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The laws and regulations on the use of subsoil, land allocation and environmental protection are sometimes confusing and inconsistent.
Remains of an old mine in Chalfant Valley, CA
Nikon D700
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 24mm
ISO 320
1/25s @ f/22
Circular Polarizer
C 1880. Scottish Cannel / Boghead coal. Must be worth a fortune. A small cottage complete with all its interior furniture and fittings was built out of the local Cannel coal at Haigh, Wigan around the 1830's. No sign of it now or illustrations
Coal Mining was quite extensive across Pott Shrigley in the eighteenth century, although the coalfield was small and badly divided by faults. Above Long Lane, which forms the boundary between Adlington and Pott Shrigley, there are a number of abandoned shafts which are easily spotted due to the plantations of trees over and around them. The planting of trees was a stipulation in the leases from the Downes family of Pott Shrigley. When a pit was finished and abandoned it was to be walled or fenced round and trees planted. The fences have long gone but the trees remain.
These pits were working the Bassy Mine (or seam) which averaged about 48ins thickness but was split up by a number of dirt bands. The shaft on the right is situated on the outcrop of the Ribbon MIne which was only about 10ins thick, whilst the Sweet Mine (18ins) outcrops just in front of the camera. Nab Farm can be seen in the centre, whilst to the left is another mound with trees which is probably the site of another shaft. Until the late 1970s these shafts were open, but they have since been capped.
This is the outside of a mining transportation car at the Anthracite Mining Museum at Knoebel's Amusement Park, Elysburg, PA
Although an indenture of 1721, naming “the Great Coal Pit” and “Little Coalpit”, provides the first definite evidence of mining on the Hawkley Estate, it is clear from accounts of the “Burning Well of Hawkley” that coal was being mined there in the previous century. Recalling his visit in 1659, Thomas Shirley says the location “was not above 30 or 40 yards distant from the mouth of a Coal-pit there. And indeed Wigan, Ashton, and the whole Country, for many miles compass, is underlaid with Coal....”. Believed to have been writing in 1683, Rev John Clayton “observed that there had formerly been Coal-pits in the same Close of Grounds and I then got some Coal from one of the Pits nearest thereunto...”.
At least two collieries were still being worked on the estate in 1748. Timber from Hawkley was at this time being used in the construction of locks and weirs for the Douglas navigation. Donald Anderson records that “in August 1748 a message was sent by the navigation proprietors to James Stock to enquire about possible coal supplies. Stock was the lessee of a colliery in the Hawkley estate. At the same time Molyneux, the owner of the estate, was working a colliery there himself. It is possible that Stock may have belonged to the same family as the well-known Ashton and Billinge colliery owners Samuel and Aaron Stock” (“The Orrell Coalfield, Lancashire, 1740-1850”, Moorland Publishing, 1975).
Richard Molyneux of Hawkley Hall, who died in 1762, directed by his will that his successors could “carry on my colliery in Pemberton, or ... omit the same as they in their discretion shall think fitting” but must “not ... let out the colliery for less than one farthing a basket for the lord's part”. In 1770 the lease of Hawkley Colliery, “ where there is a constant sale for any quantity that can be raised”, was offered “to the highest bidder for a term of 3 years with all and every whimsey [horse gin], gear, tackle and appurtenancies thereto belonging and necessary for working the same.”.
The Hawkley mines were said to be worth £100 in 1776. An advertisement of 1796/7, when several leases were offered for sale by auction, stated that the mines were “believed to consist of thirteen Acres of an Upper Mine, in part of the estate called Harvey's, and thirty-four Acres of a Lower Mine, of excellent Quality, four Feet six Inches in thickness in the same Estate”. Although “the Lower Mine [was] at the Depth of about forty Yards from the surface” there was, “at the depth of about twenty-two Yards from the surface, … a large Sough which will carry off the Water when lifted thither”. A plan shows this “Sough” passing under the Ashton-Wigan turnpike between Derbyshire House and Glass House Farms and draining eventually into Smithy Brook.
In 1832 the mining rights at Hawkley were leased to grocer Thomas Jenkinson and linen draper James Richard Grimshaw, both of Wigan, for a period of 40 years at a rent of £300 pa. The lease covered “all those 2 several mines or bed of coal commonly called the 5ft mine and the 4ft mine or so much thereof respectively as is now ungotten and lying within and under” the estate. The pair were allowed to erect such surface structures as were necessary for their mining operations, and to dig clay and make bricks for that purpose within the estate. Their activities were not, however, to encroach on or undermine any existing buildings (“Lease of coalmines under the Hawkley Estate, Pemberton for 40 years. Brian William Molineux, esq., and mortgagee to Messrs Thomas Jenkinson of Wigan, grocer & James Richard Grimshaw of Wigan, linen draper. 10th April 1832”, Wigan Archives ref. D/DX Ta/28/7). In 1835 they also leased the majority of Hawkley Hall itself and its associated farm (Bankes Estate Papers at Lancashire Record Office, ref. DDBa/3/5; the later sale of the freehold in the Hawkley estate to Meyrick Bankes of Winstanley Hall was “subject to the said lease thereof, and to the covenants and stipulations therein contained”).
