barrow-in-Furness, he did much to open up the iron and steel industries in Barrow, which grew from a tiny nineteenth century hamlet into the biggest iron and steel centre in the world, and a major ship-building force in just forty years.
Early life.
Edward Wadham was born in 1828 at Frenchay Manor House, near Bristol, the fifth son of ten children of Thomas and Elizabeth Wadham.
His father Thomas Wadham (1796-1849) attended Wadham College, Oxford from 1817-1819, and was High Sheriff of Bristol in 1843, the same year Isambard Kingdom Brunel completed construction of the SS Great Britain in Bristol Harbour.
His grandfather, John Wadham (1762-1843) of Frenchay Manor House and Bristol Parade, had been from 1789 a director and co-owner with Henry Rickett of the Phoenix Glassworks at Temple Meads in Bristol, known as Wadham Ricketts & Co, which manufactured Bristol blue glass, and in 1820 was a director of the Bristol Floating Harbour Company.
Edward Wadham trained as a civil and mining engineer.
His siblings were:
Buried at the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist, Frenchay.
After his schooling, Edward Wadham was apprenticed to John Thornhill Harrison and worked with him under Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the tunnels of the South Devon Railway Company, later part of the Great Western Railway Company, and on the Alston branch of the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway.
Career.
Aged twenty-three, Edward Wadham arrived in Ulverston by the "New Times" stagecoach on 1 February 1851 as mineral agent to the Duke of Buccleuch. His first action was to install weighing machines at Dalton-in-Furness railway sidings and Ulverston Canal. The move was not popular with the carters of iron ore.
A significant conversation occurred on 5 April when he asked Mr Cranke, land agent to the Duke, for an advance on his salary. Cranke offered him an easy mining job, which he was unable to accept for fear of Mr Lumley, the Duke's chief steward. Cranke advised him to write for permission, and on 17 April he wrote to Mr Lumley thanking him for his permission to take up any small engineering job that might come his way.
He was soon engaged as mineral agent to William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale and surveying the line of tramways for Harrison Ainslie & Co. Mr Cranke was also consulted about his moving into Lindal Mount with William George Ainslie, son of Montague Ainslie of Grizedale New Hall, grandfather to Jack Ainslie, Liberal MP. They shared a house and rented stables together for some years, and Edward Wadham later married William's sister Mary Elizabeth Ainslie.
Wadham remained at Lindal Mount until he moved into Millwood Manor, built for him by the Duke of Buccleuch, in 1862. As a Director of the Furness Railway he later had his own railway siding extended to the bottom of his garden at Millwood Manor. He was elected Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 6 December 1853, and Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 17 December 1866, and was connected with the Institution for sixty of his eighty-five years.
In February 1872 following a bad attack of rheumatism he was certified as unfit to work underground, and the work of surveying the pits passed to his employees.
Positions held:
Politics.
Wadham was a staunch member of the Conservative and Unionist party. He served on Barrow council from its inception in 1867 until 1906 and served as Mayor of Barrow-in-Furness for 3 terms from 1878 to 1881.
He was active in the 1885 United Kingdom general election on behalf of his brother-in-law William George Ainslie who was elected as the first Member of Parliament for the new constituency of North Lonsdale, a seat he held until 1892, and of Sir Charles Cayzer in the 1892 United Kingdom general election when he was elected for Barrow-in-Furness, a seat he held until 1906. On 26 April 1904, he was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Lancashire.
Wife and children.
He married Mary Elizabeth Ainslie, daughter of Montague Ainslie on 20 September 1860, and at one point owned a steamship called the 'Mary Elizabeth Wadham'. They had 6 children:
Other interests.
Wadham was a lifelong churchman, and active in Church of England politics. As steward of the manor it was part of his responsibility to liaise with the Lancashire architects Paley and Austin, and he oversaw the building of St Mary's Church, Kirkby Lonsdale, St Peter's Church, Ireleth-in-Furness, St Peter's Church, Lindal-in-Furness and St Mary's Church, Dalton-in-Furness.
Edward Wadham was sworn in as a Magistrate in 1869 and served until 1908. He was vice president of North Lonsdale Agricultural Society in 1869, and also held the posts of president and secretary. He practiced farming on a small scale and Mrs Wadham carried off prizes for honey and for butter.
Wadham enjoyed sailing, cricket, hunting (including otter hunting) and fishing, but most particularly shooting. Amongst other places, he shot on Barrow Island and at the estate of Robert Hannay at Ornockenoch.
By his own account he shot rabbit, pheasant, black game, rooks, seagulls, a finger and thumb from his left hand, a coachman and a passer-by.


