Mining in Wales

Mining in Wales provided a significant source of income to the economy of Wales throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. It was key to the Industrial Revolution.
Wales was famous for its coal mining, in the Rhondda Valley, the South Wales Valleys and throughout the South Wales coalfield and by 1913 Barry had become the largest coal exporting port in the world, with Cardiff as second, as coal was transported down by rail. Northeast Wales also had its own coalfield and Tower Colliery (closed January 2008) near Hirwaun is regarded by many as the oldest open coal mine and one of the largest in the world. Wales has also had a significant history of mining for slate, gold and various metal ores.
History.
There had been small-scale mining in Wales in the pre-Roman British Iron Age, but it would be undertaken on an industrial scale under the Romans, who completed their conquest of Wales in AD 78. Substantial quantities of gold, copper, and lead were extracted, along with lesser amounts of zinc and silver. Mining would continue until the process was no longer practical or profitable, at which time the mine would be abandoned. The extensive excavations of the Roman operations at Dolaucothi provide a picture of the high level of Roman technology and the expertise of Roman engineering in the ancient era.
Coal mining.
During the first half of the nineteenth century mining was often at the centre of working-class discontent in Wales, and a number of uprisings such as the Merthyr Rising in 1831 against employers were a characteristic of the Industrial Revolution in Wales, Dic Penderyn became a martyr to industrial workers. The Chartist movement and the 1839 Newport Rising showed the growing concerns and awareness of the work force of their value to the nation.
There is a well-known mining song part in Welsh and part in English.
I am a little collier and gweithio underground
The raff will never torri when I go up and down
It's bara when I'm hungry
And cwrw when I'm dry
It's gwely when I'm tired
And nefoedd when I die
The complete English translation is the following.
I am a little collier and working underground
The rope will never break when I go up and down
It's bread when I'm hungry
And beer when I'm dry
It's bed when I'm tired
And heaven when I die
Big Pit National Coal Museum & other mining museums in Wales.
Other museums preserving the memories and heritage of the coal mining industry in Wales are at :
Slate quarrying.
There has been slate quarrying in Wales since the Roman period, when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then expanded rapidly until the late 19th century, at which time the most important slate producing areas were in northwest Wales, including the Penrhyn Quarry near Bethesda, the Dinorwic Quarry near Llanberis, the Nantlle Valley quarries, and Blaenau Ffestiniog, where the slate was mined rather than quarried. Penrhyn and Dinorwig were the two largest slate quarries in the world, and the Oakeley mine at Blaenau Ffestiniog was the largest slate mine in the world. Slate is mainly used for roofing, but is also produced as thicker slab for a variety of uses including flooring, worktops and headstones.
The slate industry in North Wales is on the tentative World Heritage Site list whilst Welsh slate has been designated by the International Union of Geological Sciences as a Global Heritage Stone Resource.
Metal mining.
Metal mining in Wales affected large areas of what are now very rural parts of Wales and left behind a legacy of contaminated waste heaps and a very few ruined buildings.
There are a number of areas that have been mined for a variety of metals.
Gold mining.
Gold was mined as early as the Roman period at Dolaucothi in Carmarthenshire and possibly elsewhere. In the 19th century gold was being extracted from a number of small mines at the southern end of Snowdonia with most activity centred in the valley of the River Mawddach and its tributaries.
Lead and silver.
The principal areas were centred on the upland areas of the River Ystwyth and River Rheidol with some outliers to the east in the catchment of the River Severn and some to the south in the headwaters of the River Teifi. The largest of these mines were the Cwmystwyth and Rheidol United mines in Cwm Rheidol. The ore extracted was galena which in many cases had a high silver content, especially at Cwm Ystwyth. It also occurred alongside large quantities of sphalerite, the principal ore of zinc. However, the zinc was only occasionally processed and much remains on the very extensive discard heaps around the mines.
Amongst the very many mines that have existed the following list identifies those known to have existed between the 17th and 19th centuries in north Cardiganshire and west Montgomeryshire:
Aberffrwd, Alma, Blaenceunant, Blaencwmsymlog, Bron floyd, Bryn Glas, Bwa Drain, Bwlch, Cwm Mawr, Cwmystwyth, Cwm Ystwyth South, Cwm Ystwyth West, Cwmbryno, Cwmdarren, Cwmsymlog, De Broke, Dyffryn Castell, Elgar, Esgair Lle, Esgairmwyn, Fron Goch, Fron Goch East, Gelli, Glog fach, Glog Fawr, Goginan, Goginan west, Graig Goch, Grogwynion, Gwaith coch, Lisburne South, Llwynmalus, Llywernog, Logau Las, Melindwr, Mynyddgorddu, Nanteos, Pen Rhiw, Powell, Rheidol United, Temple, Ystumtuen
Metal mining in the Gwydir Forest dates back to the 17th century, but its heyday came in the latter half of the 19th century. These mines predominantly produced lead and zinc, and the last mine to close – Park Mine – closed in the 1960s.
Smaller areas of lead exploitation included Halkyn Mountain in Flintshire and in the Clyne valley in west Swansea.
Copper.
Copper mining is probably the oldest known mining activity in Wales with documented evidence of Bronze Age mining on the Great Orme near Llandudno and at Copa Hill in the valley of the River Ystwyth in Ceredigion. Further copper discoveries were exploited in Snowdonia just to the east of Beddgelert where the Sygun Copper Mine, within the Snowdonia National Park, gives an idea of the conditions faced by copper miners and is a popular tourist attraction. In the 18th century the massive deposits of copper together with a range of other metals was discovered and exploited at Parys Mountain on Anglesey.
Iron.
Commercial iron ore exploitation has been relatively uncommon in Wales during the last hundred years, despite the dominance of the iron and steel industry in South Wales. However ironstone is a component of the Lower Coal Measures rock sequence and where it outcrops along the northern edge of the South Wales Coalfield, it was extensively worked for the production of iron and was important in the initiation of the Industrial Revolution in South Wales. Commercial exploitation also took place in the Vale of Glamorgan. The Forest of Dean was an important source of iron for many centuries, and dates from at least the Roman period.
Lead.
Lead ore was first mined in North Wales during Roman times at Pentre Halkyn to be smelted at Flint. The lead that was produced there was stamped with the inscription Deceangli, which was the name of the Celtic tribe occupying the area. In the 17th century an intensive period of Welsh lead mining commenced, bringing a large number of miners from Derbyshire into Wales. There are substantial reserves of the metal in Ceredigion, probably first exploited in the Roman period, and extensively during the revival of metal mining in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Arsenic.
Arsenic has been mined in association with metals and in Wales commercial extraction has probably only occurred in the Clyne valley near Swansea.
Working mines.
Following the miners' strike, only two deep mines remained working in Wales. Tower Colliery, Hirwaun, had been run by a miner's co-operative since 1994. Due to dwindling coal seams, the colliery was last worked on 18 January 2008, followed by official closure on 25 January. Drift mining continued at Aberpergwm Colliery, a smaller mine closed by the National Coal Board in 1985 but reopened in 1996. Aberpergwm colliery is currently owned and operated by Energybuild and supplies the carbon market. Several other small mines still exist, including the Blaentillery drift mine near to the Big Pit National Coal Museum.
Popular culture.
The theme of Public Service Broadcasting's third album, Every Valley, follows the rise and fall of Welsh coal mining. It was recorded in the former steelworks town of Ebbw Vale, Wales, and released on 7 July 2017.


Shizhuyuan mine

The Shizhuyuan mine is a large mine located in the south-eastern China in Hunan. Shizhuyuan represents one of the largest fluorite reserves in China having estimated reserves of 45.9 million tonnes of ore grading 21.7% fluorite.


Barony A Frame

The Barony A Frame is a preserved headgear in East Ayrshire, Scotland, located west of Auchinleck. It was built in 1954 as part of the modernisation of the Barony Colliery, which had been opened in 1907.
The colliery closed in 1989, and in 1990 the winding engine houses, generating station and water-treatment works, as well as the A frame, were given listed building status, as category B listed structures.
It is the last remaining example of its type in Britain, and was restored in 2007 by the Barony A Frame Trust. Over £1 million was spent refurbishing the structure, including funding from Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The A-frame was reopened by Prince Charles, the Duke of Rothesay in January 2008.


Urgal coal mine

The Urgal Coal Mine is actually a conglomeration of three coal mines (Bureinsky open-pit, Pravoberezhny open-pit and Severnaya underground mine) located in Khabarovsk Krai in Russia. The three mines at end 2019 had coal reserves amounting to 222 million tonnes of coking coal, and had an annual production of 6.2 million tonnes of coal in 2019.


