Mining’s legacy built on innovation and accomplishment

Although 1999 was not exactly a great year for mining, it wasn’t the worst either. Somehow it seems a fitting way to end a year, a century and a millennium, signifying, as it does, the uncertainty that has been the industry’s constant companion throughout its boom-and-bust history.

Even so, the past century and millennium have been truly remarkable in terms of innovation and accomplishment, with the industry doing more than its share to deliver a better quality of life for millions of the world’s citizens. Yet the road to prosperity has been rocky and rough. Mining’s evolution has mirrored human evolution: a triumph one moment and a tragedy the next.

Mining was well-entrenched in many parts of the globe when the millennium began, though techniques were primitive. Life was primitive then too — more likely to be nasty, brutish and short than the blissful, peaceful romp through unspoiled wilderness portrayed by today’s over-romantic environmentalists.

Metals and minerals were valued because they offered protection against nature’s darker forces. Local peoples mined minerals and alloyed the metals to forge simple tools that made farming, hunting and other tasks easier and more productive. Or they traded mined materials for food and other goods, thereby staving off the famines that inevitably came when the rain clouds didn’t.

Warring and plunder were a way of life at the start of the millennium, which meant regions rich in minerals were more likely to be conquered and reconquered than those that were not. And the early mines were labour-intensive, which often meant legions of slaves being put to work under abysmal conditions.

Scholars believe Africa was the main supplier of alluvial gold at the start of the millennium, and it remained the primary source for 500 years. Central Asia was another important supplier. Global output was small, at less than 100,000 oz. per year. Silver was also worked, primarily for coinage, but it too was scarce, with annual output estimated at 300,000 oz.

German miners are believed to have triggered Europe’s first gold boom in Hungary during the 1300s, followed by a subsequent boom in Romania in areas previously worked by the Romans. Base metal production was even more important, providing, as it did, the metals used in agricultural implements and simple machinery that led to early industrialization. Scandinavian miners made a name for themselves by being particularly innovative, as did the tin miners at Cornwall. Coal mining grew to be enormously important, heating homes and powering the industrial revolution.

The methods of these early European miners were carefully documented by Georgius Agricola in De Re Metallica, the first definitive text on how to go about exploring for and exploiting minerals. The mineralogist (1494-1555) was a pioneer of science, aptly described as “one of the greatest of those men who laid its first foundation stones.” His work constitutes one of the greatest moments for mining in the millennium.

Mining was also a catalyst for trade and commerce. It was the search for metals and minerals — as well as spices, silks and souls — that brought the first European voyagers to North America’s shores.

Spanish explorers were the first to bring back tales of the fabulous gold artifacts worked by the Incas and Aztecs. Unfortunately, greed ruled the day in Central and South America and natives who worked marvels with gold and silver were robbed and killed for their treasures. Gold from the New World went on to fuel economic growth in Spain, Portugal and Europe in general, albeit at great human cost.

Subsequent silver discoveries in what is now north-central Mexico plus Inca workings in the Potosi region of Bolivia led to the establishment of a vast silver-mining industry in the New World. It was both a great and tragic moment for mining in the millennium.

The Spaniards mobilized huge legions of workers to both regions by means fair and foul. In Bolivia, an estimated 13,000 Indian peasants toiled in the great silver-mountain at Potosi. Using a technique of amalgamation with mercury invented by a Spaniard, advancements were made to the refining process that allowed for the mining of impure ores, thereby expanding output.

Eventually the mines at Potosi were outstripped by the Mexican mines, where management was more enlightened and the workforce better paid and trained. Historians agree that silver mining was, for centuries, a major stimulus of the Spanish-American economy.

The mining industry benefited greatly from scientific advancements in Europe and elsewhere in the second half of the millennium. The advent of the steam engine in the 1700s revolutionized mining, with various water pumps allowing miners to work below the water table, as did the use of explosives, first introduced underground in the 1800s. Ore-handling also improved, from miners carrying baskets of rocks to the introduction of horses and mules and, eventually, underground rail cars. The use of mine lamps replaced candles.

The 1800s were golden years for mining. In 1834, the yellow metal was discovered in the Witwatersrand of South Africa. However, it wasn’t taken seriously and was soon overshadowed by events halfway across the globe.

Shortly after, the greatest gold rush of all time began in California. In 1849, partners James Marshall and John Sutter found gold nuggets in the mountain streams of the Sierra Nevada range. Word quickly spread that fortunes could be made overnight by plucking gold from streams. The rush of prospectors, known as “forty-niners,” came from all continents, and by year-end the population of the state had quadrupled.