Cambusbarron

Cambusbarron is a village in Stirling, Scotland. In the 2001 census, it had a population of 3,224. There is evidence of settlement at the site since the Bronze Age, and several forts dating from the Iron Age have been found near the village. One such fort is located at Gillies Hill, a large semi-natural ancient woodland area with a range of unusual wildlife, thought to be the site of Robert the Bruce's camp shortly before the Battle of Bannockburn.
Cambusbarron grew during the nineteenth century due to the presence of the Hayford Mill, a large wool-spinning mill and tweed manufacturer, on the outskirts of the village. Several limestone mines and quartz-dolerite quarries have been active in the area around Cambusbarron during the twentieth century. There are three listed buildings in the village. Notable former residents include evangelist Henry Drummond, documentary writer John Grierson and footballer Frank Beattie.
Robert the Bruce allegedly spoke with a local clan BOC. He sought the council of the grand high malcy the leader of the clan ahead of the battle of Bannockburn. Although Bruce prevailed in the battle it is thought malcy betrayed him to the English. Hence the local slur "BOC"
History.
Early history.
Archeological evidence suggests that a permanent community at what is now Cambusbarron was established during the Bronze Age, between the years of 1700 and 500 BC. It is not known if the site was occupied during the Stone Age. A number of hill forts dating from the Iron Age have been found close to Cambusbarron, although none have been discovered in the centre of the village. At one fort, Castlehill Wood, fragments of glass dating from the first or second century AD have been discovered, suggesting that the Romans may have briefly occupied the fort during their conquest of Britain.
In the sixteenth century, Cambusbarron came under the control of successive Earls of Kellie, before being sold to William Leslie, later the tenth Baron of Balquhain, in 1640. It was then sold to the burgh of Stirling in 1665.
Modern history.
Cambusbarron expanded significantly during the nineteenth century. The opening of the wool-spinning Hayford Mill, also called Cambusbarron Mill or Hayford and Parkvale Mill, in 1834 provided a significant source of employment in the village; by 1871, a series of expansions had seen the mill grow to employ over 1200 people. The population of the village rose from 657 in 1841 to 1230 in 1881. After the closure of the mill in 1896, the population fell as few alternative sources of employment were available.
A public school was erected in Cambusbarron in 1875, with capacity for 270 pupils. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, quarrying became an important industry in and around the village. Cambusbarron lies just beyond the western extremity of the Stirling and Clackmannan coalfield, but has significant limestone and quartz-dolerite deposits, both of which have been extracted. Further quarries opened in the area during the twentieth century.
Gillies Hill.
Gillies Hill is an area of woodland close to Cambusbarron. It is composed of trees including Wellingtonias and Scots pines and is home to a variety of rare animal life, including red squirrels, peregrine falcons, roe deer and buzzards. It is the site of an Iron Age fort designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and is believed to have been the location of Robert the Bruce's camp prior to the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
Gillies Hill is also the site of the Murrayshall Quarry. Permission to begin extraction of stones from a small section of the hill was granted in 1982, but by 1996 the quarry had become dormant. In 2007 a proposal by Heidelberg Cement and Tarmac to reopen the quarry on a larger scale led to fierce local opposition and the formation of the Save Gillies Hill group to campaign against the proposal. The Stirling Council on 1 March 2012 required the quarry operators to comply with certain requirements related to
• production of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) (3.24.4)
• update quarry restoration plan (3.24.5)
• provision of fencing (3.24.7)
The Council also decided that failure to comply with these requirements would lead to the Council starting the process of issuing a Suspension Order (SO) for the current permission
Amenities.
The Bruce Memorial Church stands in the centre of Cambusbarron and acts as a focal point within the village. The current minister is Rev Graham Nash. The area in and around the village supports nine local businesses including a public house and a trout fishery. There is also a library in the village. Local bus services linking the village with Stirling and Balfron are provided by First Scotland East.
Education in the village is provided by the ten-classroom Cambusbarron Primary School. In 2008 the school led the Money Week program designed to teach primary school pupils about finance.
Cambusbarron is also home to a local amateur football team, Cambusbarron Rovers A.F.C., which was founded in 1960. It plays in the Caledonian Amateur Football League, and has won the Scottish Amateur Cup on three occasions.
Notable buildings.
Hayford Mill was established as a wool-spinning mill in 1834. After being acquired by Robert Smith a decade later, it expanded significantly; by 1871, at which point control had passed to Smith's son, also named Robert, the mill employed over 1200 workers, and was for a time the largest single tweed manufactory in Scotland. However, after Smith's departure in 1895, the mill closed in October 1896.
After its closure the mill remained largely unchanged for many years, and was used as a training base by the King's Own Scottish Borderers during World War I. It was briefly used as a carpet factory prior to World War II, and as a civil defence store after the war, before gaining Category A listed status in September 1989. Hayford House, an 1850 Jacobean villa built for Robert Smith senior close to the mill, was Category B listed at the same time.
The former Water Pump House at the North Third Water Filter Plant, which dates from 1931, is also Category B listed. It was initially closed in 1975, but reopened in 1989 after its filtration equipment was updated. After closing again in 2000, it was sold to a private owner in 2006, receiving its listed status in March 2007.
Notable residents.
Evangelist and writer Henry Drummond (1851–1897), although born in Stirling, lived for much of his early life in Cambusbarron, and founded a Sunday school in the village. Documentary film maker John Grierson (1898–1972) was the son of a local school headmaster and also lived in the village as a child, although he was born in Perthshire.
Professional footballer Frank Beattie (1933–2009) was born in the Cambusbarron, and after his retirement ran a newsagent in the village. He also managed Cambusbarron Rovers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, winning the Scottish Amateur Cup trophy with the side in 1978.


Ilakaka

Ilakaka is a small town in Ihorombe Region in the south western part of Madagascar. In the early 1990s there were only about 40 residents in the area. After the discovery of one of Earth's largest known alluvial sapphire deposits in the valley of the Ilakaka river in 1998, the population had boomed to nearly 60,000 in 2005. Since high profits are at stake, violence is common in the town.
Geography.
Ilakaka is in Ihosy District, Ihorombe Region, 735 km south of Antananarivo, near Isalo National Park.
It is found along the Route nationale No.7 from Toliara (210 km) to Fianarantsoa (307 km) in southwestern Madagascar.
It is situated at 210 km from Tuléar, 26 km from Ranohira and 84 km from Sakaraha.
History.
In 1998, after the discovery of an important sapphire mine, what was once a quiet rural village has been transformed into a Wild West town, a victim of "Sapphire fever," with thousands of arrivals hoping to stake a claim, complete with bars, brothels, and scores to settle.
The fever has overrun the entire country and every day hundreds of people flow in from throughout the region.
Demography.
The village has exploded with the incessant influx.
As of 2008 the population was about 30,000 according to local authorities, but the number is highly approximate given the incessant turnover. All 18 ethnic groups of Madagascar are represented.
Religion.
There is a mosque and a Church Rhema in Ilakaka.
Administration.
Ilakaka belongs to the district of Ihosy, in the region of Ihorombe, in the province of Fianarantsoa.
Environment and infrastructure.
Unofficial plots are pitted with wells, into which the miners descend to find a seam. The landscape has been remade by such operations.
The sheet metal shacks where the miners live have neither running water nor electricity, and there are very few paved roads.
The area is spotted with giant baobabs.


Tayan Nuur mine

The Tayan Nuur mine (Mongolian: Таян Нуур) is an open-pit iron ore mining project in Tseel district within the Govi-Altai Province of Mongolia, approximately 162 kilometres (146 mi) south of the Gobi Altai Province capital Altai. The site was discovered in 2006, and is being developed by Altain Khuder LLC of Mongolia, a Mongolian-registered mining and mineral exploration company. Since its initial drilling exploration, Altain Khuder LLC developed Tayan Nuur mine into one of the leading iron ore mines in Mongolia. Tayan Nuur mine produces over 60% Fe grade iron ore concentrates and exports it to steel mills in China.