Bathgate

Bathgate ( or , ) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Armadale, Blackburn, Linlithgow, Livingston, West Calder and Whitburn. Situated south of the ancient Neolithic burial site at Cairnpapple Hill, Bathgate and the surrounding area show signs of habitation since about 3500 BC.
History.
Medieval (c1100–1500).
Bathgate first enters the chronicles of history in a confirmation charter by King Malcolm IV of Scotland (1141 – 9 December 1165). In royal charters of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries, the name of Bathgate has appeared as: Bathchet (1160), Bathket (1250) and Bathgetum (1316). Batket in the 14th century, and by the 15th appeared as both Bathgat and Bathcat, the latter an offshoot of Uchtred Dalrymple's feudal lineage, which ruled during ancient times. The name is a "manifest corruption" of an earlier Cumbric name meaning 'Boar Wood' (cf. Welsh "baedd coed").
Early records of Bathgate are somewhat sketchy. It is recorded that, around 1160, Uchtred Dalrymple, Sheriff of Linlithgow, and Geoffrey de Melville came to Bathgate at the command of King Malcolm IV and measured out an area of land which was to form the basis of Bathgate Parish. The church and all its associate property were placed under the auspices of Holyrood Abbey at that time and paid a tenth of its income from the land to that institution.
In 1315, the daughter of King Robert I of Scotland (Robert The Bruce), Marjorie (alternatively spelt Margery) Bruce, married Walter Stewart (or Steward) (1293–1326), the 6th Lord High Steward of Scotland. The dowry to her husband included the lands and castle of Bathgate. Walter died at the castle on 9 April 1326. This marriage is still celebrated in an annual pageant forming part of the Bathgate Procession & John Newland Festival, colloquially known as the Bathgate Galaday (or Gala day).
In the 1846 book "A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland", Samuel Lewis writes:
Another antiquarian, W. Jardin, in the "Statistical Account of Scotland Vol I" (1793), referring to Walter Stewart states:
Dating from around the same time the remains of Bathgate's former parish church still stand at Kirkton. The original 12th-century construction was absorbed by a later build in 1739 when a new church was erected on the same site. The walls of the church were consolidated in 1846. This simple whitewashed edifice served the community until its last service on 9 April 1882. King Malcolm IV makes reference to the original church in a charter, granting it to the monks of Holyrood Abbey. Records show that Holyrood Abbey gave the church to the abbot and monks of Newbattle Abbey in 1327.
17th–18th centuries.
In 1606 silver ore was found at nearby Hilderston, in the shadow of Cairnpapple Hill, by a prospecting collier, Sandy Maund. This accidental discovery began a short-lived crown "project" in the area. Advisers to King James VI of Scotland became aware of the discovery, and in April 1608 repossessed the land for the crown. The prospector Bevis Bulmer and Thomas Foulis opened a mine called "God's Blessing". A sample of the ore was shipped to London, and assayed in the Tower of London by Andrew Palmer. By December 1608 it was clear that the ore in the mine was of varying quality and by March 1613 all efforts to extract silver from the area were abandoned.
Bathgate remained a very small rural community until the middle of the 19th century with only a foray by Covenanters in the 17th century to unrest the populace. Francis Groome, in the "Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland" (1882–84) writes:
Robert Louis Stevenson, in the book "Lay Morals, Part 2: The Pentland Rising. A Page of History" further elucidates upon this night in November 1666:
His depiction goes on to describe how the half the army perished in the freezing weather as they headed towards the Pentland Hills.
19th century.
Established around 1800, the Glenmavis Distillery in Bathgate was purchased in 1831 by John McNab, who produced the eponymous "MacNab's Celebrated Glenmavis Dew" from the site until the distillery's closure in 1910. In 1885, the distillery was producing 80,000 gallons of single malt a year which was transported to Scotland, England and the colonies.
In 1831 Bathgate Academy was built. Designed by the Edinburgh architects R & R Dickson this is Bathgate's only large public building of historic merit. It was endowed by a Jamaican plantation owner John Newlands. The building later became part of Balbardie Primary School, and later still was changed into private housing.
By the opening of Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway in 1849, local mines and quarries were extracting coal, lime, and ironstone.
James Young's discovery of cannel coal in the Boghead area of Bathgate, and the subsequent opening of the Bathgate Chemical Works in 1852, the world's first commercial oil-works, manufacturing paraffin oil and paraffin wax, signalled an end to the rural community of previous centuries. When the cannel coal resources dwindled around 1866, Young started distilling paraffin from much more readily available shale. The landscape of the Lothians is still dotted with the orange spoil heaps (called bings) from this era. Collieries and quarries and the associated industries (brickworks, steelworks) were the main employers in Bathgate as the 19th century drew to a close.
20th century.
In the mid-20th century, many local industries were closed and West Lothian was designated a Special Development Area. In such areas, extra financial inducements were offered by the British government to assist companies wishing to relocate. As a result, in 1961, the BMC—which consisted of the merged Austin Motor Company and Morris Motors—located a new truck and tractor plant in Bathgate rather than expanding their Longbridge plant as originally planned. The plant closed in 1986.
On 24 March 1986, the Bathgate-Edinburgh railway line was re-opened to passengers for the first time since the 1950s. This railway line was extended as the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link to Airdrie allowing train services to run between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley via on time and on budget in December 2010.
The world's oldest known reptile fossil, "Westlothiana lizziae" (affectionately referred to as "Lizzie"), was discovered in East Kirkton Quarry, Bathgate in 1987; it is now in the Museum of Scotland.
Early in 1992, the US company Motorola opened a mobile phone manufacturing (Personal Communications Sector or PCS) plant at Easter Inch in Bathgate (now the Pyramids Business Park). In 2001, the global market for mobile phones dropped sharply and as a consequence, despite pressure from the highest levels of UK government, on 24 April 2001 Motorola announced the closure of the plant and the loss of 3,106 jobs. The site is now occupied by HMRC.
Notable Bathgate residents have included Debbie Geddes, Stephen Gallacher, European Tour Player and Ryder Cup Star, Bernard Gallagher, former captain of the Ryder Cup Team, David Tennant (born in Bathgate but raised in Paisley); his father Alexander McDonald, former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; Sir James Young Simpson, the discoverer of the anaesthetic properties of chloroform; and John Newland, one of the town's major benefactors. Newland emigrated to the West Indies. There he became a rich planter, using slaves to maintain and harvest his sugar-cane crop. His benefaction allowed the establishment of Bathgate Academy, which was founded in 1833. He was remembered by an annual pageant (known as the Procession or Newland's day), held on the first Saturday in June. In light of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests a petition to change the processions name due to Newlands slave trade past, gained hundreds of signatories. In June 2020 the name was changed to the more suitable 'Bathgate Procession and Community Festival'.
The local secondary schools are Bathgate Academy and St Kentigern's Academy. The Bathgate primary schools are Balbardie, St Mary's, Boghall, St Columba's, and Windyknowe. A new primary school, Simpson Primary, opened on the site of the British Leyland Factory in August 2007. It serves the new area of town called Wester Inch. The school is named after James Young Simpson.
Industry and business.
Bathgate was an industrial town in its time. It played host to the Menzies' Foundry (demolished due to the railway link construction) and British Leyland was sited in Bathgate. It had two train stations, Bathgate North and South. There was a link that ran from the site of the current station, along Menzies Road, at the rear of one side of Mill Road all the way to Easton Road where the station was. This was used for the coal-mining industries and the foundries.
Transport.
Road.
Bathgate has easy access to the M8 motorway via Junctions 3A and 4, linking the town to Edinburgh, Inverclyde via Glasgow and towns in between. The A801 links Bathgate to the M9 via Polmont.
Bus.
Bus Services in Bathgate are co-ordinated by West Lothian Council and are provided principally by First Scotland East, Lothian Country Buses, SD Travel and E&M Horsburgh. Frequent and daily direct services exist to Falkirk, Westfield, Armadale, Blackridge, Whitburn, Fauldhouse, Torphichen, Linlithgow, Broxburn, Uphall, Newbridge, Deans, Livingston, East Calder and Edinburgh.
Rail.
 Railway Station is operated by Scotrail and is served by eastbound services to Edinburgh Waverley and westbound services to Helensburgh Central via Glasgow, Milngavie via Glasgow, and Balloch via Glasgow
Air.
Edinburgh Airport is away.
Shopping.
Bathgate has a great variety of shops. In the late 19th century the co-operative halls were built and served the community until closure in the 1980s. It provided a bakery, butchery, funeral parlour, grocery store, clothing, furniture and a dance hall. Even after the closure the co-operative dance hall was used as the Room at the Top. It caught fire in 1997. Bathgate is also home to a popular nightclub called The Twig, located at the end of Livery Street.
There are local and chain stores as well such as Greggs, W.H. Smith, Home Bargains, B&M, Tesco, Knightly Gaming, Bathgate Bargain Stores, Aldi, Argos, Costa Coffee, Lidl, Morrisons, and McDonald's.
Sport.
Football.
Bathgate is home to the junior football club Bathgate Thistle, who won the Scottish Junior Cup in 2008. They play at the Creamery Park. Their stadium is also used for activities such as football roadshows.
Bathgate FC were active between 1893 and 1938 and played at Mill Park.
Motorsport.
Paul di Resta, former Formula One driver with Sahara Force India and now driving for Mercedes in the DTM touring car series, grew up in the town of Bathgate. He won many admirers in his rookie F1 season of 2010 and had been tipped to land a seat at a constructor challenging higher up the grid in the coming seasons, but ultimately returned to DTM in 2014 after failing to secure an F1 ride for that season. He is cousin to two other notable drivers who also hail from Bathgate—the now-retired multiple IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti and his younger brother Marino, currently racing sports cars in Europe and North America.
Culture.
Land art.
Part of the M8 Art Project saw the artist Patricia Leighton's 'Sawtooth Ramps' project being built in 1993, now more commonly referred to as the Pyramids. The sculpture is long and consists of seven high ramps. The artist based the design on local geographic features (drumlins) and the shape of the surrounding bings. The pyramidal shape of the sculpture gave rise to the name of the nearby Pyramids Business park. In April 2007, a local farmer painted the sheep which graze on the pyramids bright red with a harmless sheep spray.
In 1998 the artist Lumir Soukup built the earth sculpture "The Bathgate Face" at Wester Inch. By taking facial measurements of more than 1200 Bathgate residents, the artist was able to create an 'average profile' which was the basis for the sculpture.
Development in the area in 2004 threatened to demolish the sculpture but the artist managed to persuade developers to build around his work.
Music.
Bathgate was home to rock band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie in the 1980s and 1990s, a success of the local college's Music Industry course.
The Bathgate Academy is home to Louise Connell, who teaches English; she is the lead singer of the band Reverieme.
Bathgate is mentioned in the Proclaimers' hit song "Letter from America".
Partner towns.
and as part of West Lothian with:


Kun-Manie mine

The Kun-Manie mine is a large mine prospect in the Far East of Russia in the Amur Oblast. Kun-Manie represents one of the largest nickel reserves in the world, having current estimated reserves of over 1 million Nickel Equivalent tonnes of metals and likely to be closer to 2 million once full exploration is completed. It is among the largest 10 nickel discoveries in the world, and is still having its limits defined through further infill drilling. The amount of nickel and other metals will be very substantially more.
On 22 May 2015 the Russian Prime Minister issued final approval for the extraction of the contained metals, giving Amur Mineral 100% of the value of all extracted metals, subject to normal tax arrangements.
Kun Manie is also subject to an MOU with major Chinese producer Jinchuan who are currently undertaking due diligence on Amur Minerals with a view to help with its development.