The California gold rush was probably the world’s first equal-opportunity, free-enterprise gold rush and, therefore, a great moment in mining history. Most of the world’s previous gold-mining regions had been controlled by kings and emperors, or rich land-owners and tyrannical governments.

The search for gold quickly spread to other parts of the American west, notably the Comstock Lode in Nevada, the Homestake mine in South Dakota and Cripple Creek in Colorado. Fortunes were made overnight and remote areas settled by a wave of enterprising immigrants from all over the world.

The global gold rush spread next to Australia, where some of the biggest nuggets were found, and then to New Zealand, where cyanide was first introduced to recover gold from underground ores. It was a technological breakthrough of major significance and another great moment of mining in the millenium.

The American gold-seekers continued working their way northward into Canada, with many ending up working the bars along the mighty Fraser River and the Cariboo district of British Columbia. The last great gold rush took place in the Klondike at the turn of the century, spurred by rich nuggets found by several prospectors in a Yukon creek bed.

Meanwhile, interest in South Africa’s gold potential was revived in 1886 by George Harrison’s discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand region. The “Rand” proved to have extensive gold-bearing reefs, triggering another gold rush. However, this rush was quelled by organized diamond-mining interests, which secured control of the goldfields, as well as by the depth of the deposits, which made them inaccessible to small miners. Technology was developed to exploit the deep deposits, but, because the reefs were narrow, man-power requirements were enormous. African migrants were brought in by the thousands to toil at low wages under a restrictive structure that allowed them little or no opportunity for training or advancement.

In contrast, mining in North America and Australia prospered under a system that allowed any enterprising soul to stake claims and explore and exploit minerals. Huge technical advancements were made during this period.

Major silver and gold discoveries made Canada a world leader in underground mining techniques in the first half of the 20th century. Enormous wealth was produced from a variety of operations in Cobalt, Timmins, Kirkland Lake and Val d’Or, to name but a few. The nation’s enterprising prospectors and miners went on to discover huge deposits of copper and zinc, triggering development of integrated mining and smelting complexes, such as the Horne mine and smelter in northeastern Quebec.

The discovery of nickel at Sudbury in the late 1800s was yet another milestone. A major breakthrough in the refining process occurred when a process for separating the molten nickel from the molten copper was discovered. It became known as the Orford Process, or “tops and bottoms.” Further refinements allowed a good-grade nickel to be produced and, by 1895, Canadian nickel was supplying most of the world market.

The discovery of the Sullivan silver-lead-zinc deposit in eastern British Columbia triggered another important technological breakthrough. During the years 1917-1920, metallurgical engineer Randolph Diamond led a 5-man team that developed a new process for ore flotation known as differential froth flotation. It not only unlocked the potential of Sullivan’s rich sulphide ores; it added a significant weapon to the metallurgists’ arsenal for mineral recovery around the world.

The war years were a catalyst for huge advances in technology and mining, as well as the dawn of the atomic age. While some of the early discoveries of uranium were directed to wartime applications, subsequent uranium discoveries in Ontario and Saskatchewan led to a new source of energy.

The post-war years were glory years for mining, particularly in Canada, where geophysical and geochemical techniques were developed that led to numerous discoveries at home and abroad. Canada’s geophysical pioneers — men such as Harold Siegel, Norman Paterson and Tony Barringer — put their country on the map as a centre of excellence in mining.

The post-war boom also led to the development of low-grade bulk-minable copper porphyries, notably in the western U.S. and western British Columbia, as well as higher-grade ones in Chile.

The introduction of heap leaching in the gold industry during the 1960s was another breakthrough, opening up the industry to junior companies, many of which went on to become major producers. Nevada had a second mining revival because of this technology, and today the state’s gold deposits are among the largest and richest in the world. However, the gold boom of the past few decades triggered another challenge, in the form of low prices — one producers are still struggling with today.

The introduction of solvent-extraction electrowinning allowed mining companies to exploit low-grade oxide deposits of copper. First pioneered in the African copper belt, it is now used at numerous copper mines around the world.

Technological innovation continues to transform the global mining industry. The world’s leading producers of nickel from sulphide deposits, such as those in the Sudbury camp, are being challenged by a new generation of miners, mostly Australian, who employ hydrometallurgical processing techniques rather than the traditional pyrometallurgical processes used in the past. Several major companies are also examining the suitability of such processes for oxide zinc deposits.

The mining industry has proved itself able and willing to meet a variety of technical challenges over the past millennium. In the one ahead, social and environmental challenges will likely be of equal or even greater importance. But the toughest challenge of all will probably be the one the mining industry has always had to face throughout history — economic uncertainty. As the saying goes, plus a change, plus c’est la mme chose.