Wirksworth

Wirksworth is a market town in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England. Its population recorded as 5,038 in the 2011 census was estimated at 5,180 in 2019. Wirksworth contains the source of the River Ecclesbourne. The town was granted a market charter by Edward I in 1306. The market is still held on Tuesdays in the Memorial Gardens. The parish church of St Mary's is thought to date from 653. It developed as a centre for lead mining and later stone quarrying. Many local lead mines were owned by the Gell family of nearby Hopton Hall.
History.
The origins of Wirksworth are thought to have depended on the presence of thermal warm water springs nearby, coupled with a sheltered location at the head of a glaciated valley, capable of producing cereals such as oats and providing timber suitable for building.
The area of Wirksworth in the White Peak is known for Neolithic and Bronze Age remains. Woolly rhino bones were found by lead miners in 1822 in Dream Cave, on private land between Wirksworth and present-day Carsington Water. A nearby cave at Carsington Pasture yielded prehistoric finds in the late 20th century.
In Roman Britain, the limestone area of today's Derbyshire yielded lead, the prime area of production probably being "Lutudarum" in the hills south and west of present-day Matlock. Wirksworth is a candidate for the site of "Lutudarum". Roman roads from Wirksworth lead to Buxton (The Street) and to Brough-on-Noe (The Portway). The town has the oldest charter of any in the Peak District, dating from 835, when the Abbess of Wirksworth granted nearby land to Duke Humbert of Mercia.
Wirksworth is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book. Outlying farms (berwicks) were Cromford, Middleton, Hopton, Wellesdene [sic], Carsington, Kirk Ireton and Callow. It gave its name to the earlier Wirksworth wapentake or hundred.
In Anglo-Saxon times, many lead mines were owned by the abbey of Repton. Three of these are identified in Wirksworth's Domesday Book entry. Scientists studying a Swiss glacial ice core have found that levels of lead in European air pollution between the years 1170 and 1216 were similar to those during the Industrial Revolution, pointing to the local lead and silver smelting around Wirksworth, Castleton etc. as the main source with a remarkable correlation. There is a tiny carving in Wirksworth Church of a miner with his pick and kibble (basket). The carving is known as "T'Owd Man of Bonsall." It stood in Bonsall Church for centuries but was moved for safekeeping during a restoration project. It was later found in a Bonsall garden and moved to Wirksworth by the vicar of the time. The ore was washed out through a sieve, whose iron wire had been drawn in Hathersage since the Middle Ages. Smelting took place in boles, hence the name Bolehill. The lead industry, the miner, the ore and the waste were known collectively as "t'owd man".
Henry VIII granted a charter for a miners' court in the town, the Bar Moot. Anyone had a right to dig for ore wherever he chose, except in churchyards, gardens or roadways. All that was needed for a claim was to place one's stowce (winch) on the site and extract enough ore to pay tribute to the "barmaster". The present Bar Moot building dates from 1814. Within is a brass dish for measuring the levy due to the Crown. Even into the 20th century, the penalty for stealing from a mine was to have a hand nailed to the stowce, giving a miscreant the choice of tearing himself loose or starving to death. The Barmote Court is still held at the Bar Moot hall in Chapel Lane and controls all matters of lead mining.
By the 18th century there were many thousand lead mines worked individually. Daniel Defoe gives a first-hand account of such a family and the miner at work. At this time, the London Lead Company was formed to provide finance for deeper mines with drainage channels, called soughs, and introduce Newcomen steam-engine pumps.
Many institutions in the area have ties with the Gell family of nearby Hopton Hall. One member, Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, fought on Parliament's side in the Civil War. A predecessor, Anthony Gell, founded the local grammar school, and a successor, Phillip Gell, opened the Via Gellia (perhaps an allusion to the Roman Via Appia), a road from the family lead mines round Wirksworth to a smelter in Cromford. More recently he has been remembered in the name of Anthony Gell School.
The carboniferous limestone around Wirksworth has been much quarried over the town's history, resulting in several rock faces and cliffs surrounding the town. There was a workhouse from 1724 to 1829 called Babington House. It stood on Green Hill () and housed 60 inmates.
In 1777 Richard Arkwright leased land and premises for a corn mill from Philip Eyre Gell of Hopton and converted it to spin cotton, using his water frame. It was the first cotton mill in the world to use a steam engine, to replenish the millpond that drove the mill's waterwheel. The mill was adjacent to another, Speedwell Mill, owned by John Dalley, a local merchant. Arkwright's mill was sublet in 1792, when Arkwright's son, Richard, began to sell off family property and move into banking. It was named Haarlem Mill in 1815, when converted to weaving tape by Madely, Hackett and Riley, who had set up Haarlem Tape Works in Derby in 1806. In 1879 the Wheatcroft family, who were producing tape at Speedwell Mill, expanded into Haarlem. The two mills together employed 230; their weekly output was said to equal the circumference of the earth; Wirksworth was the main producer of red tape for Whitehall. These mills are close together at Miller's Green next to the Derby road. Haarlem Mill now houses an art collective; Speedwell Mill has been replaced by private houses and a carpentry workshop.
Geography.
In the 2011 census Wirksworth civil parish had 2,416 dwellings, 2,256 households and a population of 5,038.
Districts of Wirksworth include Yokecliffe, Gorsey Bank, Bolehill, Mountford and Miller's Green. Bolehill, although technically a hamlet in its own right in Wirksworth's suburbs, is the oldest and most northerly part of the town, while Yokecliffe is a newer estate in the westerly area. Modern houses have been built in the Three Trees area and at the bottom of Steeple Grange (Spring Close).
Education.
There are five schools in Wirksworth: Church of England and county infants, and regularly combined but on two sites, Wirksworth Junior School, the Anthony Gell School and Callow Park College. Anthony Gell was a local, requested by Agnes Fearne to build a grammar school on her death. The original site is now a private house on the edge of the churchyard. The current school is an 11–18 comprehensive on a larger site by the Hannage Brook with about 800 pupils. The school's four houses are named after Fearne, Arkwright (Sir Richard Arkwright), Wright (Joseph Wright of Derby) and Gell. Its catchment area is the town and surrounding villages: Middleton, Carsington, Brassington, Kirk Ireton, Turnditch, Matlock Bath, Cromford and Crich. The Anthony Gell School qualifies as a Sports College.
Culture and community.
Community facilities.
Fanny Shaw's Playing Field, just beyond the centre, is the main recreation area for the north of the town. It includes a new skate park and a play area. In the south is the "Rec", another children's play area, along with cricket and football pitches. There are public toilets in the car park alongside the United Reformed Church in Chapel Lane.
Cultural references.
Haarlem Mill has been mentioned as the possible model for the mill in George Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss". The town of Snowfield in George Eliot's Adam Bede is also said to be based in Wirksworth; Dinah Morris, a character in that novel, is based on Eliot's aunt, who lived in Wirksworth and whose husband ran the silk mill, now Wirksworth Heritage Centre.
Wirksworth was the main location of ITV's "Sweet Medicine" in 2003, having featured as an occasional location in its forerunner, "Peak Practice". More recently, some of "Mobile" was filmed on a train on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, and much of an episode of the BBC series "Casualty" was set in the town.
Wirksworth features in the 2015 memoir "The Long Road Out of Town" by author and journalist Greg Watts, who grew up there.
Middle Peak Quarry, on the outskirts of Wirksworth, featured in the 2010 music video "Unlikely Hero" by the Hoosiers.
Town twinning.
Wirksworth is twinned with Die in southern France and with Frankenau in the Kellerwald range south-west of the Talgang, Germany, through the Wirksworth Twinning Association.
Notable residents.
In alphabetical order:
Landmarks.
Wirksworth civil parish contains 108 structures listed by Historic England for their historic or architectural interest. The Parish Church of St Mary is listed Grade I and eight structures (15 Market Place, 35 Green Hill, 1 Coldwell Street, Haarlem Mill, Wigwell Grange, the Red Lion Hotel, Gate House and the former grammar school) are Grade II*. Wirksworth Heritage Centre is just off Market Place in Crown Yard. The exhibition shows the history of Wirksworth from its prehistoric Dream Cave and woolly rhinos, through its Roman and lead mining histories, to the modern era. Other nearby attractions include the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, the Steeple Grange Light Railway and Peak District National Park.
The study "Wirksworth and Five Miles Around", written by Richard R Hackett (1843–1900), includes census information, notes on church monuments, accounts of crimes, church wardens' accounts, maps, a transcription of "Ince's pedigrees", monument inscriptions and old photographs, parish registers and wills.


