American Consolidated Natural Resources

American Consolidated Natural Resources, previously known as Murray Energy, is a US-based coal mining company. It is the fourth largest coal producer in the country, and the largest privately-owned coal company. Founded in 1988 by Robert E. Murray, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2019. The company gained notoriety following the collapse of the Crandall Canyon Mine in 2007, following a number of citations and fines for safety practices at the site.
According to "The Guardian", Murray Coal was responsible for 0.15% of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions from 1988 to 2015.
History.
Murray Energy was founded by Robert E. Murray in 1988 through the acquisition of the Powhatan No. 6 mine in Alledonia, Ohio. The company was established in nearby St. Clairsville, Ohio. The Powhatan mine is the only mine operated by a Murray Energy Corporation independent operating subsidiary that is unionized.
Murray Energy Corporation produces approximately 30 million tons of bituminous coal each year and employs approximately 3,000 people in the United States.
In 2013 the company acquired Consol Energy Inc, consisting of five mines and a fleet of more than 600 barges and other ships.
According to the company's website, as of 2019, they employed some 7,000 workers in the US and South America. The company is headquartered in St. Clairsville, Ohio. It is the largest privately owned coal company in the US, and fourth largest overall, with the three larger coal companies all being publicly traded rather than privately owned.
Crandall Canyon Mine collapse.
In August 2007 six miners were trapped at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, of which Murray Energy's independent operating subsidiary UtahAmerican Energy had been a part-owner for 12 months. Prior to the collapse, the Crandall Canyon Mine had received 64 violations and $12,000 in fines. At the time, Murray Energy's owner, Robert, claimed that the safety violations were trivial and included violations such as not having enough toilet paper in the restroom. However, some news agencies reported troubling violations at other Murray operations. CNN specifically cited Murray's Illinois Galatia mine, which had almost 3,500 safety citations in the prior two and a half years.
On July 24, 2008, the U.S. government's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) announced its highest penalty for coal mine safety violations, $1.85 million, for the collapse. The government fined Genwal Resources $1.34 million "for violations that directly contributed to the deaths of six miners last year," plus nearly $300,000 for other violations. The government also levied a $220,000 fine against a mining consultant, Agapito Associates, "for faulty analysis of the mine's design."
Following the Crandall Canyon tragedy, the Mine Safety and Health Administration also was faulted by its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Labor, both for lax oversight before the collapse and for its handling of a haphazard rescue effort that left three more people dead. An independent review of MSHA's role in Crandall Canyon by retired MSHA managers Earnest Teaster and Joseph Pavlovich, found that the agency failed to properly consider bounce activity in the mine prior to approving the mining plan, failed to properly evaluate the roof control plan and failed to follow established mine rescue protocols at all times at Crandall Canyon Mine. Specifically, the authors wrote that, "MSHA's failure to adequately evaluate the roof control plans contributed to the August 6 accident." An independent review of MSHA's actions at Crandall Canyon also faults the agency for failing to control access to the mine, concluding that "MSHA improperly allowed media representatives and family members to enter the rescue area, and allowed an unlimited number of persons underground during the rescue operation."
Bankruptcy.
Murray Energy announced in October 2019 that the company was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and that Robert Murray would step down as CEO, but remain with the company as chairman of their board. Murray was to be replaced by his nephew Robert Moore, formerly of Murray Energy subsidiary Foresight Energy, which is not part of the bankruptcy. Murray Energy emerged from bankruptcy on September 16, 2020, selling almost all of its assets to a new holding company, now owned by its former creditors: American Consolidated Natural Resources Inc. Robert Murray was Chairman of the Board of Directors for the new company until his death in October 2020.
Funding of climate change denial.
The bankruptcy filing revealed that funding had been given by the company to a number of organisations that promote climate change denial. These include the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, the International Climate Science Coalition, the Heartland Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.


Bernie Green

Bernard John Green (c. 1962 – 8 September 2009) was a New Zealand rugby league player who represented New Zealand.
Playing career.
Green played in the West Coast Rugby League competition and represented the West Coast.
In 1980 he played for the South Island in the New Zealand Rugby League's inter-district competition. He was then selected for the New Zealand squad that was touring Great Britain and France, becoming Kiwi number 556. He played in 5 games and scored 2 tries on tour, but did not play in any of the test matches.
In 1981 Green played for the South Island against the touring French side.
In 1986 Green was part of the Runanga side that won the West Coast premiership. In 1987 Runanga again won the West Coast title, and Green was part of the West Coast B side that won the South Island second division. Green was Runanga's player-coach in 1989 and again played for the West Coast.
Later years.
A miner, Green died on 8 September 2009 during a rockfall at the Roa mine.


Ramgarh Coalfield

Ramgarh Coalfield are located in Ramgarh 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 (40 square miles), in which, however, coal is believed to be of inferior quality. A still larger field in the same district is that called Karanpura, which extends over and has an estimated capacity of 9,000 million tons.”
The Coalfield.
Ramgarh Coalfield covers an area of and has total coal reserves of 1,059.20 million tonnes.
Reserves.
Geological reserves in the Ramgarh Coalfield in million tonnes as on 1/4/2010:
Transport.
In 1927, Bengal Nagpur Railway opened the Barkakana-Muri-Chandil line to traffic. In the same year the Central India Coalfields Railway opened the Gomoh-Barkakana line. It was extended to Daltonganj in 1929. Later, these lines were amalgamated with East Indian Railway.
See also.
Ramgarh district


Killas

Killas is a Cornish mining term for metamorphic rock strata of sedimentary origin which were altered by heat from the intruded granites in the English counties of Devon and Cornwall. The term is used in both counties.
Origin.
The deposition of the killas strata occurred during the Devonian and Carboniferous geological periods. The sediments are not evenly spread over the county, with the Carboniferous beds only found in the far north of Cornwall.
The depositional environments of the killas were very varied, as is revealed by the fossil content and the sedimentary sequences. The fossils indicate changes from anaerobic, deep ocean-basin environments to shallow sea environments. The deformed brachiopod fossil "Cyrtospirifer verneuili", known to quarrymen as the Delabole Butterfly, was found in the upper Devonian beds of North Cornwall.
Shortly after the deposition of the sediments, the Variscan orogeny caused the intrusion of the Cornubian batholith and the subsequent contact metamorphism created the metamorphic rocks seen today. This also put intense pressure on the sediments causing them to be folded and faulted. This is most apparent in the cliffs at Millook Haven on the north Cornwall coast, where the cliffs display an impressive series of angular recumbent folds.
Economic uses.
Killas underlies two thirds of Cornwall and on and around Dartmoor in Devon, and as a result of hydrothermal mineralization from the granites, contain the majority of the mineral lodes or veins which at one time provided up to half of the world's tin and copper, and economic prosperity to Cornwall (and to a lesser extent Devon). Of lesser economic importance, the stone itself is an important building and roofing stone in Cornwall, the largest single source in the county being Delabole slate quarry, which has provided a high quality stone for at least six centuries.


Mangazeisky mine

The Mangazeisky mine is one of the largest silver mines in Russia and in the world. The mine is located in Siberia. The mine has estimated reserves of 31 million oz of silver.


List of mining disasters in Lancashire

This is a list of mining accidents in the historic county of Lancashire at which five or more people were killed. Mining deaths have occurred wherever coal has been mined across the Lancashire Coalfield. The earliest deaths were recorded in parish registers. Ffrancis Taylior was buried at the Collegiate Church in Manchester after a fall in the "coale pitte" in 1622 and in 1661 or 1662, Thomas Hilton was "slain" at Bradford coal pit as was Thos Greene in 1664. Coal pit related deaths appear in the registers of Wigan Parish Church from the 1670s. In 1779 three "Poor Coaliers" were reported as being injured when the roof collapsed in a coal pit at Alkrington so that "their lives were dispared of..."
When the coal industry developed rapidly in the 19th century, labour and life were cheap. Men, women and children perished in explosions, roof falls, floods and haulage accidents. The Lancashire Coalfield, the seventh largest producer of coal in the 1870s, often had the highest accident figures. William Pickard, the miners' agent, championed the formation of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Permanent Relief Society in 1872 after a spate of disasters that caused great distress and hardship, leaving widows and families destitute.
Most fatalities were caused by firedamp, some caused by the miners who took the tops off the safety lamps that were designed to protect them because of the poor light they gave out. Some mineowners turned a blind eye to the use of candles in even the gassiest coal seams.
To regulate working conditions, the government passed Acts of Parliament: the 1842 Act prohibited the employment of females and boys under 10 years old and appointed a single inspector, but inspections were few and breaches were common. Acts passed in subsequent years led to the appointment of more inspectors and increased their powers to regulate how mines were operated and the working conditions and welfare of the miners.
After disasters the first rescuers were colliery managers and volunteer colleagues who descended into the pits to look for signs of life, rescue the injured, seal off underground fires and recover bodies while working in dangerous conditions sometimes at great cost to themselves. Apart from safety lamps to detect gases, they had no special equipment. They were the predecessors of the mines rescue teams. Mines rescue stations were recommended in a Royal Commission in 1886 but were not compulsory until after the Coal Mines Act 1911 was passed. In 1906 a committee of the Lancashire and Cheshire Coal Owners Association decided to provide a mines rescue station at Howe Bridge. Its trained rescuers were present at the Maypole and Pretoria Pit disasters. They also trained teams of men in pits throughout the coalfield. Boothstown Mines Rescue Station opened in November 1933 close to the East Lancashire Road. It replaced stations at Howe Bridge, Denton, St Helens and Burnley.