Old Newgate Prison

Old Newgate Prison is a former prison and mine site on Newgate Road in East Granby, Connecticut. It is now operated by the state of Connecticut as the Old New-Gate Prison & Copper Mine Archaeological Preserve. Previously closed for restoration since 2009, it was re-opened on July 14, 2018. The site includes a colonial-era copper mine, and the remains of the state's first official prison, which was used between 1776 and 1782 to house prisoners of war from the American Revolutionary War. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972.
Early History.
State records indicate that copper was discovered on the west side of Talcott Mountain, then part of Simsbury, in 1705. The construction of a mine began in 1707. The mine was created by digging a vertical shaft and tunneling horizontally, with additional vertical shafts dug for ventilation.
The Woodbridge Company.
In 1709, three clergymen, John Woodbridge, Timothy Woodbridge, Jr., and Dudley Woodbridge, formed a company to extract the ore, refine it, and cast it into bars. They invited the people of Simsbury to participate in the venture. Sixty-four residents, in exchange for financial and or labour investments, became shareholders as a result.
Excavations were made on the summit of the hill and two perpendicular shafts, one nearly eighty feet deep and the other thirty-five, were dug through the rock to raise the ore. Caverns were carved out at the bottom of the shafts that extended several hundred feet in various directions.
The ore was developed amateurishly, broken out by hand, upgraded, and shipped to British consignees. As a result of the manner in which the ore was extracted profits were minimal. Twinned with this, British legislation at the time prohibited the ore from being smelted in America. Because they could not construct a furnace to extract the copper from the ore the entire mass had to be shipped to England resulting in large shipping costs. Within four years, the venture failed.
Continuation of mining.
Interest in the mine did not disappear with the Woodbridge Company. In 1714, Jonathan Belcher, William Partridge, and one of the original company’s clergy, Timothy Woodbridge Jr, leased the area from the town and raised £10,000 to resurrect the mine.
Skilled miners were brought in to the mine in order to dig and extract the ore. The ore was then hauled fourteen miles to Hartford, shipped to New York City, then loaded onto ships bound for England where it was refined.
In order to combat the percolation of water into the mine drains were dug in order to draw it away. However this proved unsuccessful and pumps were required to be kept running throughout the day.
Alongside miners brought specifically to the mine, local workers and farmers from nearby Windsor were employed as labour. On top of this, African and Native American slaves, both imported and indigenous, were leased from masters and forced to work the mines.
The vein yielded three to five percent of pure copper, however it was not enough to offset the cost of running the mine. Speculators pulled out and eventually Belcher dissolved the venture.
Others would renew the lease, however profits continued to remain small. Cargoes shipped to Europe had slim returns. Over the years, two ships were lost, one taken by the French as a prize during war and the other sunk in the English Channel.
Some company owners defied the ban on smelting in America and constructed furnaces in order to pound, smelt, and refine the ore. This was done is secrecy, but it too proved a financial burden and was abandoned.
Role as a prison.
By 1773, the Connecticut General Assembly sought a central prison to house its convicts. The unsuccessful mine, with its labyrinth of caves and shafts, was explored as an option as an escape-proof institution in which isolated prisoners could be kept from society.
In May 1773, Colonel William Pitkin, Eratus Wolcott, and Captain Jonathan Humphrey visited the mines. They determined that by carving a 15 by 12 foot lodging room near the first shaft they had the makings of a formidable prison.
The colony purchased the remaining years of Captain James Holmes’ mining lease and set about constructing the necessary infrastructure needed to convert the mine into a satisfactory prison. A small blockhouse was constructed over the main shaft with ladder – the only entrance and exit from the mine. The lodging room was enlarged along with accommodations for the expected prisoners.
The General Assembly passed an act prescribing the terms of imprisonment: burglary, robbery, and counterfeiting for the first offense – not to exceed ten years, and the second offense was life. The keeper of the prison was authorized to punish the convicts for offences by “moderate whipping, not exceeding ten stripes, and by putting shackles and fetters upon them.” It was intended that prisoners would be employed at labour.
The prison had only one point of entry and exit, a forty-foot ladder down into the mine from the guardhouse. Prisoners would be provided with musty straw to sleep on.
On December 2, 1773, representatives for the Colonial Legislature approached Captain John Viets, owner of a tavern nearby the mine, which he accepted.
The prison pre-war.
In December 1773 the prison received its first convict, John Hinson sentenced to 10 years for burglary. Hinson was a career criminal who had spent time in half a dozen county gaols.
After eighteen days imprisonment a snow storm struck. Around midnight, Viets went to check on his captive. Descending the ladder, he found Hinson’s bunk was empty and his few possessions were missing. It was later discovered that a female accomplice had braved the deep snow with a hundred foot rope coiled around her shoulder. She lowered the rope down the eighty foot well shaft allowing Hinson to climb out.
In response, the Hartford Assembly recommended a number of changes. Firstly, at least two guards were to watch the prison at night. The ventilating shaft in which Hinson had made his escape from was also to be covered with “stones about 15 to 18 inches square and of suitable length… secured with a strong iron gate, about six feet below the surface.” Further to this, it was decided that the prisoners were to be used as forced labour in order to extract ore.
In order to assist the convict workers, a number of expert miners were hired to work alongside them. However this had an adverse effect with the hired miners becoming friendly with the convicts and willingly entering into their escape plans with them.
American Revolutionary War.
The build-up of tensions throughout the Thirteen Colonies on the eve of the American Revolutionary War, saw Loyalists persecuted and targeted by local Patriots. Loyalists were assaulted in the streets, tarred and feathered, and their homes were raided and damaged.
With the eruption of conflict following the Battle of Lexington and Concord, suspicion of those suspected of Loyalist sympathies grew even stronger. Those persons alleged to have joined the enemy, robbed, or plundered were not to be considered prisoners of war, but convicted before the superior court and either sentenced to death, whipped, or imprisoned. By not obtaining the status of prisoner or war, a loyalist could not be pardoned, exchanged, or released. Patriotic leaders sought means to remove the more vocal loyalists from society and saw the answer in the ready-made prison at Simsbury.
At first, the number of Loyalist prisoners remained low with only five or six being incarcerated in the prison, often for numerous offences. However, this changed and upwards of thirty to forty loyalists at a time begun to be imprisoned purely for their sympathies to the Crown, often facing charges of life imprisonment within the caverns.
The treatment of loyalists in the prison was no different to that of other convicted criminals. With up to a hundred inmates being held at one time, air circulation in such a confined space was limited. There was no natural light, no opportunities for inmates to wash, and communal toilet facilities. Among inmates, the prison was often referred to as “Hell”.
Mining was abandoned and the need for punitive work expanded their hard labour to include making hand wrought nails. Prisoners were bound in iron chains and forced into the compulsory construction of nails from 4am to 4pm. Lashes were dished out as punishment for disobedience.
For particularly unruly inmates, the prison possessed a solitary confinement cell. Situated at an area near the end of one of the passageways, the cell was consisted of bare rock and was twenty feet square with no light. In the middle of the cell was a rock with an iron bolt affixed to it, allowing for a prisoners legs to be chained to it.
The psychological fear of the prison was itself used in order to torment Loyalists. Colonel Abijah Willard was denounced as a traitor and marched by a crowd several miles in the direction of the prison. The fear of imprisonment at Simsbury was enough for him to sign the crowd’s oath and beg for forgiveness.
Escapes.
In spring 1776 a number of prisoners attempted to escape the prison by burning a wooden door which sat over the exit shaft. Hay had been smuggled for weeks where it was deemed to be a combustible enough fire. Upon lighting the hay, the damp conditions underground caused only a smolder instead. The smoke however was enough to result in the death of one prisoner.
Despite the increase of prison security, now numbering 27 soldiers armed with muskets and cutlasses, another escape attempt occurred on May 18, 1781. While two officers were raising the shaft’s gate, it was violently heaved upward and the men, armed with rocks and scraps of metal, scrambled up the ladder into the blockhouse. The guards were overpowered and disarmed in the ensuing brawl. The escapees then captured the night duty guards as well as those sleeping. All guards, regardless of their condition, were then transported down into the prison, before the prisoners fled from the scene.
On November 6, 1782, the wooden buildings of the prison were destroyed by fire, allowing for another escape of inmates to take place.
Of all the inmates held in captivity in the prison during the war it is estimated that approximately half absconded and escaped in some capacity.
With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 bringing a conclusion to the conflict, the new United States government lost interest in using the mine as a federal prison.
The prison post war.
In 1790 Simsbury became a state prison. Most of the above-ground facilities present today were built between then and 1802. These include the main prison wall, a new workshop for the convicts, and five brick-and-masonry buildings, all of which now stand in ruins.
From nail making, the prison industry branched out: cooper shop (making and repairing wooden vessels such as barrels), blacksmith, manufacture wagons and ploughs, a machine shop, a shoe shop, and basket weaving were all incorporated into the prison workforce.
Several more buildings were constructed: a large kitchen, several small factories, a hospital, quarters for female convicts, and a thirty-foot treadmill that was operated by twenty two inmates climbing paddle blades to grind grain.
Though many improvements were many, the jail remained a miserable facility. Men were chained and forced to march the treadmill, an overseer standing by with his whip ready. In 1824, a four story building was erected containing offices, a granary, mess hall, and additional cells for fifty prisoners. The focus became punishment along with employment in producing commercial products to help offset prison operating expenses.
In 1827 the prison was closed and the remaining prisoners were transferred to the new Wethersfield State Prison.
Post prison activity.
Attempts were made to reactivate the mines in the 1830s and 1850s, but these ventures failed and mining at the site was again abandoned.
The mine was purchased by private owners who, for a price, provided candles and guided tours of the old prison for curious visitors. The site has been considered a tourist attraction since the 1860s. Prison tours were still carried out and to attract more visitors, a variety of attractions were eventually introduced – caged bears, antique cars, and a World War I tank.
The mine complex was acquired by the state historic commission in 1968. In the 1970s the state repurposed the old guardhouse for use as a visitors centre and interpretive museum, and took other steps to stabilize the ruins. Old Newgate Prison was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and was designated a National Historic Landmark two years later. They also constructed a sloping tunnel to provide visitors access via stairs to the mines. The museum and grounds was closed in 2009 for structural repairs, re-opening to the public on July 14, 2018.
The site is now owned and administered by the State of Connecticut as a museum. Nearby Peak Mountain offers a bird's eye view of Old Newgate Prison from the Metacomet Trail.
In Popular Culture.
In the book "Drums Along the Mohawk" John Wolff escapes from the prison.
In 2006 an episode of "Treasure Hunters" sent the contestants to the prison.