Iriomote Coal Mine

The was a producing coal mine in the northwestern area of Uchibanare and Iriomote Islands, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. At its peak, between 120,000 and 130,000 tons of coal were produced annually in the years 1936 and 1937 by 1,400 coal mine workers, but production ceased in 1960.
History.
On Iriomote Island, sandstone layers of the Iriomote Formation of the Yaeyama Group were laid down in the Miocene era. Between the layers of sandstone are layers of coal which vary from 15 to 90 cm thick. On the island, this "burning stone" had been known for a long time. In a document written at end of the 18th century, this burning stone was described in detail. In 1853 a technician with American Commodore Matthew C. Perry reported the presence of coal in Shioya Bay, Okinawa. In 1854 Ryūkyū ordered the people of Iriomote to plant trees to hide the coal mines. In 1871 Hayashi Tasuke of Satsuma asked Ōhama Kana to find the coal. Ōhama was exiled to a remote island for leaking the secret. In 1885 the Japanese Government first investigated the Iriomote Coal Mine. In 1886 a politician, Yamagata Aritomo inspected the site with Masuda Takashi of Mitsui Zaibatsu company, and suggested the use of prisoners to mine the coal. Mitsui Bussan Company started mining the coal with between 100 and 200 workers including prisoners. On 21 September 1889, there was a severe outbreak of malaria which put an end to mining operations for the time being.
The development of the Iriomote coal mines.
In 1891, several companies resumed coal mining at Iriomote but ceased their operations shortly thereafter. After the Russo-Japanese War and World War I were over, there was a new boom in coal mining. The Okinawa Mining Company and Ryukyu Mining Company, both founded in 1906, were successful in coal mining operations at Iriomote. The mines were distributed on Uchibanare Island and the areas along the Nakaragawa river and the Urauchigawa River. The extracted coal was energy rich and was exported to Japan and to Formosa, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Problems of the workers.
There had been repeated founding and merging of coal mine companies which had led to problems for the workers. The payment of wages was made by the Naya Seido or Kinsaki method, by which a Kinsaki person was responsible for the production of coal and the personal management of the wage money. The salary of the workers was under the control of the Kinsaki person or Nayagashira, and given in coupons redeemable at the shops of the company. The coupons were said to be interchangeable for bank notes, but at unfavorable rates. Many workers grew to have debts due to the job brokers. Originally Iriomote Island was sparsely inhabited, and the workers were imported from various parts of Japan, Taiwan and China without detailed information of the work they would be doing or the conditions they would be living in. Employment brokers used sweet words such as, "It is warm in Iriomote, and there is no need of clothes. There are many women and you can eat pine and bananas by extending your arms. You can make lots of money and there is no place better than this." However, the bananas have owners, and the pines were really pandanus tectorius and not edible. The working conditions were very hard. Some of the workers tried to escape from the island, but they were seldom successful. The biggest company did have a 300-seat theater and other worker facilities.
Decline and end of Iriomote Coal Mine.
In 1941, the Pacific War had started and many workers were drafted for military service with the Japanese Imperial army. In 1943, the coal mines ceased production due to a shortage of workers. After the war, the mines were taken over and reopened in 1953 by Americans who resumed production. Eventually, the arrangement of the coal in thinning layers did not allow large quantities of coal to be mined. This led to small profits for the owners and the mines final closure in 1960.


Yakovlevsky mine

The Yakovlevsky mine is a large iron mine located in western Russia in the Belgorod Oblast. Yakovlevsky represents one of the largest iron ore reserves in Russia and in the world having estimated reserves of 9.6 billion tonnes of ore grading 61.7% iron metal.


East Bokaro Coalfield

East Bokaro Coalfield is located in Bokaro district in the Indian state of Jharkhand.
Overview.
In 1917, L.S.S. O’Malley described the coalfields in the upper reaches of the Damodar as follows: “Near the western boundary of Jharia field is that of Bokaro, covering , with an estimated content of 1,500 million tons; close by… is the Ramgarh field , in which, however, coal is believed to be of inferior quality. A still larger field in the same district is that called Karanpura, which extends over and has an estimated capacity of 9,000 million tons.”
The Coalfield.
Location.
The Bokaro coalfield lies between 23°45' and 23°50' North latitude and 85°30' and 86°03' East longitude. It spreads from east to west and from north to south. Bokaro West and Bokaro East are two subdivisions of the field, separated almost in the middle by Lugu Hill (height ).
Bokaro River passes through the West Bokaro and East Bokaro coalfields.
East Bokaro Coalfield covers an area of and has total coal reserves of 4,473.66 million tonnes.
Reserves.
Geolological reserves in East Bokaro Coalfield in million tonnes as on 1/4/2010:
Transport.
In 1927, the Central India Coalfields Railway opened the Barkakana–Netaji S.C.Bose Gomoh line. It was extended to Daltonganj in 1929. Later these lines were amalgamated with East Indian Railway.