Seregovo mine

The Seregovo mine is a large salt mine located in north-western Russia in Komi Republic. Seregovo represents one of the largest salt reserves in Russia having estimated reserves of 5 billion tonnes of NaCl.


Rio Tuba mine

The Rio Tuba mine is a large nickel mine run by Nickel Asia Corporation in the west of the Philippines in Bataraza, Palawan. Rio Tuba represents one of the largest nickel reserves in the Philippines having an estimated reserve of of ore grading 1.27% nickel. The 60.2 million tonnes of ore contains tonnes of nickel metal. Production started in 1975.


Sobstvenno-Kachkanarskoye mine

The Sobstvenno-Kachkanarskoye mine is a large iron mine located in western Russia in the Sverdlovsk Oblast. Sobstvenno-Kachkanarskoye represents one of the largest iron ore reserves in Russia and in the world, having estimated reserves of 3.28 billion tonnes of ore grading 16.6% iron metal.


Liumao mine

The Liumao mine is one of the largest graphite mines in China and in the world. The mine is located in the north of the country in Inner Mongolia. The mine has estimated reserves of 28.3 million tonnes of ore 16% graphite.


Slate industry in the Nantlle Valley

The Slate Industry in the Nantlle Valley was the major industry of the area. The Nantlle Valley is the site of oldest slate quarry in Wales at Cilgwyn, and during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it was a major centre of the Slate industry in Wales. The quarries of the area are being considered as a World Heritage site.
Geology.
The slate veins that cross the Nantlle Valley are nearly vertical. The Faengoch ("Red Vein") runs through the Cilgwyn and Braich quarries and produced red and purple coloured slates. The Pen-y-Bryn quarry produced purple and blue slates with a thin vein of green slate between them.
History.
Dyffryn Nantlle was one of the major slate quarrying regions of Wales during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, having at least 37 operating slate quarries at one given time. It was an innovative region in the development of the slate industry. The Cilgwyn quarry on the north side of the valley is the oldest in Wales and one of the oldest in Europe, dating from the 12th century. By the start of the 19th century, slate was still being extracted in a primitive manner:
"The stones were smashed up with a hammer without any rule; any piece of rock which happened to be of anything like a slate was made use of, but at least half of the good rock was destroyed. The men at that time took contracts from the landowners, paying two guineas per annum for the privilege of quarrying slates. Each man dug a hole where he thought proper, and many of the quarries to this day are suffering from the heedless way in which the holes were excavated and the rubble disposed of usually thrown out close to the hole on the good vein."
The first steam engine to be used in the slate industry was a pump installed at the Hafodlas quarry in the valley in 1807. Slate roofing tiles have been excavated at Segontium Roman camp in Caernarfon and are thought to have originated in the Nantlle Valley.
Unlike most of the other slate producing regions in Wales the Nantlle Valley developed a large number of small, independent quarries because most of the land in the valley was owned by a number of small landowners rather than a single large landowner. At the height of the industry there were over 50 quarries being worked in the valley.
Due to this the quarries were never managed as a large single concern as they were in the Penrhyn, Dinorwic and the Festiniog area quarries and this led to the industry in the area being much more vulnerable to any downturns in the economy. This also led to the development of an industrial landscape that is quite different from the other slate quarrying regions in that there are a large number of small waste slate heaps around the valley.
A dispute between local crofter-quarrymen and the local large landowner, Lord Newborough of the Wynn family from Glynllifon became an important legal landmark in the early 19th century. In 1823, Lord Newborough tried to have a law passed to give him control of all the Moel Tryfan Commons, including recent encroachments, and to extinguish the rights of common use. This move was met with fearsome opposition, not least from one John Evans who was concerned that enclosure around the Cilgwyn quarries would affect his own interests, particularly over a dam and watercourse that he had constructed on Crown land in 1816. Evans organised a commoners’ petition against the Bill, with seven hundred signatures. The petitioners claimed that their cottages had been built over forty years earlier, that originally the land had been too wild for cultivation, and that they had improved it by hard work. This led to a change in the land enclosure law in the United Kingdom.
Another dispute much celebrated in the area took place a generation later centred on the largest quarry in the valley. Dorothea Quarry was bought in 1835 by an Englishman called Muskett. He spent heavily on new equipment to raise the wagons from the quarry bottom. But he overspent, and was declared bankrupt a few years later. The quarry was closed with three months wages owing to most of the workers. They consequently revolted and demolished the new house Muskett had built for himself - Plas y Cilgwyn.
Technology.
There were considerable difficulties involved in raising slate from the pits and in keeping them free from water, and the ingenious ways which were found to solve these problems, including blondins, chain inclines, powered rail inclines and vast revetments, are some of the principal reasons why the slate quarrying remains in this area, many of which are unique, are so important. Some of the principal features include the 1906 Cornish beam-engine at Dorothea, a unique survival in Wales, the mill and a number of pyramids, also unique, and the blondins at Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry.
Cilgwyn quarry installed a water-powered rail incline in 1825, to help remove fallen rock from a pit - one of the first recorded uses of this technology. In 1899, the first two blondins in the slate industry were installed at Pen-yr-orsedd; they were each powered by a 2-cylinder stationary steam engine. The next blondin at the quarry in 1906 was powered by an electrical motor, supplied by the newly installed power line from the North Wales Power and Traction Company.
Transportation.
Slate from the quarries was transported to the major local shipping point at Caernarfon by pack horse. In 1813, a railway was proposed to allow the Nantlle quarries to compete with the nearby Dinorwic and Penrhyn quarries - in 1822, it cost Cilgwyn quarry 20 shillings to ship 1,000 slates from the quarry to Caernarfon - . An Act of Parliament was passed on 20 May 1825 and the Nantlle Railway Company was incorporated in June 1825. The chief engineer was George Stephenson and construction was overseen by his son Robert, assisted by John Gillespie. The gauge railway was opened in 1828.
In 1867, the Nantlle Railway was acquired by the Carnarvonshire Railway and the northern part of the line was converted to standard gauge. In 1870 it was acquired by the London and North Western Railway and became part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923, and then British Railways in 1948. The gauge section continued to be operated using horses until it closed in 1963.
The majority of the slate quarries in the Nantlle Valley were connected to the Nantlle Railway. However, the Alexandra, Moel Tryfan, Fron, Braich and Cilgwyn quarries, near the summit of Moel Tryfan, were connected by an incline to the Bryngwyn branch of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways. Cilgwyn quarry was the only one that shipped slate out via both the Nantlle and North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways.
Quarries.
The major slate quarries in the Nantlle Valley were:


Jinling mine

The Jinling mine is a large iron mine located in northern China. With estimated reserves of 166.1 million tonnes of ore grading 51% iron metal, Jinling not only represents one of the largest iron ore reserves in China, but also in the world.


Cerro Colorado Mountains

The Cerro Colorado Mountains are a low mountain range in southern Pima County, Arizona, USA. The highest point of the range is (). The range consists of a NNW–SSE trending ridge with several shorter ridges extending off the main ridge to the ENE. The higher portions of the range cover an area of about , with dimensions of by .
The foothills of the Sierrita Mountains lie about to the north with the Batamote Hills and Penitas Hills between to the north and northwest respectively. The Las Guijas Mountains lie to the southwest. The Sierra Colorado silver mining district lies in the hills between the Sierra Colorados and the Las Guijas ranges. Saucito Mountain at the north end of the Tumacacori Mountains of Santa Cruz County is about southeast. Arivaca Junction in the Santa Cruz River valley lies due east. The Santa Rita Mountains are across the Santa Cruz Valley to the east. The broad Altar Valley lies to the west with the Baboquivari Mountains beyond.
Arivaca Road, which connects Arivaca Junction on the east with Arivaca to the southwest at the south end of the Las Guijas Mountains, runs through the valley on the southeast of the Cerro Colorados.
Cerro Colorado mine.
The Cerro Colorado Mine (Heintzelman Mine; Silver Queen Mine) was discovered around 1750 by Spanish explorers. The mine was in production from 1856 to 1884 and from 1901 to 1937. Early production was by the Sonora Exploration & Mining Company, which was then owned by Charles Poston and Samuel Colt. Production was some 3,000 tons of ore which averaged about 100 ounces of silver per ton, 0.1 ounces of gold per ton and minor amounts of lead and copper.
The highest grade ore on record was over 12,000 ounces of silver per ton, with an average mined grade in 1859 of 770 oz/t; the average since that year is around 225 oz/t. Ore was mined above 350 feet of depth.