Los Filos mine

The Los Filos mine is one of the largest gold mines in Mexico and in the world. The mine is located in the south of the country in Guerrero. The mine has estimated reserves of 7.43 million oz of gold and 52.54 million oz of silver.
In January 2017, Goldcorp sold the mine to Leagold Mining Corporation for $438 million as part of a divestment of non-core assets.


Myron Thomas

Myron Thomas (January 1916 – September 1987) was an American coal miner in northeastern Pennsylvania, and a hero of the Knox Mine Disaster when he led a group of 24 survivors to safety.
Mining career.
Thomas became an assistant foreman in the mines in 1945. On January 22, 1959, Myron Thomas was working at the River Slope Mine in Port Griffith, near Pittston, Pennsylvania, when the mine became flooded with icy water from the Susquehanna River. Thomas recalled the sound as being "like two fast freight trains passing in a tunnel." He led two dozen men through chest-high icy water for more than seven hours, until they reached the only remaining exit, Eagle Shaft. Thomas said that he repeated the 23rd Psalm through the ordeal. "I was ready to die," he explained.
After Knox.
Myron Thomas testified at the legislative hearing into the disaster, along with many of the other survivors. He was also called to testify at the trial of the Knox Mine Company owners, the following year.
After coal mining, he was a state highway superintendent. He had black lung as an older man, from his years as a coal miner. He died in September 1987, age 72. Thomas's grave is in a small wooded miners' cemetery in Taylor, Pennsylvania.
Legacy.
In 2016, a documentary tribute to Myron Thomas, made by Al and David Brocca, was shown at the Annual Knox Mine Disaster Remembrance Program, at the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton. Thomas's grandson Robert J. Thomas also spoke on the occasion.
There are folk ballads telling the story of the Knox Mine Disaster, including several that mention Myron Thomas; "Last Day of the Northern Field" is subtitled "Ballad of Myron Thomas."


Lucy Thomas

Lucy Thomas (née Williams, baptised 11 March 1781 – 27 September 1847) was a Welsh businesswoman and colliery owner known as the "mother of the Welsh steam coal trade". Thomas took over the running of her husband Robert's coal mine after his death in 1833. Unusual as it was at the time that a woman ran the business, more unusually she was also illiterate. Business documents held in the Glamorgan Archives show she signed only with an "X". Much of Thomas' subsequent success as a businesswoman was embellished by Merthyr historian Charles Wilkins, who wrote one of the few articles on her life. It is now believed that George Insole, a Cardiff agent, was one of the chief architects of her success, though this does not diminish Thomas's position as one of the few women coal owners in industrial Britain. It is recorded that Lucy once attended the Coal Exchange in Cardiff only to be told she could not enter. She sent a male clerk in her employ into the Coal Exchange with a letter informing the establishment that "My coal is equal to any mans, failure to grant entry will lead to my business lining another's pockets."
Background.
Lucy Thomas (née Williams) was baptized in Llansamlet, south Wales, on 11 March 1781, the daughter of Job Williams and his wife, Ann James. She married Robert Thomas at Llansamlet on 30 June 1802. Robert was a contractor of a coal level, providing fuel for Cyfarthfa Ironworks. They had eight children, six sons and two daughters.
As an industrialist.
In 1824, Robert Thomas took up an annual tenancy from Lord Plymouth for the opening and mining of a small coal level at Waun Wyllt, near Abercanaid, south of Merthyr. The contract forbade Robert Thomas from trading with the four local iron-works which were under the ownership of Lord Plymouth. Although little was expected from the level, it was the first to hit the "Four Foot Seam", a rich deposit of high quality steam coal. The mine initially sold its coal to local households in Merthyr and Cardiff, with a tramline being constructed from Thomas's level to the Glamorganshire Canal to allow transportation to Cardiff Docks. Robert shipped his coal along the canal to Merthyr from July 1828 and to Cardiff from February 1829 (in particular, Robert supplied Richard Biddle, a Cardiff trader, from that month). In November 1830, George Insole (in partnership with Biddle) had arranged the shipment of 414 tons of steam coal from Waun Wyllt to London.
Robert Thomas died in 1833. Lucy Thomas was granted letters of administration for the estate (having co-signed a surety bond with her son William and George Insole). From that time, Insole's payments for the coal dispatched were paid to her. Through Insole, a contract was written with Messrs Wood and Company to supply the London-based coal merchants with a quantity of 3,000 tons of coal per year. These early deals with the London markets helped establish the reputation of Welsh coal and were the basis on which Thomas became known as "the mother of the Welsh steam coal trade". Although Thomas was credited with these ventures, it is now believed that much of the success was due to Insole. The embellishment of Thomas's achievements are today attributed to Merthyr historian Charles Wilkins, who wrote an account of Thomas in 1888. Wilkins had a penchant for imaginative touches and his account gives the impression of Thomas as an enterprising woman who looked to set up new markets, whereas evidence now suggests that this work was conducted by her agents. Further research has also shown that coal had been shipped to London from Wales before either of the Thomases began extracting coal from their level, with shipments from Llanelli and Swansea being exported to the capital as early as 1824.
The lease for the Waun Wyllt level was terminated in the mid-1830s and Thomas then leased the neighbouring Graig pit which also exploited the Four Foot Seam.
Death and legacy.
In September 1847, Lucy Thomas contracted typhoid fever and died two weeks later on 27 September 1847 at her home in Abercanaid. She was buried in the family plot in the cemetery of the Unitarian chapel at Cefn-coed-y-cymmer near Merthyr. Despite the evidence available today, the myth of Lucy Thomas as "the mother of the Welsh steam coal trade" has endured, probably in part due to the image of a lone, illiterate but doughty widow engaging in a near-totally male dominated industry but also because the business did grow more than ten-fold under her hand in the fourteen years from her husband's death. A memorial fountain was erected in 1906 on the High Street of Merthyr Tydfil in commemoration of Robert and Lucy Thomas, in part funded by her granddaughter's husband, William Lewis, 1st Baron Merthyr.


Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant

Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant () is a company based in Tikhvin, Russia.
History.
In 1994, a company was established to construct a $110 million manufacturing plant capable of producing 140,000 tonnes of ferrochromium and 150,000 tonnes of crushed residue per year. A 1997 referendum in Tikhvin opposed the establishment of the plant, but after acquiring the unfinished project in 2001, ICT Group announced its intention to complete its construction. The opening of the plant remains contentious. It is seen as an example of government collusion with big business.
The Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant finally began production in 2007. A low world demand for ferrochromium delayed the factory's ramp-up to full production, with two furnaces started in 2007 and another two in 2008. The company began production from concentrated chrome ore from the Mechel-held Voskhod chrome processing plant ("ГОКа "Восход-Хром"") in Kazakhstan in early 2009. The plant's four furnaces have a maximum power of 22.5 MW. In 2009 production was 53,900t (chromium equivalent) with a typical chromium content of 69-70% in the ferroalloys. In 2010, it employed 720 people.
In April 2008, the plant's owner, Oriel Resources, was acquired by Mechel. In 2013, Mechel sold its ferroalloy holdings, including the Tikhvin plant, to Yildirim (Turkey).