El Nuweiba mine

The El Nuweiba mine is a large mine located in the northern part of Egypt in South Sinai Governorate. El Nuweiba represents one of the largest tantalum reserves in Egypt having estimated reserves of 114.7 million tonnes of ore grading 0.016% tantalum.


Langer Heinrich mine

The Langer Heinrich mine (LHM) is a large open pit mine located in the western part of Namibia in the Erongo Region. Langer Heinrich represents one of the largest uranium reserves in Namibia having estimated reserves of 57,000 tonnes of ore grading 0.055% uranium. The Langer Heinrich mine is currently owned by Paladin Energy Ltd with a 75% stake and CNNC Overseas Uranium Holding Ltd with a 25% stake. Paladin Energy sold the 25% to the Chinese National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) in 2014 for a reported $190 million.
History.
The uranium deposit was discovered at the Langer Heinrich mine in 1973, however the mine only commenced uranium mining operations in 2007 after the mine had been unused for nearly 7 years.
Development of Langer Heinrich mine.
In 2008, Paladin Energy announced that the Langer Heinrich mine had achieved its production target for December 2007. In 2008 though, two incidents occurred that halted production: The open pit was flooded with runoff rainwater rendering it unusable for over a month. The second was an electrical accident injuring three people.
In August 2008, Paladin announced an increase or 64% in Inferred Resources and 46% increase in the Measured and Indicated Resources of the Langer Heinrich mine.
In June 2009, Paladin announced the approval of the Stage III Expansion of the mine which was forecast to increase production capacity to 5.2 million lb U3O8 [2000 t U] per year, a reduction on previous forecasts. In October 2009, the company announced a Stage 4 Expansion forecasting production to increase to 10 million lb U3O8 [3,846 t U] per year using heap leaching.
In 2010 Paladin Energy announced the sale of uranium to China would start in 2011 after signing an agreement with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Co.
In 2011, Stage III Expansion was halted due to a miners strike by 600 workers. This was followed by another strike in 2013 by 300 mine workers.
In 2013, mines across Namibia faced an uncertain future due to a lack of water needed for mine operations due to a widespread drought in the region.
In 2014, the sale of 25% of the mine was concluded with Chinese National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). In the same year, Paladin Energy announced that Stage 4 Expansion would be halted due to the weakened price of uranium.
In 2015, further cost-reduction projects were put in place by Paladin Energy. The Prime Minister of Namibia released a report on the state of the mine addressing safety concerns and working conditions.
In July 2016, Paladin announced the sale of a further 24% of the Langer Heinrich mine to CNNC to cover mounting debts, bringing the total ownership by the Chinese owned company to 49%.
In May 2018, Paladin confirmed that the mine would cease operations and would be placed into care and maintenance.


Ironstone mining in Rosedale

The Ironstone mining in Rosedale, was a major mining concern, in Rosedale, North Yorkshire, England. It flourished in the 19th century and ceased in the early 20th, though smaller scale iron workings were in use through the Middle Ages. The ironstone from Rosedale was typically rated at a higher iron ore concentration in the rock than other mines in the Cleveland and North Yorkshire area.
The first exports from the dale were by horse and cart, but by 1861, the standard gauge Rosedale Railway was built, across the moors to the north to connect the mines with the smelters on Teesside, Tyneside or in County Durham. As the industrialisation of the dale increased, many people moved in to get jobs in the mines, changing the dale from one predominantly dedicated to agriculture, to one geared up to mining. This rush led the local population to refer to the new mining venture as the "Yorkshire Klondyke".
The mines closed down from the 1880s onwards, and all mining activity had ceased by 1929, which led to the closure of the railway.
History.
The valley and moorland at Rosedale, some north west of Pickering, was known to have been worked for iron for hundreds of years (at least 600 years before the 19th century ironstone mining boom); in 1209, Robert de Stuteville granted the use of his meadow in Rosedale to the nuns of Rosedale Abbey. However, the grant stipulated that the forge remain in his ownership. Stone from the quarries on the east side of Rosedale were used in the repair of roads in 1851. This led to an appraisal of the stone and it was found to have a higher concentration of iron ore within the stone than that of the main Cleveland Seam (worked around Eston, Brotton etc), typically 45-50% over 30-35%. This led to the ironstone being known as "Magnetic", and the mines at Rosedale were sometimes referred to as the "Magnetic Mines".
The discovery of thick seams of ironstone outcropping near the surface in Rosedale, caused a large increase in the population. In 1851, 548 people lived in Rosedale Abbey, which by 1871, had increased to 2,839. This in turn, developed the village of Rosedale Abbey beyond what it had before; more schools, chapels, and shops, even a resident police officer. This upsurge in employment, and the influx of people from outside the dale to work in the ironstone industry, led to it being called the "Yorkshire Klondyke", and locally, it is still referred to that in the modern era. In 1856, the Rosedale Mining Company started operations at the Hollins and Low Works drift mines on the west side of the dale, and had expanded their operation into the east side of the valley (Rosedale East) by 1860, and changed their name to the Rosedale & Ferryhill Iron Company. Although the ore needed roasting to drive off the carbonate, the seam on the east side was thick.
The kilns at Rosedale West (Bank Top) were built in 1856 and took 18 months to construct. The kilns allowed the mined and quarries ore to be roasted (calcined) with coal which drove off the impurities and increased the percentage of iron and thus, made it cheaper to be transported in bulk via the railway. This was partly due to the nature of how the railway was built. Instead of purchasing the land outright, the landowners were granted wayleaves, which meant they were entitled to a payment for every tonne of mineral carried, so the ore was roasted to prevent waste material being carried and levied upon. The kilns at Rosedale East were located at Low Baring.
The railway was opened up in 1861 via the steep incline at Ingleby Greenhow, which connected the line with the North Eastern Railway line at Junction railway station. The railway was extended into East Rosedale in 1865. Prior to the arrival of the railway, ore was taken to Pickering by horse and cart and was railed via and to the Derwent Ironworks in Consett. The use of horse and cart to transport ore (nearly in 1860–1861), was the last large-scale use of this type of transport in the area, though some smaller concerns did still use horse transport. Before the railway's arrival, production was limited to between and per year, but in January 1861, a tramway was built connecting Hollins Farm mine to Bank Top (Rosedale West), that enabled production to vastly increase its output to over in 1862. Initially, coal mined at Rosedale Head was used to roast the ore, but later, coal from County Durham with a higher calorific value was used.
The Kitchen's and Garbutt's workings, both named after the farms they were discovered on, operated between 1853 and 1880. It is estimated that in their 23-year operating life, they produced of ore. The steep hill from the village of Rosedale Abbey to the site of the kilns at Rosedale West became known as Chimney Bank, due to the presence of the high chimney at the top of the hill. The chimney, which actually vented fumes from the stationary winding house boiler room, was demolished in 1972.
The combined output from the mines reached a peak in 1873, when was shipped down the incline for onward transportation to the ironworks. In the 68 years that the railway was open, it has been estimated that it transported over of ironstone for the smelters on Teesside and the North East. The Rosedale & Ferryhill Iron Company collapsed in 1879 after a slump in the iron market, and the all the mines ceased activity, with 1880 showing no tonnage moved. Some of the mines were re-opened in 1881 under the control of the Carlton Iron Company. In 1885, the Rosedale West mines (Low Works, Lane Head, Hollins Farm) were officially closed, but the kilns were kept open roasting the ore from other mines (Sheriff's Pit). The "Magnetic Mines" workings at Kitchen's and Garbutt's had ceased operations in 1880. A study of employment at Rosedale West found that in 1896, of the 121 people working there, 110 were listed as 'working underground', with 77 in 1899 and 80 in 1900.
Several proposals for light railways into Rosedale were proposed, but none came to fruition. The last one put forward was in 1900, when a line extending from railway station on the Gilling and Pickering line with an aim to get within of the village of Rosedale Abbey.
The mines closed progressively until final use of the kilns at Rosedale East came in 1926. This led to the closure of the railway and the abandonment of the kilns. However, a small reprieve came for the railway as dust from the calcination process (calcine), was exported form the kilns sporadically until 1929. The closure of the industry was partly due to the loss of available ore, but also in part to the General Strike of 1926, where iron prices were very low, so places like Rosedale became unprofitable.
Post-closure.
The various buildings and structures were demolished; the community that had built up around Blakey Junction (where the railway line diverged to Rosedale West and East), had its last house taken down in 1955. The kilns at Rosedale East are now scheduled monuments.