Flora Haines Loughead

Flora Haines Loughead (later, Flora Gutierrez; 1855–1943) was an American writer, farmer, and miner from Wisconsin. She became the "Opal Queen" of Virgin Valley. Flora's son, Allan was the founder of American aerospace company the Lockheed Corporation.
Early years and education.
Flora Haines was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1855 to parents who were natives of Maine. She attended school in Columbus, Wisconsin, and in Lincoln, Illinois, graduating from Lincoln College in June, 1872, with the degree of A. B.
When fifteen years old, and still a school girl, she wrote a story by stealth and sent it to "The Aldine". The editor, Richard Henry Stoddard, returned the manuscript to her, suggesting that she forward it the "Harper" and "Appleton" periodicals, as the "Aldine" had accepted enough manuscripts for two or three years. Her manuscript and the letter from Stoddard went to the bottom of her trunk and were hidden there for years.
Career.
Writer.
Her newspaper work began in 1873 on the "Chicago Inter Ocean". In 1874 and 1875, she was on several of the Denver newspapers. While there, she became acquainted with Helen Hunt Jackson, who was afterwards one of her most intimate friends. During Mrs. Jackson's fatal illness, Loughead was in daily attendance to the end.
With her first marriage, she moved to San Francisco where she had three children. Her first book was called "Libraries of California" and it was a guide to the libraries of the state in 1878. It went out of print and was marked "rare" in catalogues. Between 1878 and 1882, and again from 1884 to 1886, she supported herself by writing for the San Francisco dailies. She published a number of excellent short stories in the "Ingleside", the "San Franciscan", "The Argonaut", "Drake's Magazine", the Chicago "Current", and the "Overland Monthly". She began to write stories in earnest in 1883.
In 1886, she married again to John Loughead (pronounced "Lockheed"). John adopted the children from her first marriage. Two of those children, May and Victor, grew to be adults. The same year, she published "Hand-book of Natural Science". She then turned her hand to fiction with "The Man Who was Guilty", which initially had local reputation, before being taken up by a Boston house in 1886. In the same year, she published "The Black Curtain". In 1889, she published a housekeeper's book on "Quick Cooking: A Book of Culinary Heresies for the Busy Wives and Mothers of the Land". By this time, she was bringing up two more children, Malcolm (born 1886) and Allan (born 1889).
While living in Santa Barbara, California in the early 1890s, she wrote for the syndicates, as well as occasional correspondence in the "New York Post". She edited a volume of "Hebrew Folk-Lore Tales" and wrote a California story, "The Abandoned Claim," published in 1891. "The Abandoned Claim" was quite unlike the noteworthy novel of "The Man who was Guilty." It was a simple and winning story of the five years' experiment of two brothers and a sister in developing an abandoned claim in California. The account of their labors, successes, and occasional reverses, was interesting and inspiring. A romantic element was added in the mystery which enveloped the career of a man who befriended them, and in some of their own experiences. "The man from Nowhere" (San Francisco, C. A. Murdock & Co., 1891) was the first of a series of short stories by Loughead, issued every month, in uniform style and averaging about the same length. Many of these stories had been previously printed. The inaugural issue was a story of an inventor who, when just upon the brink of success, was injured in the head by the bursting of an engine, then spending 16 years in an insane asylum.
Mining.
Her next career started in 1915 when she was sent to investigate the discovery of opals in Virgin Valley, Nevada, from San Francisco. She was reporting for the "San Francisco Chronicle" but she decided to buy 15 claims years after homesteading on Sagebrugh Creek at the Green Fire Mine (Sinkakis- Gemstones of North America). In 1916, she gained financial backing from Mrs Gardiner Hammond and proceeded to mine at the location of the future Rainbow Ridge Mine. Loughead moved to Cedarville where she was school teacher and raised her sons around people. She mined for opals for the rest of her life until her son moved her out of her house on Sagebrush Creek Rd. She became known as the "Opal Queen" owning the Rainbow, Stonetree and Bonanza mines and the "Giant Tree" Opal Claim later renamed the Stone Tree. She sold the latter in about 1918 and concentrated on the Rainbow and Bonanza mines.
Personal life.
Her first son Victor Loughead was a pioneer airman and wrote two books on flying. Allan and Malcolm were both involved in making aircraft and Allan particularly was involved with creating what would become the Lockheed Corporation. Flora married again when she was 53 (circa 1908) to a Mr. Guttierez.
Loughhead died in 1943 and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.


Frederick Walker Pitkin

Frederick Walker Pitkin (August 31, 1837 – December 18, 1886), a U.S. Republican Party politician, served as the second Governor of Colorado from 1879 to 1883.
Life and career.
Frederick Pitkin was born in Manchester, Connecticut. He graduated cum laude from Wesleyan University in 1858, and earned a law degree from Albany Law School in 1859. Following graduation, he moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to establish the law firm of Palmer, Hooker, and Pitkin. In 1872, he resigned from the firm due to illness, and set sail for Europe in search of a cure.
Returning to the United States in 1874, he settled in southwestern Colorado, where his health stabilized, and resumed his career as an attorney. In addition, he invested in the mining industry. Utilizing his contacts in the mining industry, he announced his candidacy for Governor of Colorado in 1878, and won. During his two terms as governor, he dealt with a number of crises including the railway feud involving the Atchison, Topeka-Santa Fe, and the Denver-Rio Grande rail companies. He ordered the suppression of the Ute Indian uprising at the Milk Creek Battle or Meeker Massacre in 1879. In 1880, he declared martial law during the mining strike at Leadville. He was an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Senate in 1882.
Following his retirement from public office, he settled in Pueblo, Colorado, and resumed his law practice and mining business. He died in Pueblo and was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Denver, Colorado. Later, his remains were moved to Fairmount Cemetery in Denver.
He and his wife, Fidelia James. a native of Lockport, New York, had three children. Robert James Pitkin, Florence Pitkin, and George Orrin Pitkin.


Richard C. Baker

Richard C. Baker (1858 – 1937) was the British business partner of Francis Marion "Borax" Smith and eventually became president of the Pacific Coast Borax Company and the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad.
In 1899, "Borax" Smith, founder of Pacific Coast Borax Company joined forces with Baker to form Borax Consolidated, Ltd. Together they formed a multinational mining conglomerate, and Baker worked to expand the company's foreign holdings in Italy, Turkey, and South America and subsequently became responsible for capitally financing the corporation's development. The incorporation included the Sterling Borax Company and the Suckow Property which is now operated as the Rio Tinto Borax Mine, the largest open pit mine in California and the largest borax mine in the world where almost half of the world's borates are now produced.
After Smith's bankruptcy in 1913, Baker took control of the company, and he remained president until his death in 1937.
In 1908, Baker, California, which at that time was a stop on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, was named for him.
The mineral bakerite is also named after him.


West Fork Mine


Lehigh Coal Company

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James Roscoe

James Roscoe (1820 – 1 August 1890) of Little Hulton, Greater Manchester was an English locomotive engineer and colliery owner.
He was the son of Roger Roscoe of Farnworth and his wife Eliza Grundy. He started his working life as a miner in Astley, Greater Manchester before moving to Leicester to work in the locomotive department of the Midland Railway. During his time there (in 1862) he developed and patented an automatic locomotive lubricator known as a Roscoe type lubricator (British Patent 1337, US Patent 37245). The royalties from this device enable him to invest in coal mines in the Little Hulton area north of Manchester. He lived at nearby Kenyon Peel Hall (since demolished) with his wife Mary and several children.
During the late 1840s and early 1850s he sank the New Watergate and Peel Hall pits in Little Hulton, delivering the output by horse and cart prior to the arrival of the railway line in 1874. In 1872, in partnership with William Roscoe, he began the New Lester Pit at nearby Tyldesley. Management of the collieries was largely in the hands of his sons Thomas and George.
His company of James Roscoe and Sons was formed in 1872 and continued until taken over by Peel Collieries in 1938. Roscoe himself died in 1890 at Kenyon Peel Hall and is buried at St Paul's Church, Peel. He had married Mary Bennet and left 5 sons and 2 daughters.