A feature on the 2” drawings made prior to completion of the 1843 map suggests that coal from the Hawkley estate may at one time have been transported westward and then north to Wigan Pier via a railway constructed in the 1820s by Thomas Claughton. It is clear from the published map, however, that this alternative route had by 1843 been abandoned in favour of a direct connection to the Leigh Branch of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal at Moss Bridge.
GHH mining machine underground shovel, when they were introduced in the Monteponi mine, helped to make the work lighter and faster. He wouldn't mind seeing it displayed in a protected area and not exposed to the elements. A machine created to work indoors that ends its "career" outdoors. The most interesting part are the reinforcements made by hand welding along the entire profile of the blade of the shovel. Although not a certainly functional artistic work; this is proof of the mastery and skills that the staff had acquired in working in a mine like this.
Pala da sottosuolo GHH mining machine, quando vennero introdotte nella miniera di Monteponi aiutarono a rendere il lavoro più leggero e veloce. Non sabbe male vederla esposta in una zona protetta e non esposta alle intemperie. Una macchina che nasce per lavorare al chiuso che finisce al sua "carriera" all'aria aperta. La parte più interessante sono i rinforzi realizzati con saldatura a mano lungo tutto il profilo della lama della pala. Seppure non un lavoro artistico sicuramente funzionale; questo a riprova della maestria e delle competenze che il personale aveva acquisito nel lavorare in una miniera come questa.
Tongo, Sierra Leone — In the diamond field-rich district of Kenema in the southeast of the country, a handful of twenty-something men with soiled and shredded rags for t-shirts bend over at the waist, and toil knee-deep in a caramel pool of mud. Lined along the waters' edge, situated an arms-length apart from one another, they splash circular sieves into the water then shake the contents from side to side with a vigorous rhythm in hopes of finding a diamond. This is a small-scale diamond mining operation called alluvial mining. Working in small cadres on mines with crude tools is a popular profession among men here in the Kenema District, but the pay is poor and the rewards seen are seldom or infrequent, at best. The workers only get paid when the diamonds are found. The middlemen who buy the stones from the miners prosper the most. Rebel forces from Liberia and Sierra Leone used diamonds to fund their wars -- gems for guns -- between 1990-2001. This trade led to the reputation of the Blood Diamond. Diamonds now must be certified by the government of Sierra Leone.
Photo by Geoff Bugbee, courtesy of Heifer International
Before you go mining you must check in at the local office.
Use my Referral Code to get extra 5000 aUEC on sign up - STAR-B6P3-NZBM
Satellite image showing details of landscape impact caused by an "in-situ" uranium leaching operation in central Wyoming operated by Power Resources, Incorporated. In 2008, PRI was fined by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality for multiple violations at this facility (read about it here: www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/04/04/news/wyom.... Image prepared by SkyTruth (www.skytruth.org).
An indication of the number and location of tailings dam failures since 1985.
An analysis of tailings dam failures over the last three decades, indicates that while the overall number of failures has decreased, the number of serious failures has increased (Bowker and Chambers 2016).
For any form of publication, please include the link to this page:
This photo has been graciously provided to be used in the GRID-Arendal resources library by: Kristina Thygesen
One of the old mining shacks at Animas Forks in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado.
SCS_4281
This bee kept coming out of its hole in the ground and walking backwards along a well trodden track. It looked like it was dragging away dirt from its hole, as can be seen in the picture. I don't know what species it is, but I think I saw it too late on in the year for it to be a tawny mining bee. Seen in the Cap Sizun, Brittany.
Satellite image showing details of landscape impact caused by an "in-situ" uranium leaching operation in central Wyoming operated by Power Resources, Incorporated. In 2008, PRI was fined by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality for multiple violations at this facility facility (read about it here: www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/04/04/news/wyom.... Image prepared by SkyTruth (www.skytruth.org).
Tailings dam failure at the Mount Polley mine in Canada.
The Mount Polley mine, a large, open-pit and underground copper-gold mine in British Columbia, began operation in 1997 and currently processes about 22 000 tonnes of ore per day. The mine’s tailings dam failed in August 2014, releasing approximately 25 million cubic metres of tailings and wastewater into a nearby creek (OAGBC 2016).
