Mining Boom Research Articles

The exploitation of silver deposits in early medieval Europe: some documentary, economic and social problems

AbstractFocusing on Southern Europe, this article sheds light on the mining landscape of the early Middle Ages. Based on the current state of historical and archaeological knowledge, the article raises a number of questions that can be extended to other European regions. The documentary problem shows that the scarcity of sources is due to a less developed mining historiography of the early Middle Ages. The few references show that it was not a question of ignorance, nor of the terrain, nor of the potential, nor of the techniques, taking into account the work in Melle and in the Harz. The study of production from the angle of an economic problem forms the basis of a hypotheses for selective and centralized exploitation during the Carolingian period and of an unbridled mining boom from the early 11th century. Even with the current paucity of documentary evidence, it is reasonable to assume that early medieval societies did not choose to exploit all the resources available to them. Finally, there is the social question. Who was behind the work and trade in ingots? The model of elite dirigisme will be discussed and it will be suggested that the role of the elite be reduced in favour of other actors such as entrepreneurs. Finally, the article argues for the extension of archaeological research to production areas in order to date operations, establish reference systems for ores and read archaeological remains from a social perspective.

The Environmental Burden of the United States' Bitcoin Mining Boom.

Bitcoin mines-massive computing clusters generating cryptocurrency tokens-consume vast amounts of electricity. The amount of fine particle (PM2.5) air pollution created because of their electricity consumption, and its effect on environmental health, is unknown. In this study, we located the 34 largest mines in the United States in 2022, identified the electricity-generating plants that responded to them, and pinpointed communities most harmed by Bitcoin mine-attributable air pollution. From mid-2022 to mid-2023, the 34 mines consumed 32.3 terawatt-hours of electricity-33% more than Los Angeles-85% of which came from fossil fuels. We estimated that 1.9 million Americans were exposed to ≥0.1 μg/m3 of additional PM2.5 pollution from Bitcoin mines, which were often hundreds of miles away from communities they affected. Americans living in four regions-including New York City and near Houston-were exposed to the highest Bitcoin mine-attributable PM2.5 concentrations (≥0.5 μg/m3) with the greatest health risks.

An analysis of the impact of CO2 emissions from deforestation and mining in Madre de Dios, Perú

The Madre de Dios Region of Peru faces significant deforestation largely due to a surge in artisanal-small scale gold mining (ASGM), propelled by rising gold prices. This study evaluates the full scope of ASGM activities on net CO2 emissions, accounting for both the deforestation that converts forests into mining territories and the emissions directly resulting from mining and transportation activities. By applying kriging to a comprehensive dataset, we determined the carbon content of the region and the annual loss of CO2 capture due to deforestation. Our analysis also incorporates emissions from the Interoceanic highway, which has contributed to the mining boom. The findings indicate a total net CO2 emission of 429.9 Gigagrams (Gg) per year, underscoring the critical environmental challenge these activities pose. Our study highlights the need for immediate and effective reclamation efforts, including reforestation with indigenous carbon-rich trees, as a counterbalance to the environmental damage inflicted. These efforts are essential to mitigate the adverse impacts and support the global movement towards net-zero emissions.

A Reusable Past. Opportunities for the Utilization of Industrial Heritage in Salgótarján, Hungary

AbstractIndustrial heritage is not just the industrial landscape, buildings, and material objects, but also the highly complex cultural heritage created by industrial society, with many unique features. The former industrial towns of East-Central European countries have little memory of their early capitalist industrial past, and their socialist legacy is mostly seen as an unwanted and unwelcome burden. Industrial heritage preservation in Hungary was also adversely affected by the ideology of de-industrialization in the late 1980s, and this was compounded by struggles over the politics of memory. Salgótarján, as the seat of Nógrád County, is a city with county rights that has one of the worst social and economic indicators in the country, with dozens of slums, many of them on former industrial sites. The number of sites suitable for greenfield investment in the valley town is low, while the proportion of under-utilized brownfields is high. The real turning point in the development of the settlement was the opening of the mines and the mining boom in the second half of the 19th century. The opening of the mines was soon followed by the construction of larger industrial plants: the steel mill, the hollow-glass and later flat-glass factory, and the ironworks (stove factory). Initially, skilled workers were recruited from abroad, which laid the foundations for a unique society, as much of the population had no ties to the settlement, or even to Hungary—only to the work and their employer. The industrial society of Salgótarján formed a well-defined local community with a sense of identity. The management of the companies and factories, the network of workers' welfare institutions, the managed leisure programs and facilities, and of course the built environment of the colonies played a major role in all this. Under state socialism, the factories continued to operate with an artificially inflated workforce, and after the political regime change in 1989, the privatized plants closed down with dramatic abruptness, leading to social trauma and high unemployment in the settlement. The preservation and presentation of industrial heritage is also important for the city's identity while the built environment is undergoing a radical transformation, which is why buildings that are deemed worthy of preservation should be given a new function as soon as possible so that they may remain an integral part of the settlement.