Cobre mine, Cuba

The Cobre mine was a copper mine in Cuba, the oldest in the new world. The open pit mine was operated from 1544 to 1998.
The Spanish used slave labour and free coloured labour to work the mine.
After it had been abandoned, in the 19th century a British company acquired the mine and reopened it, again using slaves and free coloured labourers, but also using skilled Cornish miners and steam engines from Cornwall to operate pumps.
The mine was abandoned again, then reopened by an American company at the start of the 20th century.
After the Cuban Revolution it was taken over by the state.
After being finally abandoned the pit is now filled with a mineral-rich lake.
Location.
The El Cobre sulphide deposits occur in the Paleogene volcanic arc along the southeastern coast of Cuba, and are one of the few such deposits in Cuba to have been mined successfully.
Almost all the mined ore comes from a central system of cross-cutting veins of pyrite and chalcopyrite.
The Cobre Mine is about north west of Santiago Bay in the Sierra Maestra.
It is on a ridge at the top of a valley that runs down to Santiago de Cuba.
A range of mountains lies to the south, rising to the Monte Real.
The town of El Cobre is on the west slope of the ridge.
The town grew up around the mine.
The mine was reached by mule train from Punta de Sol until the early 1860s, when a small railway was opened.
Spanish operations.
Metal-bearing ores were discovered by the Spanish colonists in Cuba, who thought at first that they had found gold.
El Cobre was the first copper mine to be opened by the Spanish colonists, starting operations in 1544.
This was the first open pit copper mine in the Americas.
The Spanish forced the local indigenous people to work the mine, and imported slaves from Africa.
During the first decades of the 17th century copper from the mine, worked by slaves of African origin, was a major source of export revenue.
However, the Spanish crown confiscated the mines in 1670 after the private contractor had failed to comply with the terms of his contract and had neglected them for years.
270 private slaves became the property of the king, and the town of El Cobre became a pueblo of king's slaves and free coloured people, a unique type of settlement in Cuba.
In 1780 an attempt was made to return the mine to private hands and increase production.
By that time El Cobre had 1,320 inhabitants, including 64% royal slaves and 34% free coloured people, mostly manumitted descendants of slaves.
2% were the private slaves of the free coloured people.
The men were mostly engaged in subsistence agriculture, while mining was mainly undertaken by the women.
For much of this period the Cobre mine was the only source of copper on the island, supplying Cuba and sometimes other places in the Caribbean.
British operations.
The mines had been abandoned by 1830.
Early in the 1830s a British visitor to the region assayed some of the mine's waste and found it rich in copper.
The British El Compañía Consolidada de Minas del Cobre (Cobre Mining Company) acquired the mine and reopened it in the early 1830s.
An adjacent concession was acquired and opened by the British El Real de Santiago (Royal Santiago Mining Company).
Both companies turned to Cornwall for skilled labour and for steam engines to pump out the mines.
Cuba, and the Cobre Mine in particular, was an attractive destination.
The pay was good and the handbills circulated in Cornwall hinted that Cuba was a land of opportunity.
Between August 1836 and April 1838 Alfred Jenkin, their agent in Cornwall, recruited 136 Cornish miners and mechanics, and also arranged for mining machinery, safety fuses and other material to be shipped from Cornwall to Cuba.
He shipped clothes for the West African slaves working in the Cuban mines.
Jenkin offered £100 per year plus free lodging, to young, fit, sober and single men, mostly from the mining areas around Camborne, Illogan and Redruth.
The Cornish miners were sent by sea to Swansea in Wales, from where they took ship to Cuba.
They found a hot and humid climate where yellow fever, typhoid fever, smallpox, malaria and other diseases were common.
The Cornish workers lived in one-storey adobe wattle houses on the edge of the town near the mines.
Insects could enter the houses freely, bringing tropical diseases to which the Cornish had no immunity, particularly yellow fever.
Out of one batch of 24 miners who sailed from Cornwall in June 1837, nine had died within six months and others, discharged for sickness, died on the return journey.
The range to the south included the high Hardy's Top, named after John Hardy junior, the British Consul and a director of the Cobre Mining Company.
Hardy had a large house built on the top of the mountain that the company later used as a sanatorium.
There was friction with the local authorities. With little to do in their free time, some of the miners turned to drink.
Most of the Cornish were Wesleyan Methodists, and wanted to hold services and meetings according to their traditions, but anything other than the Catholic faith was illegal in Cuba. The bibles the company had given to each miner were viewed with suspicion, and the Cornish had to worship in secret.
A Protestant burial ground was opened since the Cornish, considered heretics, could not be buried in the Catholic cemetery.
After news reached Cornwall about the deaths from fever and higher wages at other mines the number of Cornish recruits dropped.
The mine owners brought in hardier workers from the Canary Islands.
At its peak in the first half of the 19th century the mine produced 67,000 tons of copper.
John Harvey of Redruth moved with his family to El Cobre in 1855, where he was Mines Engineer and Resident Agent of Mines for 30 years.
It appears that the family became Catholic in Cuba.
Mining operations were suspended in 1869 when the quality of the ore began to decline, a river dried up that was an essential source of water for the steam engines and for dressing the ore, and rebels damaged the railway during the Ten Years' War between 1868 and 1878.
The mine was closed during the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898).
Later operations.
In 1902, the mine was purchased by William A. Chanler, a wealthy New York businessman and a veteran of the Spanish–American War.
Profits were initially robust enough that Chanler was able to loan $35 million to the Cuban government.
The company used some Cornish labour, and managed to drain much of the pit.
However, the water-saturated land around the pit was not secured and the mine collapsed.
The church of "Señora de la Caridad" was destroyed in the landslide.
In the period up to the end of World War I (1914–18) the copper was mostly extracted by labourers from Spain and shipped to the United States.
Companies active in the mines were La San José Copper Mines and Ferrocarril del Cobre, The Copper Mines, Copper Company and the Cuba Leasing Company.
After the war, operations were greatly reduced.
From 1920 to 1940 operations revived slightly. In the 1940s a processing plant was built. Investors included Roberto Gómez Cabrera, owner of Rogoca Minera. S. A., which continued extracting ore until the end of the Cuban Revolution (1953–59).
After the revolution the mines were nationalised.
A school was established to train mining technicians, more mechanisation was introduced in the extraction process, a geological survey was undertaken and a new processing plant installed.
The copper was mainly sold to socialist countries.
In the 1980s the mine employed over 200 people and produced 1,500 tons annually.
The peak production was 1,513 tons in 1986.
Depletion of the ore forced deeper and more expensive extraction, and this combined with falling copper prices led to the decision to close the mine in 2001.
From the time mining began in 1544 to the end of operations in 1998 over 3 million tonnes of ore were extracted, with grades of 2% to 20% copper.
Nickel and cobalt were also extracted from El Cobre.
Recent years.
The mine was formally closed in 2001, laying off 325 workers.
The quarry filled with water, which is high in minerals, particularly sulphur.
The lake has over water, and is about and deep.
A large number of galleries and tunnels of considerable lengths and depths remain.
A draft plan for environmental rehabilitation was issued on 6 July 2002.
It covered stabilisation of the quarry, studies of water quality, covering industrial waste with topsoil, planting grasses and reforestation, for a total cost of US$243,000.
Today the town is mainly known for the Basílica Santuario Nacional de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre, the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Charity.


John Chaffee and Jason Chamberlain

John Chaffee and Jason Chamberlain were gold miners in California who lived together for over 50 years. Referred to as the "wedded bachelors", they are a well-documented example in early American history of a male same-sex couple living in a relationship similar to marriage. There is some evidence they were the inspiration for Bret Hart's gold rush era story Tennessee's Partner and they are part of the local lore of Tuolumne county where they lived.
Life.
Jason Palmer Chamberlain was born in 1821 in Windsor County, Vermont and lived in Massachusetts and Connecticut during his childhood and early adulthood, working as a carpenter. In Worcester, Massachusetts, he met John Amos Chaffee who worked there as a wheelwright. John was two years younger, born in 1823 in Woodstock, Connecticut.
On January 24, 1849, Chaffee and Chamberlain left Boston together. Their 176-day trip aboard the "Capitol" brought them around South America's Cape Horn to San Francisco. At the height of the gold rush, San Francisco was experiencing an unprecedented population and economic boom; upon arriving in the city, they both found jobs that paid 7 times their equivalent jobs on the east coast.
Despite the stable jobs and good pay, they left together for Calaveras County to try their luck at gold mining on the Mokelumne River. Chamberlain later wrote: "We … then were so stricken with the mining fever and at times I think it as the worst move we ever made in leaving the City so full of bustle and business for the uncertainty of the mines."
In the winter season, they turned back to San Jose, working carpentry jobs and returning the next year again to mining with only moderate success. At last, in 1853, they settled in Second Garrote, a small rural settlement in Groveland, Tuolumne County, where Chaffee focused on mining and Chamberlain farmed and maintained an apple orchard.
The pair lived at this spot for the next 50 years, later building their own house and furniture and opening a way station for travelers. They befriended a few of the local Miwoks Native Americans and were well respected by their neighbors. They shared their food, labor, and money. Neither married and there is no evidence in their own extensive writings or those about them that they had or desired any female companions. However, many travelers left comments in the guest book that offer some insight into the men's relationships:"The artistic inclination of these gentlemen is quit apparent tho which one is the 'ladies man' we could not discover, each modestly declining the honor""On Our Trip to the Yosemite Providence directed us to the Cheerful Cabin of Messrs Chamberlain and Chaffee Two Characteristic '49ers' whose attachment to each other has the true 'Damon and Pythias' ring, that touches sentiments so welcome May their ‘Golden Wedding’ to be celebrated in 1899 be a crowning event to their long history of Hospitality"In June 1903, Chaffee was afflicted with a painful skin disease. He accompanied a professor friend to San Francisco to receive treatment. This was the last time the two were to see each other. A guest at the cabin wrote of Chamberlain, "His meditative, absent look, and day dreams indicate that his mind, thought, anxiety are in Chaffee while he lingers in the East Bay Sanatorium at Oakland. A love could not miss his sweetheart more."
Chaffee died on July 31, 1903 and Chamberlain (now 81 years old) received word via the mail. In October 16, 1903, Jason’s lifelong diary ends - he shot himself in the head with a shotgun on his front porch, tying the trigger to his toe with a length of string. According to their neighbor, they had planned to be buried side by side, though this was not carried out. Jason was buried at Divide Cemetery, Groveland and John buried in Oakland.


Reading Anthracite Company

Reading Anthracite Company is a coal mining company based in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in the United States. It mainly mines anthracite coal in the Coal Region of eastern Pennsylvania.
The company owns the Bear Valley Strip Mine in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.
History.
Reading Anthracite Company; origins date back to 1871 when its predecessor, the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company (P. & R. C.& I.) was chartered. As a large publicly traded concern, P. & R. C. & I. had diverse industrial interests which revolved primarily around its main business of railroading. P. & R. C. & I. changed its corporate title in 1956 to The Philadelphia & Reading Corporation, of which Reading Anthracite Company was one of its many operating divisions. In 1961, Philadelphia & Reading Corporation divested itself of its anthracite coal interests, selling the Reading Anthracite company to its present owners.
The unionized mine suffered an on-the-job fatality in July 2017.