Red River (Koner)

The Red River () is a small river in north-west Cornwall, United Kingdom which issues into St Ives Bay at Godrevy on Cornwall's Atlantic coast. The Red River is about long and was given its name from the mineral deposits associated with tin mining which formerly coloured its water red. The river's gradient is relatively steep; the stream falls from source to sea.
Geography.
The Red River rises from springs near Bolenowe on the Carnmenellis granite batholith, an upland plateau. The river flows north, passing through a gorge in the granite ridge west of Carn Brea. Beyond the gorge, the river passes Tuckingmill, and Tuckingmill Valley Park, once a centre of mining and associated industries. At the hamlet of Combe, the Tehidy stream joins the Red River which then turns west towards Godrevy.
Tin streaming.
The Red River's catchment area includes the major mining areas of Tuckingmill, Pool, and Camborne. Thus:
The Red River catchment has been subjected to mining and mineral working for many centuries, particularly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It has been extensively tin streamed and its water used for mineral processing, both for use in the mineral separation processes and as a source of power. As a result of past mining activities the river has undergone many modifications and for significant parts of its course the river has been diverted, canalised, and, in places, embanked. Very little, if any, of the river can be considered to be in a truly natural condition.
In The Mining Journal (1872), the author, Mr Watson, asked ″if any stream or gully in Australia, Brazil or California had proved to be so continuously rich and productive as the Red River.″ The river was fed by tributary streams that flowed from the dressing-floors and slime pits of the principal mines, and the ″squatters″ could earn £20,000 per year working on the slimy river-bed. Mr Watson remarked on the inefficiency of the mines in allowing so much tin to be lost. By 1879, Captain James of South Frances mine, estimated £30,000s worth of tin was lost by the mines. On 25 June 1879 the lease for the tenement of Rosewarne Mill was auctioned at Abraham's Hotel, Camborne. The sale included the "valuable" tin stream works" including a 12-inch cylinder engine, three waterwheels, stamps and all the minerals found in the mill leat and the main river within certain defined boundaries. The Magor Coombe streamworks were bought for £750 by Captain Rabling in 1879. In January 1883 The Cornishman newspaper reported that an estimated £42,000 worth of tin went down the river and many thousands of pounds yearly are made by ″the squatters″ who set up machinery and harvest the waste products of the mines. Two years later, in July 1885 the newspaper reported there were twenty-nine ″works″ employing 861 people in reworking the tinsand and slime which escaped from the mines upstream.
Within Tuckingmill Valley Park is a small island containing the remains of a chimney stack, brick scrubber building and collapsed flue. The buildings (circa 1905) are associated with the production of arsenic which was a valuable resource for Cornish tin and copper mines when production of the metals was declining and the mines were closing. More efficient calcining furnaces were built and the gases fed through convoluted labyrinths where they cooled and condensed on the flue walls. The walls were scraped and the deposits further refined to make 100% pure arsenic. Arsenic was used as a pesticide for the boll weevil ("Anthonomus grandis") in the cotton fields of the United States, as well as in the paint and dye industry producing new colours such as canary yellow and emerald green.
High stone-faced banks, are the remains of ten sluices which controlled the flow of water, to enable the recovery of tailings. The sluices were part of the Tolgarrick tin treatment operations which closed in 1986.
Following the closure of the last mine, South Crofty, in 1998, the Red River has lost its distinctive colour, and natural ecology and biodiversity are being re-established. Tn the 2017, the Environment Agency granted permission for the new mine owner to discharge effluent from the mine to prepare for future reopening.
The river gives its name to the Red River Inn public house (formerly The Pendarves Arms) in nearby Gwithian.
Wildlife and ecology.
The Red River is one of the most modified streams in the UK due to centuries of mining which has led to heavy metal contamination and the realignment of the course. The river is gradually re-establishing a more natural look as banks erode and some of the sediment deposited to form bars and small islands.
The river and ponds of the Tuckingmill Valley Park provide valuable habitat within an urban area, for two nationally scarce insects; scarce blue-tailed damselfly ("Ischnura pumilio") and small red damselfly ("Ceriagrion tenellum"). The larvae of the golden-ringed dragonfly ("Ceriagrion tenellum") have been found and the adults can be seen through the summer and autumn. Other dragonflies include the common darter ("Sympetrum striolatum") and the once rare migrant hawker ("Aeshna mixta") which usually fly in August and September.
Both frog ("Rana temporaria temporaria") and common toad ("Bufo bufo") spawn are found along the edges of the ponds in the early part of the year and the otter ("Lutra lutra") has returned following the improvement in water quality. The invasive plants, parrot feather ("Myriophyllum aquaticum") is regularly removed by hand to prevent its spread, and the growth of Japanese knotweed ("Reynoutria japonica") has been restricted by chemical treatment.


Dan River Coalfield

The Dan River Coalfield is a coalfield in Stokes and Rockingham counties, North Carolina about which, in 1914, USGS geologist Mr. R.W. Stone wrote, "after a thorough and careful examination of the Triassic beds in the Dan River Field the conclusion is reached that there is no reason to expect to find commercially valuable coal beds in this district." This correlated with the information that the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey had about the Dan River Field, and thus it has remained an unimportant coalfield to this day. Yet a slope portal was once driven into the semi-bituminous coal at Leaksville, NC, and Ebenezer Emmons wrote, "The coal is less pure than that of Deep River, but it will probably prove a valuable fuel for warming apartments by means of stoves and grates." Actually about 30 miles of this coal deposit exist in North Carolina and another 10 project into neighboring Virginia.


Nabesna Gold Mine Historic District


Nook Colliery

Nook Colliery was a coal mine operating on the Manchester Coalfield after 1866 in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.
The colliery's first shaft was sunk to the Rams mine at 455 yards in 1866 by Astley and Tyldesley Coal and Salt Company to exploit the Middle Coal Measures of the Manchester Coalfield. The colliery expanded and eventually had five shafts and became one of the largest pits on the coalfield. No.2 upcast shaft was sunk in 1873 and deepened to the Arley mine, a hot mine where temperatures reached 100 Fahrenheit, at 935 yards. No.3 shaft was sunk to 707 yards to the Trencherbone mine through water-bearing rock in 1899. No.4 shaft, sunk in 1913, intersected every workable coal seam. The colliery had two horizontal winding engines.
The colliery became part of Manchester Collieries in 1929 and the National Coal Board in 1947. In 1954, 1000 men were employed producing 440,000 tons of coal per annum. After closure most colliery buildings were demolished and the site landscaped. The pithead bath house built by the Miner's Welfare Committee in the 1930s survived and was converted to other uses. The pit was the subject of a painting by local artist, Roger Hampson.


Bobby Lloyd

Robert "Bobby" Lloyd ( – 18 January 1930), also known by the nickname of "The Hafodyrynys Wonder", was a Welsh rugby footballer who represented Wales in both rugby union and rugby league. He played union for Welsh clubs Pontypool and Monmouthshire County as a scrum half back, gaining selection for Wales, before moving to England to play league for Halifax (Heritage № 237), also in the halves, and gaining selection for Great Britain and Wales.
Rugby union.
Lloyd worked as a miner, and in 1912 was part of the Monmouthshire County team that faced the touring South Africans. Lloyd played well and gave the Springbok halves, Freddie Luyt and Uncle Dobbin a difficult match, though the tourists class shone through to win the game comfortably. A scrum-half, Lloyd was first capped for Wales in a winning game against Scotland on 1 February 1913. The game was played at Inverleith and both sides had a sparsity of international experience; though Wales were captained by the veteran Billy Trew. Lloyd played in the next six consecutive games in the 1913 and 1914 Five Nations Championships, which saw Wales finish second to England in both tournaments. Lloyd was a favourite at Pontypool and was one of the finest scrum-halves produced by the club.
International matches for Wales
Rugby league.
Bobby Lloyd went north and in 1914 commenced playing for English Northern Rugby Football Union club; Halifax. He was selected to go on the 1920 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand. Lloyd won a cap for Great Britain while at Halifax in 1920 against Australia. Lloyd won a cap for Wales while at Halifax in 1921.
Bobby Lloyd played in Halifax's 0-13 defeat by Leigh in the 1920–21 Challenge Cup Final during the 1920–21 season at The Cliff, Broughton on Saturday 30 April 1921, in front of a crowd of 25,000.


Valea Chioarului mine

The Valea Chioarului mine is a large mine in the northwest of Romania in Maramureș County, 30 km south of Baia Mare and 520 km northwest of the capital, Bucharest. Valea Chioarului represents one of the largest bentonite reserve in Romania having estimated reserves of 20 million tonnes.


Erds coal mine

The Erds Coal Mine is a coal mine located in eastern Mongolia. The mine has coal reserves amounting to 807 million tonnes of coking coal, one of the largest coal reserves in Asia and the world. The mine has an annual production capacity of 0.1 million tonnes of coal.


Rovina mine

The Rovina mine is a large open pit mine in the west of Romania in Hunedoara County, 18 km north of Deva and 388 km north of the capital, Bucharest. Rovina represents a large gold and copper deposit with estimated reserves of 4 million oz of gold and 244,000 tonnes of copper. The project is owned by the Toronto-based company Carpathian Gold.
The project will involve the mining and processing of 14.4 million tonnes of ore per annum over an open pit life of 19 years. The open pit is expected to yield approximately 59,500 oz of gold and 13,375 tonnes of copper per year in doré, reflecting an average total process recovery of 68% for gold and approximately 91% for copper.