Mine operations were suspended for a year following the breach and did not fully recommence until June 2016. The tailings storage facility (surface area approx. 2.4 km2 ) was designed with three embankments – the Main Embankment, the Perimeter Embankment and the South Embankment. These were constructed with a core built from excavated, fine-grained glacial till deposits, supported downstream by filter and rock-fill zones and upstream by a tailings/rock-fill zone. While the mine was in operation, the height of the embankments was increased in nine stages, to an eventual height of 40 metres. Shortly before the collapse, approval was being sought for Stage 10, which would have further increased the dam wall height (IEEIRP 2015).
The Mount Polley dam failure created the largest environmental disaster in Canadian mining history (Schoenberger 2016). The mine is adjacent to Polley Lake and Hazeltine Creek, which flow into Quesnel Lake, one of the world’s deepest glacial lakes and an important commercial, recreational and aboriginal fishery. It supports sockeye salmon, rainbow trout and a diverse range of other fish species. Prior to the dam collapse, the water in the lake had a very low level of particulate material. The collapse resulted in a massive sediment-laden plume scouring Hazeltine Creek and entering the west basin of the lake. Petticrew et al. (2015) monitored the lake for two months post-spill. They found increases in conductivity and temperature and a persistent, high-turbidity layer below the thermocline. While subsequent monitoring indicated that the turbidity reduced to near background level by the beginning of 2015 (SMA 2016), the full effects of the spill may not yet be apparent or easily identifiable.
For any form of publication, please include the link to this page:
This photo has been graciously provided to be used in the GRID-Arendal resources library by: Kristina Thygesen
Located across the street from the modern-day post office in Mayer, Arizona stands this brick building, which is over 100 years old. For a good chunk of the 20th century, this building functioned as the main general store for the mining town of Mayer, Arizona.
Mine tokens or pit checks were issued to record the number of miners underground. Each miner would take the pit check with his allocated number from the board at the start of his shift and put it back when he returned to the surface. This board gave a quick and straightforward indication of which miners were underground.
The circular brass pit check or tally is embossed with"NATIONAL COAL BOARD/ COMRIE" and is stamped with the number "89". There is also a hole for the miner to attach it to a piece of string.
West Lothian Local Museums. http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/tourism/museumsgalleries/ums/information
Copyright: West Lothian Council Museums Service.
If you would like more information about this object, please contact: museums@westlothian.gov.uk, quoting WLCMS2011.005.011.
An old woman inside the transit camp of POSCO-India. The transit camp of POSCO, India that has been set-up for the few villagers who are so-called "Pro-POSCO". However, interviews revealed that they have been kept here forcefully since they have nowhere to go and are given Rs.20/- (50 cents) a day per head by the government for all their expenses, including food and other ration. The condition of the camp is abyssmally low. There are about 52 families sharing around 20 toilets and bathrooms. The huts leak when it rains and conditions are extremely unhygienic specially for old people and children.
The Arigna Mining Experience is a unique community inspired initiative which records 400 years of mining history in the area. Coal mining provided much needed work in a region of poor agricultural land. Regular employment was uncommon in the province of Connaught in the 19th and 20th centuries, and it is often said; “There was money in Arigna when there was no money elsewhere”. The industry sustained the community of Arigna down through the centuries and helped them through the horrors of the famine years (1845 to 1852).
The possibility of developing a mining visitor centre in Arigna, Co. Roscommon first emerged when the last coal mines closed in 1990. This development was driven by the local community with the major support from a number of agencies within County Roscommon. Arigna LEADER was the first advocate of the development and secured the necessary finance to initiate the project. Funding followed from the Arigna Enterprise Fund and the Department of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources, which approved a grant of €950,000. This financing brought the project to completion. The development, as it stands, represents a total investment of over €1.5 million, including over €250,000 raised by the local community.
Book titled: "Coal Mine Modernization / 1952" and published by the American Mining Congress, Washington D.C. in 1952. 371 pp. Gilt lettering on front cover and spine.
West Lothian Museums. http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/tourism/museumsgalleries/ums/information
If you would like more information about this object, please contact: museums@westlothian.gov.uk, quoting WLDCM1995.096.011.
Audrey Headframe Park
Jerome, Arizona
Largest wooden headframe still standing in Arizona, it was completed in 1918 to haul ore up from the mine. Shaft is 1900 feet deep, concrete lined with cross tunnels every 100 feet to Edith shaft. Edith shaft headframe was completed in 1915 to haul men and supplies. A wooden structure, it was torn down in 1981 and replaced with the steel version you see today, 260' to NW.
Between 1915 and 1938 almost 4 million tons of ore was extracted from the mine, producing 397,000 tons of Copper, 221 tons of silver and 5.5 tons of gold. Ore was brought to the surface then transported by tram and burro train, to the railhead in the valley. Later, ore was taken out underground through the Josephine tunnel, which was 1300 feet down and 2.5 miles long.