Karelsky Okatysh mine

The Karelskiy Okatysh mine is a large iron mine located in the northwest of Russia in the Republic of Karelia. Karelskiy Okatysh represents one of the largest iron ore reserves in Russia and in the world having estimated reserves of 1.29 billion tonnes of ore grading 63.2% iron metal.
Products.
The mine produce about 10.6 million tonnes of high quality iron pellets annually.
Technologies.
The mine is using 3D CAD mine planning software for quality and volumes control. Fully integrated with fleet management systems for the dump truck flow optimisation. Drills fleet equipped by high precision system for navigation and data integrity for blast optimization. The high precision system on excavators are used for ore quality management from slaughtering to stockpiles. High precision dozer systems working to improve quality, reduce costs in road maintenance and construction.


Beowulf Mining

Beowulf Mining plc is a UK registered Nordic focused exploration and development company listed on the AIM in London and Spotlight in Sweden. The CEO is Kurt Budge. The company was formed in 1988 as Beowulf Gold. Through subsidiaries, Jokkmokk Iron Mines AB and Fennoscandian Resources, it is active in developing open-pit mining in Sweden and Finland respectively; its plans to mine for magnetite iron ore at west of Jokkmokk in northern Sweden, and for graphite in Heinävesi, Finland, are controversial.
Kallak.
The company's main focus since the early 2010s has been the Kallak mine in Jokkmokk Municipality. Beowulf Mining's Swedish subsidiary, Jokkmokk Iron Mines, has conducted exploratory mining for iron ore at sites in northern Sweden. These plans are opposed by environmental groups, nature tourism companies and the Sami people, while the company says their operations and the Sami's traditional reindeer herding can "coexist". The company argues that exploitation of the Kallak North and South sites will both directly and indirectly benefit the contracting economy of Jokkmokk Municipality. Opponents of the mining project also argue that longer-term investments in the area are better for job creation: the company had promised the creation of almost 400 jobs for 14 years, whereas a tourist centre in nearby Sarek National Park could create 500 jobs. Opponents also cite dangers from mining in the area including the railroad used to supply the mining operation, one local herdsman saying that trains on the local line had killed up to 1,200 reindeer. Protests took place at the site in 2013, culminating in August in dozens of protesters digging themselves in. Two had tied themselves to pipes, and at one point protesters delayed test blasting by sitting in trees. All were removed by local police.
In 2013, Jokkmokk Iron Mines applied for a permit for Kallak to start a 103 hectare open-cast mine with a production of 10 million tons of iron ore per year and a 14-year operating time. The impacted area, e.g. by roads, the building process and the residuals of the mining is estimated to be up to 1500 ha. The licensing authority Länsstyrelsen Norrbotten refused to grant the permit in 2017 finally, citing the serious consequences for indigenous reindeer herding, as the mine divides pasture areas and migration routes. This means that there is a risk for local reindeer herders that it will become impossible to keep reindeers. This contrasts with the opinion of the state authority Bergstaten, which considers the granting of the license to be legal. As a consequence of the different views of the two authorities, the decision lies with the Swedish government, with the Swedish Greens involved in the government speaking out against the Kallak project
One issue in the conflict is lack of Sami ownership of the land and a lack of protection of their indigenous rights; Sweden unlike for instance Norway has not signed on to an international treaty protecting those rights. The Sami Parliament of Sweden responded to the Kallak project in August 2013 with a statement against further exploitation of Sápmi (Lapland) for mineral extraction. Beowulf Mining has been ranked as one of the worst oil, gas, and mining companies on indigenous rights and resource extraction in the Arctic.
Heinävesi graphite mining project.
In January 24th 2019 the Beowulf Mining's Finnish subsidiary's CEO Rasmus Blomqvist announced that the graphite mining project is postponed by years because of the mining project's significant impact on the environment. The graphite mining project in Heinävesi has been facing major concerns by the local community. Fennoscandian Resources, was granted an exploration permit by the Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency in 2016 for graphite mining in Heinävesi. The project has been opposed by local residents, by politicians including MEP Petri Sarvamaa and also by the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation as the site is close to the Saimaa nature preserve. Lintula Holy Trinity Convent has expressed fears the project will endanger the herb cultivation on which it depends for income. A municipal initiative against the mining project was signed by over 3000, with over 800 residents. The Provincial Government of Southern Savonia reports of a concern towards the mining project on Heinävesi's Aitolampi. The regional strategy for Southern Savo raises the purity of waterways and the attractiveness of tourism to the top objectives of the province. The open pit mining in the vicinity of major waterways and valuable natural environments is a high risk to Saimaa's tourist livelihood and the natural values, and thus contradict the objectives of the regional strategy.
Other sites.
In 2006 the company was granted an exploration permit for a deposit of iron and titanium at Ruoutevara near Kvikkjokk, also in Jokkmokk Municipality. In 2010 they planned to build a processing plant there and use it to also process iron ore from Kallak. In 2013 they announced they would not renew the exploration permit for the site because of inadequate infrastructure and concerns which had been expressed about potential impact on Sarek National Park.
Through a joint venture with Energy Ventures, Wayland Copper, Beowulf Mining is also active at Ballek, in Arjeplog Municipality, where it conducted exploratory operations for mining copper in 2013 and expanded them in 2014.


Henry Roach

Henry Roach (1808 – 6 October 1889) was a miner from Cornwall who was Captain of the Burra copper mine in Burra, South Australia for many years.
In this position he almost always employed Cornishmen as his assistants, and most of the miners were also immigrants from Cornwall.
Early years.
Henry Roach was born in 1808 in Redruth, Cornwall.
Roach worked at the Tresavean mine at Lanner, Cornwall.
He also worked in Colombia.
He reached South Australia in 1846.
Burra mine.
A shepherd had come across copper ore near Burra Creek in 1845, and another shepherd found copper ore to the north soon after.
This triggered a scramble by miners from Adelaide to get control of the land.
The northern half became the Burra Mine, one of the world's largest copper mines.
Most of the miners and specialists at the Burra mine were from Cornwall, with 1,000 workers at one point.
Roach was soon made captain at the Burra mine in charge of the underground workings, and then made chief captain of all mine operations.
He was superintendent from 1847.
He continued as captain, with a salary of £300.
For most of the mine's period of operation Henry Ayers was the company's chief secretary, working in Adelaide.
The first of several beam engines from Cornwall was ordered by Ayers in August 1847.
Roach oversaw the erection of all the Cornish engines.
Roach's engine house was completed in 1849 and pumping began in October 1849.
Roach always recommended Cornishmen for his assistants.
Matthew Bryant was hired as second captain in June 1847.
The "grass captain", Samuel Penglaze, was appointed in 1848.
Roach employed Cornishmen such as Richard Goldsworthy of Bodmin, third captain, John Congdon from the Caradon mines, chief engineer, and Philip Santo of Saltash, clerk of works.
The Cornwall and Devon Society was founded in South Australia in December 1850 with John Bentham Neales of Plymouth, an investor in the Burra mine, as secretary.
The aim was to encourage immigration from the English counties of Cornwall and Devon, and to look after the interests of colonists from those counties.
Henry Roach was a member of the committee.
Roach named the township of Redruth at Burra after his home town in Cornwall.
A number of miners made homes in caves in the bank of Burra creek rather than pay rent to the company.
In the autumn of 1851 there were a series of floods that drove them out.
Ayers was sympathetic at first, but soon posted a notice saying that any miner who chose to remain in the caves would be considered a trespasser.
Knowing that Roach was likely to be soft on the men, Ayers gave Roach firm instructions not to help the washed-out families.
He did allow Roach to help rebuild the bridge across the creek, but only if doing so did not delay completion of the new engine house.
In 1852 gold was discovered in Victoria, and many of the miners left Burra.
The number of employees declined to 100 from an earlier peak of 1,000.
Pumping was suspended in October 1852 and the mine was flooded.
In 1853 mining had almost ceased, and Roach's engine house was dismantled.
Men gradually returned in 1854, and in 1855 pumping resumed.
By 1861 there were six engines in operation to drain the mines, and three smaller engines to raise and crush the copper ore.
With a slump in the price of copper, Ayers told Roach on 19 February 1866 that all operations would be suspended and all officers were dismissed as of the end of March.
Some work continued dressing existing low-grade ore.
Roach was given one month's notice in 1867.
Roach retired in 1868.
In 1874 Roach put up a flour mill in Graham, which stood until 1941.
Captain Henry Roach died on 6 October 1889.
He was aged 80.