Surdulica mine

The Surdulica mine is one of the largest molybdenum mines in Serbia. The mine is located near Surdulica in south Serbia in Pčinja District. The Surdulica mine has reserves amounting to 125 million tonnes of molybdenum ore grading 0.05% molybdenum thus resulting 62,500 tonnes of molybdenum.


Kharlovskoye mine

The Kharlovskoye mine is a large iron mine located in eastern Russia in the Sakha Republic. Kharlovskoye represents one of the largest iron ore reserves in Russia and in the world having estimated reserves of 4 billion tonnes of ore grading 15.3% iron metal.


Otago Gold Rush

The Otago Gold Rush (often called the Central Otago Gold Rush) was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area - many of them veterans of other hunts for the precious metal in California and Victoria, Australia.
The rush started at Gabriel's Gully but spread throughout much of Central Otago, leading to the rapid expansion and commercialisation of the new colonial settlement of Dunedin, which quickly grew to be New Zealand's largest city. Only a few years later, most of the smaller new settlements were deserted, and gold extraction became more long-term, industrialised-mechanical process.
Background.
Previous gold finds in New Zealand.
Previously gold had been found in small quantities in the Coromandel Peninsula (by visiting whalers) and near Nelson in 1842. Commercial interests in Auckland offered a £500 prize for anyone who could find payable quantities of gold anywhere nearby in the 1850s, at a time when some New Zealand settlers were leaving for the California and Australian gold rushes. In September 1852, Charles Ring, a timber merchant, claimed the prize for a find in Coromandel. A brief gold rush ensued around Coromandel township, Cape Colville and Mercury Bay but only £1500 of gold was accessible in river silt, although more was in quartz veins where it was inaccessible to individual prospectors. The rush lasted only about three months.
A find in the Aorere Valley near Collingwood in 1856 proved more successful, with 1500 miners converging on the district and removing about £150,000 of gold over the next decade, after which the gold was exhausted. The presence of gold in Otago and on the West Coast during this time was known, but the geology of the land was different from that of other major gold-bearing areas, and it was assumed the gold would amount to little.
Previous gold finds in Otago.
Māori had long known of the existence of gold in Central Otago, but had no use for the ore. For a precious material they relied on greenstone for weaponry and tools, and used greenstone, obsidian and bone carving for jewellery.
The first known European Otago gold find was at Goodwood, near Palmerston in October 1851. The find was of a very small amount with no ensuing "rush". Instead, the settlement of Dunedin was just three years old, and more practical matters were of higher importance to the young town.
Other finds around the Mataura River in 1856 and the Dunstan Range in 1858 stirred minimal interest. A find near the Lindis Pass in early 1861 started producing flickers of interest from around the South Island, with reports of large numbers of miners travelling inland from Oamaru to stake their claims. It was two months later that the a gold strike was made that prompted a major influx of prospectors.
Main rush.
Gabriel's Gully.
Gabriel Read, an Australian prospector who had hunted gold in both California and Victoria, Australia, found gold in a creek bed at Gabriel's Gully, close to the banks of the Tuapeka River near Lawrence on 20 May 1861. "At a place where a kind of road crossed on a shallow bar I shovelled away about two and a half feet of gravel, arrived at a beautiful soft slate and saw the gold shining like the stars in Orion on a dark frosty night".
The public heard about Read's find via a letter published in the "Otago Witness" on 8 June 1861, documenting a ten-day-long prospecting tour he had made. There was little reaction at first until John Hardy of the Otago Provincial Council stated that he and Read had prospected country "about 31 miles long by five broad, and in every hole they had sunk they had found the precious metal." With this statement, the gold rush began.
Arrival of prospectors.
By Christmas, 14,000 prospectors were on the Tuapeka and Waipori fields. Within a year, the region's population swelled greatly, growing by 400 per cent between 1861 and 1864, with prospectors swarming from the dwindling Australian goldfields. Gabriel's Gully led to the discovery of further goldfields within Central Otago. A second gold strike in 1862, close to the modern town of Cromwell, did nothing to dissuade new hopefuls, and prospectors and miners staked claims from the Shotover River in the west through to Naseby in the north.
In November 1862 Thomas Arthur and Harry Redfern sneaked off from shearing for William Rees at Queenstown and looked for gold on the banks of the Shotover River armed with a butcher's knife and pannikin. The Arthur's Point strike led to the largest rush that occurred in Otago. Historic buildings at Queenstown such as Eichardt's Hotel, the Lake Lodge of Ophir (now Artbay Gallery), the Queenstown Police Station, and stone Courthouse were all begun as a response to the rapid influx.
By the end of 1863, the real gold rush was over, but companies continued to mine the alluvial gold. The number of miners reached its maximum of 18,000 in February 1864.
Life in mining communities.
Read's find of gold sparked the interest of people in Dunedin; people traveled long distances in the hope of striking it rich. These goldfields all gave rise to mining towns and communities of temporary shops, hotels and miners' huts made from canvas or calico fabric-covered timber frames. As the scope of the goldfields developed, communities became more permanent with buildings constructed in timber and concrete. Evidence such as material artefacts, foundations of huts and buildings, and photographs from the Central Otago goldfields provide us with information about the labour and social roles of men and women in the 19th Century. A restored Chinese Village at Arrowtown is a popular tourist attraction.
Men in mining communities.
The news of gold at Gabriel's Gully reached the inhabitants of Dunedin and the rest of the world, prospectors immediately left their homes in search of gold. The majority of these perspective prospectors were labourers and tradesmen, in their late teens and twenties.
The incoming population included entrepreneurial, skilled and technical people that established services for the miners, such as shops, post offices, banks, pubs, hotels and hardware stores. The owners of these businesses could make more money than the miners.
Evidence.
Historical evidence of male miners or businessmen in the 19th Century Central Otago goldfields is readily available in literature by and about the experiences of inhabitants at the various gold strikes. Census statistics and photographs are also available, all of which provide inferential evidence about the labour roles in these communities. This in turn provides information about labour and social roles within the community. Such information includes that of the ownership and management of stores and hotels, such as the bank and gold office at Maori Point ("Bank of New Zealand") in the 1860s, managed by "G. M. Ross".
Archaeological evidence is also readily available. Excavations at various sites throughout Otago show evidence of an array of mining techniques, including ground sluicing, hydraulic sluicing and hydraulic elevating. Tailings (the materials left over after the removal of the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of the ore) also provide some of the archaeological evidence from Otago gold mine sites. Midden analysis from camp and settlement sites provides information about diet, with evidence of a preference for beef and lamb in the European camps, and a preference for pork within the Chinese camps.
Artefactual evidence found during excavations includes blue and white ceramics, cooking and eating utensils, metal objects, such as buttons, nails and tin boxes (flint boxes, tobacco boxes) and an exceedingly high number of alcohol glass bottles. It is possible these glass bottles were recycled, so archaeologists cannot draw definite conclusions as to alcohol consumption. Within the Chinese camps (such as the Lawrence Chinese camp) artefacts include gambling tokens and Chinese coins as well as celadon earthwares.
Although diaries and memoirs about the lives of males in the mining communities exist, little mention or information is known about the significance of female labour and social roles. Archaeological evidence, however, suggests that many females in the goldfields took significant roles in mining and the general community.
Women in mining communities.