Sygun Copper Mine

Sygun Copper Mine is a Victorian copper mine which closed in 1903 but was renovated and reopened by the Amies family as a tourist attraction in 1986, focusing on audio-visual tours of the underground workings. Sygun Copper Mine was once a main supplier of minerals in Wales. It is located about outside of the village of Beddgelert in the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales.
History.
Mining in the area started in Roman times, with small-scale tunnels into mineral veins. These were left relatively untouched until the Industrial Revolution when the tunnels were dug deeper into the hills largely due to rising demand for copper. In 1836 the annual production of ore was valued at £2,800. By 1862 2,000 to 3,000 tons of ore had been extracted from the mine.
In 1898 the Flotation process, using a mixture of oil and water to extract minerals, was developed by the Elmore brothers, Frank and Stanley, who owned the mine with their father. This was to increase the rate of extraction of copper from the ore. In 1903 the mine was shut down as further working would be unprofitable as the veins had been largely exhausted.
The entrance to the mine was reopened in 1983 and restoration work began in autumn 1986. In restoration, hundreds of tons of rubble were removed from the abandoned mine and access was improved.
In 2002 the mine and its subsidiaries were put up for sale on the retirement of the original developers.
Awards.
The Amies family was awarded the Prince of Wales Award in 1988 for "the sensitive development of visitor facilities at Sygun Copper Mine" in 1988. The award was presented to the family by Prince Charles during an award ceremony, where an ingot of copper produced from local ore was gifted to him. The copper mine is now owned and managed by the Ward Family who have refurbished all aspects of the mine and its visitor attractions.
Attractions.
The Sygun complex also includes an art museum and art gallery. The Sygun Museum of Wales also includes a Welsh mythology and Welsh history section, the Red Dragon Heritage Centre. The museum has one of the largest art collections of any privately controlled museum in Great Britain, small portions being exhibited at various times throughout the year. The collection is split into two main departments, antique and 20th century.
Popular culture.
The copper mine's original buildings, some of which still exist, were shown in the 1958 film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness.


Skouries mine

The Skouries mine is a high-grade gold-copper porphyry deposit located in the Chalkidiki peninsula in northern Greece. It is currently under development by Eldorado Gold and is planned to be an open pit and underground mine. Production is targeted in 2019.
Geology.
Skouries is a gold-copper porphyry deposit centred on a small, pencil-porphyry stock that intruded schist and gneiss of the Paleozoic Vertiskos Formation of the Serbo-Macedonian Massif in northeastern Greece. The porphyry is characterized by at least four intrusive phases that are of monzonite to syenite composition, but contain an intense potassic alteration and related stockwork veining that overprints the original protolith. The host porphyry and potassic alteration at Skouries were coeval and formed during the Early Miocene.
Development approach.
Skouries is being developed in two phases:
Phase 1 (2019-2027)
Phase 1 includes a combination of open pit and underground mining for 9 years, producing a total of 1.4 million ounces of gold and 620 million pounds of copper. Ore will be fed to the site's process plant where the ore and a gold and copper concentrate will be produced.
Phase 2 (2028-2042)
Phase 2 involves underground mining for 15 years once Phase 1 is complete. Total production during Phase 2 is expected to be 1.7 million ounces of gold and 850 million pounds of copper.
Permitting.
The Skouries project is permitted under the same Environmental Impact Study (EIS) as the Olympias and Stratoni assets. The EIS was approved by the Greek Government in 2011. This environmental permit was challenged but was upheld by the Council of State, Greece's highest administrative court, in 2012 citing Eldorado's "investment was particularly advantageous for the national economy".
Other permitting and licensing delays have also hampered the development of Skouries.
Opposition to development.
The majority of the local population has opposed the project, citing tremendous environmental impact, resulting to the complete desecration of tourism and agriculture in the area (those industries make up almost all financial activity in the area). The local population demonstrated over the years, even shutting down national roads, but the construction is still going on.


Farafangana mine

The Farafangana mine is a large mine located in the southern part of Madagascar in Atsimo-Atsinanana. Farafangana represents one of the largest bauxite reserves in Madagascar and one of the largest in Asia, having estimated reserves of 100 million tonnes grading 37% aluminium oxide.


Augustus M. Ryon

Augustus Meader Ryon (1862–1949) was an American mining engineer who served as the founding president of Montana State University. He also has the distinction of having the shortest tenure of any president of the university, only a single year.
Life and career.
Ryon was born in New York City, New York, in 1862 to John R. and Mary (Chappell) Ryon. He was the second of four children, preceded by his brother Frederick in 1860, and followed by Willie in 1864 and John in 1868. He was raised in Connecticut, where his father was born, and in Brooklyn, New York.
He enrolled in the School of Mines at Columbia University, and graduated in 1886 with a Bachelor of Science in mining engineering. He was engaged as an assistant engineer on the drinking water supply system in New London, Connecticut, from 1886 to 1887, then worked from 1887 to 1888 as an assistant to F. N. Owen, the chief engineer for the city of New York.
In 1888, Ryon traveled to Montana where he founded the School of Mines at the College of Montana, a Presbyterian college in Deer Lodge, Montana. He was elected second vice-president of the Montana Society of Civil Engineers in 1894, and first vice-president in 1895.
The Agricultural College of the State of Montana (now known as Montana State University) was authorized by the Montana state legislature in 1892, and opened on February 16, 1893. Luther Foster, a horticulturalist and one of two faculty members, was named Acting President. Short on funds, lacking a campus, and with Montana still mostly wilderness without many professionals, the Agricultural College found it difficult to hire faculty. So it began poaching faculty from the College of Montana.
Montana State University.
Ryon, too, was poached from the College of Montana. He was named the first president of the college on April 17, 1893. Ryon immediately clashed with the board of trustees and faculty. Where the trustees (mostly businessmen from Bozeman, Montana) wanted the college to focus on agriculture, Ryon pointed out that few of its students intended to go back to farming. While the rapidly expanding faculty wanted to establish a remedial education program to assist unprepared undergraduates (Montana's elementary and secondary public education system was in dire shape at the time), Ryon refused. Ryon was forced out in 1895 and replaced by the Rev. Dr. James R. Reid, a Presbyterian minister who had been president of the Montana College at Deer Lodge since 1890.
Ryon returned to the faculty at the Agricultural College. He'd spent much of 1894 working on new irrigation systems and methods, and he continued to teach agricultural and mining engineering at the college. But in 1897, the Board of Regents was again growing frustrated with the focus of the college, and demanded the resignation of all faculty. Only those of Ryon, Luther Foster, and Benjamin Maiden (an English professor) were accepted.
Post-academic career.
Ryon returned to New York City in 1897. He became a merchant, opening a home coal delivery business in 1898 and a cement business some time before 1906.
Ryon died at his home in Flushing, New York, in the spring of 1949.
College legacy.
In 1911, the college began construction on a massive engineering laboratory building. Completed in 1923, the structure was named the A.M. Ryon Engineering Laboratories in 1939 in Ryon's honor. The huge structure, which had a monitor roof, contained the electrical engineering facilities and materials testing facilities. Two wings were added in 1952. For many years, the wings of the structure was leased by the engineering laboratory of the Montana State Department of Highways, while the older part of the building was turned into a gas and steam engineering laboratory. The structure was demolished in the late 1990s to make way for the new Engineering and Physical Sciences Building.
Personal life.
Ryon married Harriet L. Alward on August 5, 1895. She was born in Wathena, Kansas, in 1869 to Ephriam and Mary W. (Morris) Alward. The Ryons had four children. Frederick L. Ryon was born in 1889 in Montana. Their other children were born in New York City: Winifred Warder Ryon in 1897, Emily Morris Ryon in 1902, and Frances Chappell Ryon in 1905.


San Juan Bautista de Sonora

Real de San Juan Bautista de Sonora was the location of one of the first silver mines in Sonora, then part of New Spain.
Now ruined, it lies near to the town of Cumpas, founded in 1643 by the Jesuit missionary Egidio Monteffio.
The name of Sonora seems to have first been given to the principal valley or to the San Juan Bautista mining district, and later was used for the whole province.
Rich mineral deposits were discovered at San Juan Bautista in 1657.
The Presidio de las Fronteras de Sonora was created in 1690, an armed force with no permanent base, but operating at first out of the San Juan Bautista mining camp.
In 1693 Domingo Jironza Petriz de Cruzate, former governor of New Mexico, was made captain for life of the Presidio of Fronteras and alcalde mayor of Sonora,
holding office until 1701.
In 1702 Don Juan Francisco de Bustamante y Velasco was appointed alcaldía mayor of San Juan Bautista.
As of 1724 San Juan Bautista was within the province of Nueva Vizcaya,
and was administered by the "Alcalde mayor de Sonora y minas de San Juan Bautista".
In 1722, San Juan Bautista was the scene of meetings where the leading citizens and civil authorities of the provinces of Sinaloa and Sonora Ostimuri drew up proposals to radically overhaul the system of government, then dominated by the Jesuits missions. They proposed a secular organization with mission lands divided between Indians and settlers,
and with Indians given the freedom to work where they wanted.
The meetings were convened by Rafael Pacheco Cevallos and captain Gregorio Álvarez Tuñón y Quirós.
Two deputies were chosen to represent the communities, a miner and a merchant.
A description of Sonora in 1767 said the mine had been abandoned, with its shafts flooded, due to the hostility of the Apaches.
Today the land is used for pasturage.
Due to its historical significance, the site has been registered with the National Institute of Anthropology and History, and is protected by the
1972 Federal law for archaeological, historical and artistic zones and monuments.
References.
Citations
Sources


Eric Yuan

Eric S. Yuan (; born 20 February 1970) is a Chinese-American billionaire businessman, engineer, and the CEO and Founder of Zoom Video Communications, of which he owns 22%.
Early life.
Yuan is the son of geology engineers. He was born and raised in Tai'an, Shandong Province, China. In 4th grade, Yuan collected construction scraps to recycle copper for cash.
As a first-year university student in 1987, he was inspired to develop videotelephony software while he took 10-hour train rides to visit his girlfriend and was looking for an easier way to "visit" her. He earned a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics with a minor in computer application from Shandong University of Science and Technology, and a master's degree in geology engineering from China University of Mining and Technology in Beijing. Yuan completed a Stanford University executive program in 2006.
Career.
After earning his master's degree, Yuan lived in Beijing, and attended a training program in Japan for four months. Inspired by Bill Gates, who spoke in Japan in 1995, he moved to Silicon Valley in 1997 to join the tech boom. At the time, Yuan spoke very little English, and applied nine times before being granted a visa to the United States.
Upon arriving in the US, Yuan joined WebEx, a web conferencing startup, where he was one of the first 20 hires. The company was acquired by Cisco Systems in 2007, at which time he became vice president of engineering. In 2011, Yuan pitched a new smartphone-friendly video conferencing system to Cisco management. When the idea was rejected, Yuan left Cisco to establish his own company, Zoom Video Communications.
In 2019, Zoom became a public company via an initial public offering, at which time Yuan became a billionaire. His wealth has increased during COVID-19 pandemic, as Zoom has benefited from the shift to online work and teaching. On September 1, 2020, Yuan's net worth was estimated to be US$16.4 billion, a figure 360% higher than his net worth at the beginning of the year.
In March 2021, Yuan transferred $6 billion worth of Zoom shares to Grantor Retained Annuity Trust, for which Yuan is a trustee.
Personal life.
Yuan married his girlfriend Sherry at age 22, while he was a master's student at China University of Mining and Technology in Beijing. They have three children. Yuan and his family live in Santa Clara, California. In 2007, Yuan became a naturalized US citizen.
Yuan chose the middle name "S." after Subrah Iyar, cofounder of WebEx.
Recognition.
Yuan was named the 2020 "Time" Businessperson of the Year, and was included in the "Time" 100 Most Influential People of 2020.