Singrauli Coalfield

Singrauli Coalfield is spread across the districts of Singrauli and Sonebhadra in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, mostly in the basin of the Son River.
The Coalfield.
The Singrauli Coalfield is located between latitudes 24012’ N and 230 47’ N. It is spread over nearly but only a small part of the coalfield, around , has been identified as promising by the Geological Survey of India. The north-eastern part of the coalfield sits on a plateau with an altitude of 500m above mean sea level, well above the lower plains of 280m altitude.
The coal reserves in the north-eastern part of Singrauli coalfield, covering an area of around , is 9,121 million tonnes, out of which 2,724 million tonnes are proved reserves and the rest is inferred or indicated. Important coal seams in this part of Singrauli colfield are: Jhingurda (130–162 m thick), Purewa (8–25 m thick) and Turra (12–22 m thick). Qualitatively, the products of these seams are generally high moisture (6-9 per cent) and high ash (17-40 per cent) coals. The volatile matter ranges from 25-30 per cent. The calorific value of the coal varies from 4,200-5,900 Kcal/kg.
Almost all of India’s coal reserves are of Gondwana coal. Thickness of coal seams in Indian coalfields generally range from 1 m to 30 m. An exceptionally thick seam of 138 m has been discovered in Singrauli coalfield.
Operations.
Singrauli Coalfield is divided into two parts by the Kachni River - Moher sub-basin and Singrauli main basin. Major part of the Moher sub-basin lies in the Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh and a small part lies in the Sonebhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. Singrauli main basin lies in the western and southern parts of the coalfield and is largely unexplored. The present coal mining activities and future blocks are concentrated in Moher sub-basin.
Although some sporadic mining by private companies took place from early days, large scale and systematic mining was initiated in the Moher sub-basin by NCDC in the early sixties. A master plan for the Moher basin was prepared by the P&D Division of NCDC, in consultation with Soviet experts. The master plan envisaged large mechanized open cast mines.
Northern Coalfields Limited was carved out of Central Coalfields Limited in 1986, to take care of operations in the Singrauli Coalfiled. The proved reserves in the Moher basin are about 3 billion tonnes out of which 2.3 billion tonnes have already been planned for mining, in an area of about . During 2010-11, coal production of Northern Coalfield Limited was 66.253 million tonnes.
Power plants.
Most of the coal produced from Northern Coalfields Limited is dispatched to pithead power plants. Some of the power plants in the area are:Singrauli Super Thermal Power Station, Rihand Thermal Power Station, Anpara Thermal Power Station, Obra Thermal Power Station, Vindhyachal Thermal Power Station and Renusagar Thermal Power Plant.


Coal mining in Bangladesh

Coal mining in Bangladesh started with the discovery of the first coal mine in Jamalganj in 1962. Mining in Bangladesh consists mainly of coal , granite, natural gas, and petroleum mining.
History.
In Pre-partition era of British India, coal from Garo hills of Meghalaya was transported and traded through East Bengal. Mining offices opened in Dhaka and trade was aided by British Rail network in India. In 1961 UN-Pak Mineral Survey Project started surveys in then East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) by Geological Survey of Pakistan. In 1962 the survey found 1.05 million ton of coal in Jamalganj, Sunamganj District. The next big discovery came in 1985 when Geological Survey of Bangladesh discovered coal in Dinajpur. In 1989 a coalfield was discovered in khalashpir, Rangpur District and another in 1995 in Dighipara by the Geological Survey of Bangladesh. Multinational BHP discovered Phulbari coalfield in 1997. Global Coal Management is waiting approval for the Phulbari coalfield. Bangladesh has an estimated 2 billion tonnes of coal in underground reserves in the Northwest region of the country. Bangladeshi coal reserves are underexplored because of concerns related to method, technology, and social consequences. Coal and limestone mined in Meghalaya was transported to Bangladesh, and helped the establishment of cement factories there. Coal accounts for two percent of the energy generation in Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh has not established a unified coal policy. The Government of Bangladesh plans to increase power generation from coal to 50 percent from the present 2 percent by 2021.
Barapukuria coal mine.
Barapukuria coal mine is run by the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited. Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited is a subsidiary of the state owned Petrobangla. The mine is located in Dinajpur, this is the only active mine in Bangladesh. The locals near the mine have reported damages to their houses. The water bodies near the mine have dried up. In response the government has acquired lands near the mine.
In July 2018, it was revealed that the around 142 hundred thousand tons of coal, worth over BDT 227 billion, has been misappropriated by the officials of the Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited. The incident became popular as Barapukuria coal scam.


West Bokaro Coalfield

West Bokaro Coalfield is located mostly in Ramgarh district and partly in Hazaribagh 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 (40 square miles), in which, however, coal is believed to be of inferior quality. A still larger field in the same district is that called Karanpura, which extends over" "and has an estimated capacity of 9,000 million tons."
The Coalfield.
Location.
The Bokaro coalfield lies between 23° 45’ and 23° 50’ North latitude and 85° 30’ and 86° 03’ East longitude. It spreads 65 km from east to west and 10 to 16 km 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.
West Bokaro Coalfield covers an area of and has total coal reserves of 4,246.30 million tonnes.
Tata Steel owns and operates the open-cast West Bokaro colliery. It has the distinction of commissioning the country's first coal washery in 1951.
Reserves.
Geological reserves in the West Bokaro Coalfield in million tonnes as on 1/4/2010:
Transport.
In 1927, the Central India Coalfields Railway opened the Gomoh-Barkakana line. It was extended to Daltonganj in 1929. Later these lines were amalgamated with East Indian Railway.


Askern

Askern () is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, in South Yorkshire, England. It is on the A19 road between Doncaster and Selby. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it became a spa town in the late 19th century, but this stopped once coal mines opened in the town. The last mine closed in the 1990s. It had a population of 5,570 at the 2011 Census.
Askern is also well known in South Yorkshire for its Askern Greyhound Stadium.
History.
The history of Askern can be traced back to the reign of Edward III. The people of Norton complained to the Sheriff of Osgodcross that the people of Askern had failed to keep part of Askern Pool in a clean state. As a result, the King's highway had been "overflowed and drowned so that neither horse nor foot passengers could use it".
The parish church of St Peter's dates back to 1853.
Askern Spa.
The area of the fishing lake and the surrounding wetland area have dominated much of the town's history, starting from the settlements at Sutton Common and continuing through to the spa of the Victorian era.
Askern, a small farming village, became known locally for its waters in the 18th century when Dr Short, in his book "Mineral Waters of Yorkshire", refers to the waters as having a most unpleasant odour and taste.
During the 19th century Askern started to gain a reputation as having water with healing properties. At this time the lords of the manor built the first bathhouse called Manor Baths. After this other baths were built, until in the late 19th century Askern had earned the title of Spa, and had 5 bathhouses; and the water could also be taken at the Spa Hydropathic Establishment.
Askern came to be the place to stay, and the railway was built to enable people from across the Pennines to come and partake of the healing waters. Many people were now coming to Askern by road and rail. Hotels were being built and guesthouses lined Station Road and Moss Road.
Coal mining.
Then in the early years of the 20th century the quest for coal identified a good seam of coal near Askern. It was decided to access the coal from a mine built above the village, and with the mine came the people to build it. As the mine opened the new village was built to house the workers and their families. This new population was at odds with the well-to-do visitors. As the First World War started, the death knell was sounded for Askern Spa and the spa visitors declined to no more than a few regulars.
Once again Askern changed direction and became a thriving pit village, which welcomed people from all over the country to work and live in the area, giving the town a mixed background. The mine's coal was regarded as highest quality, and the opening of the Coalite works confirmed Askern as a place of high employment and a pleasant environment to live in. This however changed as the Coalite plant pushed more smoke and fumes into the atmosphere.
Railway.
Askern is on the former Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway line between Doncaster and Wakefield Kirkgate, though Askern railway station closed in 1947 and little remains of it. The line is used mainly by goods services, including coal to Ferrybridge, Eggbrough and Drax power stations, as well as the infrequent Grand Central passenger services from Bradford Interchange to London King's Cross.
Bus services.
Askern has a number of services, the main services being Arriva Yorkshire's 405, 408 and 409, a daily X45, school services X8 and 619.
First South Yorks' 51, 51a, 409 and 412. Two school services (447 & 499) are operated by Powells bus and John L Law respectively.


Tembagapura

Tembagapura is a district in Mimika, part of the Indonesian province of Papua, centered on an urban village built to support the Grasberg Mine. The district covers 2,586.86 km2, and it had a population of 16,917 at the 2010 Census and 23,022 at the 2020 Census.
The central town was established as a company town by Freeport-McMoran in the late 1960s.
Etymology.
"Tembaga" in Indonesian means "copper", while "pura" in Sanskrit is equivalent to "temple" or "town", meaning "Copper Town".
Geography and climate.
It is situated on a rocky plain at the base of the Mount Zaagkam , southeast of the mine. The town is in the Sudirman Range, not far from Mount Carstensz, the highest peak in Oceania. The area gets about of rainfall each year. The weather is usually sunny in the morning, changing to cloudy and cool around noon.
Climate.
Tembagapura has a subtropical highland climate (Cfb) with heavy rainfall year-round.
History.
Construction of the mine and its infrastructure including the town, commenced in the late-1960s. Prior to this, the surrounding area had been inhabited by about 500 members of the Amung people living in traditional villages. However, as the settlement and the mine grew, migrants from other parts of Papua (e.g. the Dani people) and outside the island moved in, causing social tensions between the new arrivals and the locals. Popular unrest attributed to the Free Papua Movement and acts of violence against mining facilities occurred, resulting in relocations and reprisals by the Indonesian Army.
In 1981, Tembagapura was reported to house over 3,000 mine workers and their dependents. In 1994, biologist Tim Flannery visited the town and reported it to have a population of more than 10,000 people, with most of the amenities of a smaller urban community in the U.S. It had sports facilities, a club with a bar and restaurant, supermarkets and specialty shops, a bank, and excellent accommodations for workers and visitors. He observed that this was quite different from other locations in what was then called Irian Jaya.
Tembagapura has a school for English-speaking expatriate children that was called "the world's most remote international school." The town has a hospital, a community library, a full-sized outdoor soccer field, indoor tennis and squash courts and a state-of-the art gymnasium. The Lupa Lelah Club, a focal point for expatriates, includes a restaurant, a bar, and various function rooms. Shopping facilities included a coffee shop, Hero Supermarket (a well known Indonesian retail chain), Guardian Pharmacy, Hero Department Store, and a hairdresser.
Demographics.
Tribal groups living near Tembagapura include the Ekari, Moni, Amungme and Dani people, who regard the land of the town and mine as belonging to their tribal lands, and not to the country of Indonesia. As a result, there is tension between the tribal peoples and the Indonesian Army, fueled and funded by the mining company. A security force, provided by the Indonesian Army, works to suppress the Indigenous inhabitants of the land.