In the 19th century goldfields, women played significant familial, labour and entrepreneurial roles, such as wives, mothers, prostitutes, business owners and service providers and 'Colonial Helpmeets' (wives who worked alongside their husbands). Women within these communities were young and single, or married with a family, although the community was predominantly male, female family never having intended to move to the goldfields until towns developed with hotels, stores and schools. Yet, there was a female presence in this environment from the start of the gold find in 1861, at Gabriel's Gully. An example is Janet Robertson, who lived with her husband in a small cottage in Tuapeka. It was here in her cottage, where Gabriel Read wrote his "discovery" letter of gold to the Otago Provincial Council. As the news of this goldfield in Gabriel's Gully spread, prospectors engaged in the area, and Janet opened up her home, cooked meals and tended to the miners, as they passed through.
Another significant woman present on the 19th century Central Otago goldfields was Susan Nugent-Wood, a well-known writer in the 1860s and 1870s. Nugent-Wood, her husband John, and their children moved to Otago in 1861, as prospectors of gold. Nugent-Wood worked on the goldfields of Central Otago in several official positions. She wrote stories based on her life and roles on the Central Otago goldfields, which provide accounts of labour and social aspects of mining and gender in the 19th century.
Harriet Heron also lived on the goldfields, most notably at Fourteen-Mile Beach where she and her husband Henry lived in a tent for three years - Heron was the only woman in the mining camp at the time. They later built a cottage in the area, which is known today as "Mrs Heron's Cottage" and maintained by Heritage New Zealand.
As the majority of women within these mining communities were married, many became widows, as their husbands died during mining related activities or diseases. These women, whose husbands owned stores or hotels, adopted ownership rights. Many became well known throughout the communities, amongst visitors, passing miners and local citizens. Archaeological evidence of a widow who took over ownership rights following her husbands' death, was Elizabeth Potts. Potts was given a licence for the Victoria Hotel in Lawrence in 1869. This was recorded and published in the "Tuapeka Times", 11 December 1869. This archaeological evidence provides information which suggests that women played significant labour and social roles within mining communities.
Excavation evidence.
An excavation report from the Golden Bar Mine between the Macraes Flat and Palmeston, Otago, shows that located in front of the main mine workings of ca.1897, archaeological material was found. This material was a small heart-shaped brooch with 13 glass (paste) diamonds. This archaeological evidence suggests that women were present at this site, and within the Golden Bar goldfield. The exact occupation of women from this evidence is unknown, but indicates that women were present on the goldfields during the 19th Century gold rush in Otago.
Another excavation report by Petchey from the Macraes Flat mining area, presents items of children's toys such as marbles, and a china doll's leg amongst ruins of a house site. This evidence is also useful to suggest men and their families engaged in mining activities and social life on the goldfields in the 19th Century. Archaeological artefacts from 19th-century mining communities in Central Otago suggest that women and children were on site of the goldfields. It is unknown whether these artefacts belonged to women who were miners or women who were domestic wives and mothers.
Aftermath.
Results.
The city of Dunedin reaped many of the benefits, for a period becoming New Zealand's largest town even though it had only been founded in 1848. Many of the city's stately buildings date from this period of prosperity. New Zealand's first university, the University of Otago, was founded in 1869 with wealth derived from the goldfields.
However, the rapid decline in gold production from the mid-1860s led to a sharp drop in the province's population, and while not unprosperous, the deep south of New Zealand never rose to such relative prominence again.
Later gold rushes.
The Wakamarina River in Marlborough proved to have gold in 1862, and 6,000 miners flocked to the district. Although they found alluvial gold, there were no large deposits.
The West Coast of the South Island was the second-richest gold-bearing area of New Zealand after Otago, and gold was discovered in 1865-6 at Okarito, Bruce Bay, around Charleston and along the Grey River. Miners were attracted from Victoria, Australia where the gold rush was near an end. In 1867 this boom also began to decline, though gold mining continued on the coast for a considerable time after this. In the 1880s, quartz miners at Bullendale and Reefton were the first users of electricity in New Zealand.
Southland also had a number of smaller scale gold rushes during the later half of the 19th century. The first goldmining in Southland took place in 1860 on the banks of the Mataura River and its tributaries (and later would help settlements such as Waikaia and Nokomai flourish). However the first "gold rush" wasn't until the mid-1860s when fine gold was discovered in the black sands of Orepuki beach. Miners followed the creeks up into the foothills of the Longwoods to where the richest gold was to be had. This activity led to the founding of mining settlements such as Orepuki and Round Hill (the Chinese miners and shop owners essentially ran their own town known colloquially to Europeans as "Canton").
Gold was long known to exist at Thames, but exploitation was not possible during the New Zealand Wars. In 1867 miners arrived from the West Coast, but the gold was in quartz veins, and few miners had the capital needed to extract it. Some stayed on as workers for the companies which could fund the processing.
Commercial extraction.
After the main gold rush, miners began laboriously reworking the goldfields. About 5,000 European miners remained in 1871, joined by thousands of Chinese miners invited by the province to help rework the area. There was friction not only between European and Chinese miners, which contributed to the introduction of the New Zealand head tax, but also between miners and settlers over conflicting land use.
Attention turned to the gravel beds of the Clutha River, with a number of attempts to develop a steam-powered mechanical gold dredge. These finally met with success in 1881 when the "Dunedin" became the world's first commercially successful gold dredge. The "Dunedin" continued operation until 1901, recovering a total of 17,000 ounces (530 kg) of gold.
The mining has had a considerable environmental impact. In 1920 the Rivers Commission estimated that 300 million cubic yards of material had been moved by mining activity in the Clutha river catchment. At that time an estimated 40 million cubic yards had been washed out to sea with a further 60 million in the river. (The remainder was still on riverbanks). This had resulted in measured aggradation of the river bottom of as much as 5 metres.
Gold is still mined by OceanaGold in commercial quantities in Otago at one site - Macraes Mine inland from Palmerston, which started operations in 1990. Macraes Mine, an opencast hard rock mining operation, processes more than 5 million tonnes of ore per year and from 1990 through 2014, gold production has totaled about 4 million ounces.
The Otago gold rush in popular culture.
Numerous folk songs, both contemporary and more recent, have been written about the gold rush. Of contemporary songs, "Bright Fine Gold", with its chorus of "Wangapeka, Tuapeka, bright fine gold" (sometimes rendered "One-a-pecker, two-a-pecker") is perhaps the best known. Most well-known of more recent songs is Phil Garland's song "Tuapeka Gold".
Martin Curtis wrote a folk-style song about the gold rush called "Gin and Raspberry." The lyrics are written in the voice of an unsuccessful gold prospector who envies the success of the largest gold mine in the Cardrona valley at the time, the "Gin and Raspberry" (supposedly so named because the owner would call out, "Gin and raspberry to all hands!" whenever a bucket of mined material yielded an ounce of gold. The singer laments, "an ounce to the bucket and we'd all sell our souls/For a taste of the gin and raspberry." The song has had several recordings, particularly by Gordon Bok.
Paul Metsers' song "Farewell to the Gold" is based loosely on a flood in July 1863, which killed 13 miners on the Shotover River. The song has been recorded by many, including Nic Jones, The Black Family, James Keelaghan, and Nancy Kerr and James Fagan.
1976 New Zealand children's television drama series "Hunter's Gold" was set during the Central Otago Gold Rush.
The Otago Goldfields Cavalcade has annually since 1991 retraced the routes of wagons across country to the Dunstan goldfields around Cromwell. The original route, which established Cobb & Co.'s coach service left Dunedin's Provincial Tavern on 22 November 1862. Cavalcade routes vary each year in late February so as to finish in a different host town. In 2008 plans were made for a heritage trail including Arrowtown, Kawarau Gorge, Lawrence and the Dunedin Chinese Garden.