Motru Coal Mine

Motru Coal Mine is an open-pit mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Motru, Gorj County. The legal entity managing the Motru mine is the National Company of Lignite Oltenia which was set up in 1997.
The exploitation has two open pits Lupoaia, Roșiuța that produced 6.6 million tonnes of lignite in 2008. The mine has around 2,300 workers and is endowed with 13 bucket-wheel excavators, seven spreaders, two mixed machines and two deposits spreader. The total proven recoverable reserves of the mine amount to 108 million tonnes of lignite.


Shah Jahan Diamond

The Shah Jahan Diamond mined from Kollur, Golconda—(currently Hyderabad, India). It is a "hololithic" flat, table cut 56 carat diamond, used as an amulet—("Tawid'th"). In late 1600 AD Mughal Emperor Jahangir gifted it to Prince Shah Jahan—(by his name it is known). Currently it is owned by Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah, Kuwait.
History.
The diamond is mined in Kollur, Golconda. It was first recorded when Mughal prince Shah Jahan received it as a gift from his father Mughal Emperor Jahangir who owned it since late 1600 AD, it is seen in a portrait of Shah Jahan of (1592-1666), it came in the possession of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and it was evaluated by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier—(17th-century French gem merchant and traveler). Later in 1739 it was brought to Persia after the Nader Shah invasion of Delhi, It was offered for sale in 1985 in Geneva auction and remained unsold. Currently owned by Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah, Kuwait National Museum, Kuwait.
Dimensions.
Height 3.3 centimeter, width 4.6 centimeter and weight 56.72 carat.
Further reading.
[[Category:Golconda diamonds]]
[[Category:Jewels of the Mughal Empire]]


Lostwithiel Stannary Palace

The Stannary Palace, also known as the Duchy Palace, circa 1265–1300, was a complex of buildings constructed by the Earls of Cornwall as the centre of their administration. The surviving exchequer hall is reputed to be the oldest non-ecclesiastical building in Cornwall. The much larger great hall, of which large parts remain, was built as a replica of Westminster Hall. Its original function was as a court and place of taxation dealing with the Cornish tin industry. The Earls of Cornwall and later, after 1337, the Dukes of Cornwall had their residence at Restormel Castle so the original name would have been the Stannary Hall or the Great Hall of Lostwithiel. After 1337 it was sometimes referred to as the Duchy Palace.
In 1265 Richard, Earl of Cornwall, second son of King John and brother of King Henry III, acquired Restormel Castle, the Borough of Lostwithiel and the town of Fowey, from the de Cardinan family. During this period Lostwithiel was the most important port of Cornwall and second only to Southampton along the South Coast. In 1273 Richard died and was succeeded by his son Edmund, who took occupation of Restormel Castle and built the Great Hall.
This building was a very large complex, covering more than and consisted of the Great Hall, which was the Convocation Hall for the Stannaries and Duchy affairs. It also housed the smelting houses, the coinage hall for the stannaries and duchy. In this complex the stannary courts were held and the stannary prison located. Records state that the whole complex was built and completed between 1272 and 1300 and regarded as the finest and grandest buildings in Cornwall.
In 1338 the earldom was raised to a dukedom and the first duke was the Edward, the Black Prince. The building then became the administrative centre for the duchy and the only polling station for the whole of Cornwall.
The Cornish Stannaries were suspended as a consequence of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497. Henry VII restored them in return for a payment from the tin miners of the, at the time, enormous sum of £1,000, to support his war on Scotland. In addition to restoring the stannaries and pardoning the people who participated in the rebellion, Henry's provided that no new laws affecting miners should be enacted without the consent of twenty-four stannators, six being chosen from each of the four stannaries at Lostwithiel, Launceston, Truro and Helston.
The 1508 Charter states, "No [Westminster] Act or Statute shall have effect in the Stannaries without the assent and consent of the twenty-four stannators." Acting in its capacity as appeal court for the colonies, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has declared that any reference to the stannaries means the whole of Cornwall.
Although England had its own London-based exchequer, the unabridged Charter of Pardon makes no less than ten separate references to the Lostwithiel exchequer; thus illustrating one aspect of the constitutional linkage between Stannary and Duchy.
In September 1644 AD, the English Civil War was at its height and the town of Lostwithiel was taken by the Earl of Essex who made it his headquarters. During the battle the town was badly damaged, the Great Hall sacked and burnt, destroying valuable records of the Shire and stannaries. The part known as the Exchequer Hall was the least damaged and this then became the Convocation Hall for the Stannaries and the Public Convocation.
In 1533, John Leland stated that “in Lostwithiel is the Shire Hall for Cornwall and it is the Shire town for Cornwall.” In 1585 John Norden, in his survey, stated the same. In 1495 Henry VII instructed Parliament to pass an Act that the Weights and Measures for Cornwall be placed at Lostwithiel and these weights are now part of the Old Borough Regalia.
The last tinners' parliament was held in the Hall in 1751 and in 1874 the Duchy offices were removed elsewhere. The whole building was sold to tradesmen of the town. The Convocation Hall became a drill hall. This is now owned by the Freemasons. Within the building in the upper anteroom, traces remain of a medieval rose window which was over the original south entrance. Original oak supports and timbers still exist.
At the north end of the building is the Duchy Coat of Arms of the fifteen bezants, circa 1650, and it is said to be the earliest Arms of the Duchy in this formation anywhere. On the apex of the hall roof is the Prince of Wales’ plume of feathers which was probably erected by the Black Prince when he paid his first visit to Lostwithiel and Restormel Castle in 1353. Today the buildings are used as dwellings, antique shop and printers.
The Duchy Palace (the building at the north end of the complex) was used as a Masonic Hall until it was purchased by the Prince's Regeneration Trust in late 2008. The trust has begun repairs, in consultation with the Cornwall Building Preservation Trust. The current tenants are Lostwithiel Town Band while other potential uses for the building are investigated.


Jizhong Energy

Jizhong Energy Group Company Limited is a state owned coal company located in Hebei, China. It is among the seven largest Chinese coal companies. In 2011, the company mined slightly over 100 million metric tonnes of coal in 2011, of which about 26 million metric tonnes of metallurgical coal. This makes it China's second-largest metallurgical coal miner after Shanxi Coking Coal Group.
The company was created in June 2008 by merging Jinniu Energy Group and Jizhong Energy Fengfeng Group. In addition to the coal industry, the company is engaged in the medicine, electric, chemical, mechanical and structural material industries. It has eight fully owned subsidiaries and three listed companies. In the 2013 Forbes Global 2000, Jizhong Energy Resource was ranked as the 1631st -largest public company in the world.
One of the main subsidiaries, Jizhong Energy Resource (formerly Hebei Jinniu Energy Resources Co, Ltd.), is listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange (). In 2008, the company produced 12 million metric tonnes of raw coal and 4.92 million metric tonnes of clean coal, as well as sold approximately 9.67 million metric tonnes of commercial coal.


Carnglaze Caverns

Carnglaze Caverns consists of three man-made caverns formed as part of a slate quarry in the Loveny Valley, near the village of St Neot, Liskeard, Cornwall, England, UK.
The first of the caverns, the Rum Store, is so called because it was used by the Royal Navy during the Second World War to store its supply of rum. In 2001 it was converted into an auditorium with seating for 400.
The lowest of the three caverns has a lake, which was where the cover image for Echo & the Bunnymen's LP "Ocean Rain" was shot.
The caverns have been used as an unusual concert venue, with performances from folk-rock artists such as Fish and Fairport Convention, as well as bands such as Embrace (in 2004), and British Sea Power (in 2005 and 2007). The site has also hosted craft and mineral shows.


Cleworth Hall Colliery

Cleworth Hall Colliery was a coal mine operating on the Manchester Coalfield after 1874 in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.
Geology.
Cleworth Hall Colliery exploited the Middle Coal Measures of the Lancashire Coalfield which were laid down in the Carboniferous period and where coal is mined from seams between the Worsley Four Foot and Arley mines. The seams generally dip towards the south and west and are affected by small faults. The Upper Coal Measures are not worked in this part of the coalfield.
History.
Cleworth Hall, the largest and longest lasting of the collieries owned by the Tyldesley Coal Company was sunk under the Cleworth Hall estate to the east of Yew Tree Colliery in 1874. The two original shafts were sunk to the Rams and Black and White mines. The Crombouke mine at a depth of 71 yards was worked until 1890 when its coal was exhausted. No.2 shaft was deepened to the Trencherbone mine and a third shaft was sunk in the early 1890s. The pits were originally ventilated by furnace at No.2 shaft.
Cleworth Hall colliery was modernised before 1914 and the shaft to the Arley mine equipped with steel headgear and a washery and coal preparation plant were built near the pit head.
In 1896 Cleworth Hall employed 304 men underground and 46 surface workers. Gas coal, household and manufacturing coal were mined from the Black and White, Six-Foot and Trencherbone, mines.