Nevsun Resources

Nevsun Resources Ltd was a Canadian diversified mid-tier miner with a portfolio of base metal assets. The company was acquired by Zijin Mining Group Company Limited on December 29, 2018. The company's three principal assets are its ownership interest in the Timok Project, a high-grade copper-gold development project in Serbia, its Bisha zinc-copper mine in Eritrea, and its balance sheet. The company also holds a number of additional exploration licences and permits in Serbia, Macedonia, and in the Bisha mining district.
Social responsibility.
Nevsun Resources has a corporate social responsibility program at the Bisha Mine and the company has been producing annual reports since 2011 based on the Global Reporting Initiative standards. The company's CSR program focuses on corporate governance, employment and training, human rights, land acquisition & resettlement, environmental restoration, health and safety, human rights, and community investment. The company has an ongoing community investment program which provides funds and equipment usage in a directed way towards national government planning priorities in Eritrea with respect to sustainable community infrastructure projects centred on enhancing local water accessibility and supply to enhance local food production. In Serbia, the company has a community investment program centred around building local skills capacity for the purposes of economic diversification, as well as donations to communities and charitable organizations near the project area. The company undertakes an annual environmental river clean-up exercise in partnership with the nearby communities and environmental groups for the purposes of removing garbage and debris from the Bor River.
Human rights violations.
In November 2014, three former employees of the Bisha Mine filed a civil suit in British Columbia against Nevsun Resources for complicity in torture, forced labour, slavery, and crimes against humanity.
Company CEO Cliff Davis responded, saying: "We are confident that the allegations are unfounded. Based on various company-led and third party audits, the Bisha Mine has adhered at all times to international standards of governance, workplace conditions, and health and safety. We are committed to ensuring that the Bisha Mine is managed in a safe and responsible manner that respects the interests of local communities, workers, national governance, stakeholders, and the natural environment."
Nevsun has previously received criticism from Human Rights Watch for failing to exercise proper human rights due diligence when engaging with a country where forced labour is allegedly practiced.
A Human Rights Watch report released in January 2013 found that Nevsun Resources failed to take the risks of forced labour seriously and then struggled to address allegations of abuse connected to the Bisha Mine in Eritrea. Eritrea's government maintains a “national service” program that conscripts Eritreans into prolonged and indefinite terms of forced labor, generally under abusive conditions. It is through this forced labor program that mining companies run the most direct risk of involvement in the Eritrean government's human rights violations.
In 2016, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled that the case against Nevsun can proceed in the Canadian courts. The decision was upheld on appeal to the British Columbia Court of Appeal in November 2017. On January 26, 2018, Nevsun sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. In February 2020, the Supreme Court upheld the decision from the British Columbia Court of Appeal in "Nevsun Resources Ltd v Araya", stating that the case against Nevsun can proceed in Canadian courts.


Tianbaoshan mine

The Tianbaoshan mine is one of the largest lead and zinc mines in China. The mine is located in northern China. The mine has reserves amounting to 23.7 million tonnes of ore grading 0.52% lead and 1.76% zinc thus resulting 0.13 million tonnes of lead and 0.42 million tonnes of zinc.