John J. Spanish

John James Spanish (June 1, 1922 – December 12, 2011) was an American politician, mechanic, and miner.
Biography.
Spanish was born in Hibbing, Minnesota and graduated from Hibbing High School. He also went took University of Minnesota vocational extension classes. Spanish served in the United States Navy during World War II. Spanish worked as a mechanic, machinists, and in the iron ore mine. He served on the Hibbing Village Council and was a Democrat. Spanish served in the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1969 and 1970 and from 1973 to 1978. In 2004, he ran for election to the Minnesota House of Representatives on the Independence Party of Minnesota ticket and lost the election. Spanish died at the St. Raphael's Rehabilitation Center in Eveleth, Minnesota.


Wengquangou mine

The Wengquangou mine is a large boron ore mine located in Liaoning province, China. Wengquangou represents one of the largest boron reserves in China having an estimated reserve of 21.9 million tonnes of ore grading 7.23% boron.


Steelworks Center of the West

The Steelworks Center of the West, is a non-profit organization focused on preserving the history of the coal and steel industry in the Western United States. Based in Pueblo, Colorado and formerly known as the Bessemer Historical Society, which took its name from the community of Bessemer, site of the Colorado Coal and Iron Bessemer Works which was named after the Bessemer process for making steel invented by Henry Bessemer.
Colorado Coal and Iron Company merged with the Colorado Fuel Company to form Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) in 1892.
The Steelworks Center of the West owns and operates the Steelworks Museum, the Steelworks Archives (formerly the CF&I Archives), and the Steelworks Park that is currently under construction in Pueblo. They provide continuing education of the steel industry's impact on the region through the preservation of historic archives, artifacts, and buildings of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, and through related activities leading to the industrialization of the Western US. They collect, preserve, and exhibit documents and artifacts from the steel and mining industry, Pueblo’s Bessemer neighborhood, and from the employees and families of employees who have worked either at the steel mill or in the coal and iron mines of Southern Colorado.