Mariscal Mine

The Mariscal Mine, also known as the Lindsey Mine and the Ellis Mine, was a source of cinnabar ore that was refined at the Texas site into mercury. The mine is located in what is now Big Bend National Park. The mine produced a total of 1400 flasks of mercury, each weighing , accounting for almost a quarter of the mercury production in the United States between 1900 and 1943.
History.
Brewster County, Texas is a source of cinnabar ore, and the mineral was discovered in the Mariscal area in 1900 by rancher Martin Solis. The first mining was done by D.E. Lindsey, a U.S. Immigration inspector who refined the ore at Terlingua. Ellis sold his interest to Isaac Sanger of Dallas in 1905, who operated the Texas Almaden Mining Company, but Sanger's operation was unable to survive. W.K. Ellis operated the Ellis Mine from 1917 to 1919, refining 894 flasks at the mine site. When mercury prices dropped at the end of World War I, Ellis sold to William Burcham in 1919. Burcham and backers from New York operated the Mariscal Mining Company from 1919 and expanded the refining operations at the mine using a Scott furnace before closing in 1923. A final attempt was made by the Vivianna Mining Company in 1942 with a rotary Gould furnace for refining, but it failed in 1944.
Miners were all Mexicans, with only three American employees. The miners built their own shelters from rocks and brush, building more substantial houses as time, money and materials permitted. These have fallen into ruin.
The concrete and stucco houses built by the Vivianna Mining Company in 1942-43 were probably never occupied. Miners and refinery workers suffered severe health problems as a result of exposure to mercury. Miners worked six days a week, earning from $1 to $1.50 per ten-hour shift, obtaining most of their needs through the company store at the site.
Description.
Located below the main mineshaft entrance in the side of Mariscal Mountain, the Mariscal Mine refining plant is now ruinous. Most of the mining machinery was sold and taken off the site in the 1940s and 1950s. A significant amount of mercury was recovered from the brick lining of the Scott furnace. The remaining structures are roofless and doorless. The chief remaining structures are the holding bins, furnace, condensing chambers and stack. A number of mine shafts exist in the area. Worker housing and other structures that formerly existed in the area have collapsed or disappeared. Structures and shafts are scattered over a considerable area. The historic district comprises .
The Mariscal Mine was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1974.


Greer Industries

Greer Industries is a privately held producer of limestone, steel and other products based in Morgantown, West Virginia in the United States. The company is currently led by John Raese, who is active in Republican politics.
The company’s holdings include;


Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company

Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company was a borax mining company founded in 1898 by Stephen Mather and Thomas Thorkildsen. The two men were both employees of Francis Marion "Borax" Smith's Pacific Coast Borax Company, but they left the company to form this new company and went into direct competition with their former boss. The company was later renamed Sterling Borax. Francis Marion Smith subsequently bought out their company in 1911.


Tamarack mine

Tamarack mine is a copper mine located in Osceola Township, Houghton County, north of Calumet, Michigan. The first shaft was started in 1882 and five shafts were eventually mined. In 1966 seven-year-old Ruth Ann Miller fell into shaft #4 and a rescue was impossible.


Dyke Ditch

The Dyke Ditch () is the longest artificial ditch in the Upper Harz in central Germany. Its purpose was to collect surface runoff for the operation of the Upper Harz mining industry from precipitation-heavy regions a long way away (particularly from the Bruchberg and parts of the Brocken massif). It was laid in 1732 and continually extended eastwards until 1827. Its original length was about 25 km; this was successively shortened by water tunnels between 1820 and 1861 to around 19 km. It is a central component of the Upper Harz Water Regale. Its takes its name from the Sperberhai Dyke which is, in fact, an embankment on top of which the Dyke Ditch runs in an aqueduct in order to cross a depression.
History.
The history of the Dyke Ditch was initially closely related to the history of the Sperberhai Dyke. Not until the completion of the dyke in 1734 could large watercourses east of Clausthal be tapped into: the streams of the Großer and Kleiner Gerlachsbach. In the years that followed, the Dyke Ditch was continually extended eastwards. In 1736 it was extended as far as the Kleiner Oker. In 1742, a neighbouring ditch, the Morgenbrodtstal Ditch, was built to carry water from the Große and Kleine Söse rivers to the Dyke Ditch. In 1774, it was lengthened as far as the so-called "Wiege" ("scales") on the Dyke Ditch and in 1820, after the two Kellwasser tunnels had been driven and the Blochschleife Ditch laid, the Kellwasser and the Blochschleife were connected to the Dyke Ditch system. The last addition was made in 1827, when the Clausthal Flood Ditch, the Flörichshai Ditch and Abbe Ditch enabled water from east of the Bruchberg and the western Brocken to be made available for the Upper Harz mines. Yet another extension would have been possible but was no longer discussed. Now, attempts were made to fundamentally solve the energy problem in the Upper Harz mines by building deeper drainage adits (such as the Ernst August Adit). In addition from the second half of the 19th century other forms of energy (steam engines) were brought into operation, initially alongside water power.
In the middle of the 19th century work was carried out to optimise water flow in area of the 10 km long section between Sperberhai Dyke and Clausthal. By cutting tunnels, several ditch detours around mountains were able to be shortened considerably. In addition to clear advantages in the maintenance overhead and winter operations, the increase in incline (the same drop being covered in a shorter distance) played an important role in increasing the hydraulic capacity. The water tunnels, built around 1850, were the Rothenberg, Coventhai, Dietrichsberg and Bielenwiese Tunnels.
During its middle years the Dyke Ditch could carry up to 13 million cubic metres of water per year over the Sperberhai Dyke to the Clausthal Plateau. That made it one of the most important lifelines in the Upper Harz mining region.
Following the closure of the mines the Dyke Ditch supplied water up to about 1978 for the generation of electricity in Kaiser Wilhelm Shaft. Since 1978 the water of the Dyke Ditch has been led to the Mönch valley of the Oker Reservoir at the end of the Dyke Ditch, where it still drives turbines for the generation of electricity and is then made available for the drinking water supplies of the Harzwasserwerke.
Until about 2000, the Dyke Ditch also provided drinking water to the mining town of Altenau. This has since been withdrawn because the natural water supply was very unreliable, especially in winter and the quality of the water could also change very quickly.
The operator of the Dyke Ditch today is the "Harzwasserwerke".
Catchment area.
The Dyke Ditch draws its water from the region of six Harz rivers:
The Dyke Ditch system crosses several watersheds as a result.
Statistics.
The Dyke Ditch today is 19 km long. 15.4 km of that are open ditches and 3.6 km are underground water tunnels. Depending on how they are counted, its associated ditch system has an overall length of 49 km. On most routes the water descends by around 60 m. Its flow rate reaches a maximum of about 1 m3/s.
Footpath.
A footpath from Osterode to Thale, the Harzer Hexenstieg ("Harz Witches' Climb"), runs along the Dam Ditch.


Alder Gulch

Alder Gulch (alternatively called Alder Creek) is a place in the Ruby River valley, in the U.S. state of Montana, where gold was discovered on May 26, 1863, by William Fairweather and a group of men including Barney Hughes, Thomas Cover, Henry Rodgers, Henry Edgar and Bill Sweeney who were returning to the gold fields of Grasshopper Creek, Bannack, Montana. They were on their way to Yellowstone Country from Bannack but were waylaid by a band of Crow Indians. After being ordered out of Crow hunting grounds, they crossed the East Slope of the Tobacco Root Mountains and camped for the night in Elk Park, where William "Bill" Fairweather and Henry Edgar discovered gold, while the remaining party was out hunting for meat. Agreeing to keep the new discovery quiet the group of miners returned to the town of Bannack for supplies. However, word leaked out about the new strike, and miners followed the Fairweather party out of town. The party stopped at the Point of Rocks, part way between Bannack and Alder Gulch, and established the Fairweather Mining District in a miners meeting. It was agreed that the discoverers were entitled to two claims and first choice. The first stampede of miners reached Alder Gulch June 6, 1863, and the population swelled to over 10,000 in less than 3 months. The "Fourteen Mile City" ran the length of the gulch, and included the towns of Junction City, Adobe Town, Nevada City, Central City, Virginia City, Montana, Bear Town, Highland, Pine Grove French Town, Hungry Hollow, and Summit. Upon arrival the miners lived in brush wickiups, dugouts and under overhanging rocks until cabins could be built. The first structure built in Virginia City was the Mechanical Bakery. Virginia City, and Nevada City were the centers of commerce during the height of the Alder Gulch gold rush. In the first year the area had over 10,000 people living there. Montana Territory was established in May 1864, and the first territorial capital was Bannack. The capital then moved to Virginia City, where it remained until 1875. The Alder Gulch diggings were the richest gold placer deposits ever discovered, and in three years $30,000,000 was taken from them, with $10,000,000 taken out in the first year. Nowadays, except during summertime, the streets of Virginia City are usually quiet and relatively few visitors find their way to the 16 ton granite monument that marks the spot of that incredible discovery of May 26, 1863.
Alder Gulch is named for the alder bushes that grew along the creek.


Lists of mines in the United States

This list of mines in the United States is subsidiary to the list of mines article and lists working, defunct and future mines in the country and is organised by the primary mineral output. For practical purposes stone, marble and other quarries may be included in this list.