Ed Boyce

Edward "Ed" Boyce (November 8, 1862 – December 24, 1941) was president of the Western Federation of Miners, a radical American labor organizer, socialist and hard rock mine owner.
Early life.
Edward Boyce was born in County Donegal, Ireland in 1862 and was the youngest of four children. His father died at an early age. Boyce was educated in local schools. He emigrated to Boston, Massachusetts at age 19.
Boyce took his first job as a construction worker for the Milwaukee Northern Railroad, an interurban line between Milwaukee and Sheboygan, earning $1.25 a day at the job. He managed to save $100 by 1883 and then moved west to Leadville, Colorado, where he arrived in 1883. Boyce sent the next four years working in the mines. He joined the Leadville Miners' Union, an affiliate of the Knights of Labor in 1884.
Boyce left Leadville for Idaho, where he worked at various mines in Coeur d'Alene and also in Butte, Montana before moving to Wardner, Idaho. He joined the Wardner Miners' Union in 1888, and was later elected its corresponding secretary.
Coeur d'Alene strike.
In 1892, the 30-year-old Boyce became an active leader in a strike near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. In January 1892, railroad companies serving the area increased the shipping rate of ore. The mine owners decided to close the mines for four months until a compromise with the railroads could be reached. This action threw 1,600 miners out of work.
The mines reopened two months early, but wages had been slashed by 15 percent. The miners struck. The owners offered to restore wages to their previous levels but refused to recognize the union, an offer Boyce and the other union leaders rejected. When three scab workers were forced to join the union by a mob of miners (a fourth fled the county), the Coeur d'Alene Mine Owners' Association obtained an injunction from the United States district court at Boise, Idaho, preventing anyone from interfering with the working of the mines. The mine owners began importing scabs at the rate of 16 workers a day from outside the region. Company militia provided protection. (Idaho's state constitution contained a prohibition against the creation or use of private militia, but the law was not enforced.)
Random incidents of violence heightened the tension: A guard exchanged words with a miner and was whipped. Two drunk guards picked a fight with a group of miners in a local bar. Three guards armed with rifles threatened a miners' camp. Late in the evening of Sunday, July 10, the miners discovered that their union secretary, Charles Siringo, was a mine owner spy hired from the Pinkerton Agency. During that evening and into the early morning hours of July 11, armed miners surrounded the shuttered Frisco mill of the Gem mine. A firefight broke out. During the gun battle, miners dropped a barrel of gunpowder down the flume of the mill; the powderkeg exploded, destroying the mill and killing a non-union miner.
The mine owners demanded that Governor N. B. Willey, a former mine manager, proclaim martial law. Although violence in the region had ended, Willey called out the National Guard. President Benjamin Harrison ordered federal troops to back up the Idaho state troops. Martial law lasted four months. Nearly 600 miners were arrested and confined in a large outdoor prison, or bullpen. But since most of the local inhabitants were miners or sympathized with them, the state had little chance of obtaining convictions.
Several union leaders, however, were arrested for violating the district court's injunction—Ed Boyce among them. Boyce and the other union officials were confined in the Ada County Jail.
Formation of the WFM.
The Coeur d'Alene miners had received financial assistance from miners' unions in Butte, who had paid legal fees for their attorney, James H. Hawley. While the union leaders were still in jail, Hawley suggested that mine unions in the West needed to form a united front, and the union leaders agreed. The Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was formed in 1893 in Butte.
Boyce served a six-month jail term for contempt of court for his role in the 1892 Coeur d'Alene miners' strike, and was blacklisted by the mine owners. After his release in 1893, Boyce prospected for a time in Montana's Bitterroot Mountains before returning to Coeur d'Alene. He obtained work in the mines and was elected president of the Coeur d'Alene Executive Miners' Union, a post he held until 1895.
Although not present for its founding, Boyce attended the WFM's second convention in 1894 and was elected to its executive board. With its headquarters in Coeur d'Alene, nearly all the mines in the Idaho panhandle except for the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine recognized the union. Still, the WFM barely survived the next three years.
Public service.
In 1894, Boyce was elected to the Idaho state senate as a Populist from Shoshone County, Idaho. Boyce battled for the eight-hour day for miners, the establishment of an arbitration board to settle labor disputes, and an investigation of the 1892 mining war. He objected to appropriations for the state militia, charging that it was a tool used by the state and mine owners to suppress labor. He called for legislation to forbid employment of aliens, to outlaw yellow-dog contracts and prohibit company stores. In one of the most dramatic speeches he ever made, Boyce denounced the blacklist:Senate bill fifty six provides for no class, no special legislation, but under its provisions those relentless persecutors, known as corporations, are prevented when they discharge an employee from following him with a blacklist and depriving him of the means of earning an honest living in another part of the state….Why do you not produce some argument against it to show that it should not become a law? No, it is not necessary: you of the Republican party have the votes to kill the bill and that is all you desire. But remember these words: the laboring men of Idaho have asked you for bread and you give them a stone: we ask you for justice and you treat us with scorn, but the day is fast approaching when your action will be condemned by every man who has one drop of manly blood in his veins.
The Populists were unable to pass the legislation they desired, and Boyce—disillusioned with the political process—quit after one term.
WFM presidency.
While serving in the Idaho legislature, Boyce resigned as president of the Coeur d'Alene Executive Miner's Union in 1895, and took a job as a general organizer for the WFM. In 1896, Boyce was elected president of the Western Federation of Miners. He served until 1902. James Maher was elected WFM secretary-treasurer the same year. Boyce and Maher worked well together. They pumped life into the faltering federation, and the WFM began a period of rapid growth.
William "Big Bill" Haywood heard Boyce make a speech in that first year as president of the WFM, and Haywood decided to become a union member. Haywood later became WFM secretary-treasurer, and a major figure in the American labor movement. In late 1899, Boyce established the WFM's journal, the "Miner's Magazine". The first issue came out in early 1900.
Leadville, Colorado miners' strike.
The Cloud City Miners' Union (CCMU), Local 33 of the WFM went on strike in 1896 over a reduction in wages that had persisted since the depression of 1893. The Coronado Mine was re-opened with armed replacement workers during the strike, and an incident on September 21 resulted in shooting and dynamite explosions. After surface buildings were burned, the Colorado governor sent the Colorado National Guard to Leadville. Boyce was one of twenty-seven union men who were jailed, but all of the union's leaders were released for lack of evidence.
Radical positions.
At the 1897 WFM convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, Boyce told his fellow union members to arm themselves:I deem it important to direct your attention to Article 2 of the Constitutional Amendments of the United States—'the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.' This you should comply with immediately. Every (local) union should have a rifle club. I strongly advise you to provide every member with the latest improved rifle, which can be obtained from the factory at a nominal price. I entreat you to take action on this important question, so that in two years we can hear the inspiring music of the martial tread of 25,000 armed men in the ranks of labor.
AFL and WLU.
Boyce led the WFM to join the American Federation of Labor the year he became WFM president. The affiliation lasted only until the spring of 1898. Samuel Gompers had refused to give striking Colorado miners strike benefits, and Boyce heatedly debated the issue with Gompers. But, convinced that the conservative and craft unionism policies of the AFL were inadequate to the task of organizing workers, Boyce led the WFM out of the AFL.
In 1898, Boyce, a strong believer in industrial unionism, led the WFM to found the Western Labor Union. The Western Labor Union (later the American Labor Union) was established in direct opposition to the craft-oriented AFL, and included workers from all industries.
Bunker Hill mine bombing.
In April 1899, WFM officials demanded that the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine recognize the union. The mine owners' response was to fire all union members. Militant union members then blew up the Bunker Hill and Sullivan ore concentrator in the town of Wardner, at the time the largest ore concentrator in the world. Governor Frank Steunenberg declared martial law and President William McKinley ordered U.S. troops from Montana into the area. The miners were rounded up and once again herded into a bullpen. Some of the miners were released after denying that they belonged to any subversive organization.
Boyce was charged with conspiring to blow up the concentrator. Boyce had been in Wardner conferring with local union officers only a week before the explosion. In 1906, former union member and Boyce business associate Harry Orchard told a court that he knew Boyce had planned and approved the bombing of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine. Governor Steunenberg told a United States House of Representatives Committee on Military Affairs that he was convinced Boyce had "inaugurated or perfected this conspiracy by, choosing 20 men from different organizations in that county and swearing them. These 20 men chose one each and swore him, and the 40 each chose a man and swore him, and the 80 each chose a man and swore him. In that way there were at least 160 men in this conspiracy to do this thing, sworn to secrecy."
Boyce denied the charges, and no indictment was ever issued. But the influence of the Western Federation of Miners in Idaho had nearly been destroyed, and its leaders dispersed. New headquarters were established in Denver, Colorado, where Idaho officials could not so easily extradite and try WFM officials. Beginning in 1900, Boyce also edited the WFM journal, "Miners Magazine". He left the position when he retired as union president in 1902.
Adopting socialism.
In 1901, Boyce successfully led a campaign to have the WFM adopt socialism as its official economic policy. An ardent socialist, Boyce famously declared:There can be no harmony between organized capitalists and organized labor. Our present wage system is slavery in its worst form. … Advise strikes as the weapon to be used by labor to obtain its rights, and you will be branded as criminals who aim to ruin the business interests of the country. Change from the policy of simple trades unionism that is fast waning, and you will be told that your action is premature, as this is not the time. Pursue the methods adopted by capitalists and you will be sent to prison for robbery or executed for murder. Demand, and your demands will be construed into threats of violence against the rights of private property calculated to scare capital. Avail yourself of your constitutional rights and propose to take political action, and you will be charged with selling out the organization to some political party. Counsel arbitration, and you will be told that there is nothing to arbitrate. Be conservative, and your tameness will be construed as an appreciation of the conditions thrust upon you by trusts and syndicates. Take what action you will in the interests of labor, the trained beagles in the employ of capital from behind their loathsome fortress of disguised patriotism will howl their tirade of condemnation.
Boyce became an associate of Eugene V. Debs, and endorsed the Socialist Party platform. Boyce also urged the WFM to slowly buy up mines and mining company stock, to replace the wage system with union-owned mines.
Marriage and retirement.
On May 14, 1901 in Butte, Montana, Boyce married Eleanor Day, the sister of Harry L. Day, a former bookkeeper who had become a wealthy mine owner. Day and Fred Harper, a local prospector, had discovered the Hercules mine, one of the richest silver and lead mines in the Coeur d'Alene region. The newlyweds honeymooned at the Boyce family home in Ireland.
Boyce declined renomination as WFM president in 1902. He had become disillusioned with mismanagement in some WFM locals. But strong opposition to his continuing presidency had emerged in the powerful Butte Miners' Union, Local 1 of the WFM. In his farewell address, Boyce still remained the firebrand: "There are only two classes of people in the world. One is composed of the men and women who produce all; the other is composed of men and women who produce nothing, but live in luxury upon the wealth produced by others." Socialism, he still argued, was the only way "to abolish the wage system which is more destructive of human rights and liberty than any other slave system devised."
Later life.
After his retirement from the WFM, Ed Boyce attended several more WFM conventions. He supported the WFM's creation of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905, and testified on behalf of Haywood, Moyer and others at their 1907 murder trial. But Boyce gradually separated himself from organized labor, and eventually declined to discuss his part in the miners' union.
The Boyces moved to Wallace, Idaho and then in 1909 to Portland, Oregon. Boyce became an avid reader of social theory and Irish poetry. The Boyces lived quietly, often passing the whole day sitting in the same room reading. Eleanor Boyce took an interest in art and became a member of the Portland Art Association. The Boyces donated freely to a number of local charities.
Boyce invested in the luxurious Portland Hotel Company in 1911, as well as in other real estate ventures in the city. He was the Portland Hotel's vice-president from 1920-29 and its president from 1930 until his death in 1941. In 1936, Boyce was elected president of the Oregon Hotel Association. On December 31, 1923, the Hercules mine partnership was dissolved and the Hercules Mining Company (now Day Mines, Inc.) incorporated in Delaware. Eleanor Day Boyce was the largest stockholder.
Death and legacy.
Boyce died on December 24, 1941. He left an estate valued at slightly over $1 million. Eugene V. Debs wrote a month later that Boyce had been "virtually forgotten by the officials of the organization he served at a time when it required real men to speak out for labor." Eleanor Day Boyce returned to Wallace after her husband's death, where she died on January 9, 1951.


Livezeni Coal Mine

Livezeni Coal Mine is an underground mining exploitation, one of the largest in Romania located in Petroşani, one of six cities in the Jiu Valley region of Hunedoara County. The legal entity managing the Livezeni mine is the National Hard Coal Company which was set up in 1998. The mine has reserves of 22.6 million tonnes of coal.


Harry Harpham

Robert Harry Harpham (21 February 1954 – 4 February 2016) was a British Labour Party politician and coal miner. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough from the May 2015 general election until he died nine months later. He was succeeded by his widow, Gill Furniss, as the MP for the seat at the ensuing by-election.
Early life and education.
Harpham was born on 21 February 1954 in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England.
Harpham moved to Sheffield in 1985, and studied at Northern College in Barnsley and University of Sheffield as a mature student. He graduated from Sheffield with a Bachelor's degree in 1991.
Career.
Early career.
Harpham left school at 16, and became a coal miner at Clipstone Colliery. He took part in the miners' strike of 1984–85 as an NUM member, staying out for the duration.
Political career.
In 2000, Harpham was first elected to Sheffield City Council, serving as the councillor for Manor ward. He represented Darnall ward from 2004. He was deputy leader of the council from 2012.
Harpham was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough in the 2015 general election. He was one of the final deep coal miners ever to enter parliament. He was one of 125 MPs who employed a member of their family, in his case, employing his wife as a part-time researcher. He supported Andy Burnham in the 2015 Labour leadership election. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Lisa Nandy, the shadow energy secretary. He was a Member of Parliament for 260 days, making him one of the shortest serving MPs.
Family.
Harpham had a son and a daughter from his first marriage. He was married to Gill Furniss until his death.
Death.
Harpham was diagnosed with terminal cancer in October 2015. He died on 4 February 2016, aged 61. On 16 February 2016, a non-religious funeral was held for him at Sheffield Cathedral. Harpham's widow Gill Furniss, a member of Sheffield City Council, won the by-election caused by his death as Labour's candidate.