Calculation of reference intervals for the concentrations of α-tocopherol and retinol in serum using indirect data-mining procedures

BackgroundEstablishing adequate reference intervals (RIs) for vitamins A and E is essential for diagnosing and preventing deficiencies. Due to the current boom in data mining and its easy applicability, more laboratories are establishing RIs using indirect methods. Our study aims to obtain RIs using four indirect data-mining procedures (Bhattacharya, Hoffmann, Kosmic, and RefineR) for vitamins A and E. Material and methods8943 individuals were collected to establish the RIs. After using different data cleaning steps and checking whether these data should be divided according to age and gender based on multiple linear regression and variance component analyses, indirect RIs were calculated using specific Excel spreadsheets or R-packages software. ResultsA total of 2004 records were eligible. For vitamin A, the RIs obtained were (1.11 − 2.68) µmol/L, (1.13 − 2.70) µmol/L, (1.13 − 2.71) µmol/L, and (1.17 − 2.66) µmol/L using the Bhattacharya, Hoffmann, Kosmic and RefineR approaches, respectively. For vitamin E, these intervals were (17.3 − 49.9) µmol/L (Bhattacharya), (17.3 − 48.9) µmol/L (Hoffmann), (19.6 − 50.3) µmol/L (Kosmic), and (19.4 − 50.9) µmol/L (RefineR). In all cases, the RIs were comparable. ConclusionsSuitable RIs for vitamins A and E were calculated using four indirect methods that are suitable and adapted to our population’s demographic characteristics.

Social licensing and dependencies: Implications for mine closure in South Africa

The social license to operate that the mining sector uses to ensure local consent has come under criticism. Yet research seldom investigates the dependencies created by this license. To remedy this deficiency, we used the dependencies identified by evolutionary governance theory to examine three case studies of a social license to operate in mining areas in South Africa. We found that the license can create rigidity and conflicts. Interdependencies are visible in both cooperation and conflict between the mines and NGOs. Goal dependency is visible in the adverse consequences that follow when communities want to redress historical inequalities as well as in the emphasis on creating trust. Path dependency is visible in the persistence of a mindset associated with a mining boom. We argue that proponents of the social license to operate should consider the dependencies that their activities cause and the long-term implications when a mine closes.

Effect of artisanal gold mining on woody plant diversity in Western Burkina Faso

Although artisanal gold mining strongly contribute to enhance people incomes in West Africa, this activity can lead to habitat fragmentation and loss of woody species. Therefore, studying the impact of artisanal gold mining on woody plant diversity is needed for efficient management of forest resources. In this study, we investigated the impact of artisanal gold mining on woody plant diversity and dynamics in the Kari classified forest in Western Burkina Faso. Forest inventories were carried out at two sites including a gold panning site and a control site, following a systematic sampling design. We identified all woody species and measured all woody species with a diamtere at breast height ≥5 cm. A total 60 plots of 900 m² were surveyed. Diversity indices and dendrometric parameters were calculated and compared between the two sites. The results showed a higher species richness (59 woody species distributing in 39 genera and 18 families) in the control site compared to the gold panning site (38 species distributing in 25 genera and 12 families). The mean values of the number of species per plot and the Shannon diversity index were higher in the control site (15.50 ± 8.80; 2.16 ± 0.43, respectively) than in the artisal mining site (5.47 ± 2.71; 1.40 ± 0.53, respectively), showing that the control site is more diverse than the site that is under gold panning. The control site also had the highest density (683.33 ± 262.99 ft/ha) and stable woody stands compared to the less gold panning site (137.41 ± 102.31 ft/ha) where unstable woody stands were found. While the gold-panning site was characterised by biophysical impacts such as destruction of the plant cover and soil excavation, no visible impact was observed at the control site.Theses findings highlight the negative impact of artisanl gold mining on woody species diversity and structure. The study provides essential information for decision-making on sustainable forest management in the context of mining boom in Burkina Faso's.

Historical Mortality Dynamics on the Baja California Peninsula : Marriage, Mining Booms, Migration, and Infectious Disease.

Historical demographic research shows that the factors influencing mortality risk are labile across time and space. This is particularly true for datasets that span societal transitions. Here, we seek to understand how marriage, migration, and the local economy influenced mortality dynamics in a rapidly changing environment characterized by high in-migration and male-biased sex ratios. Mortality records were extracted from a compendium of historical vital records for the Baja California peninsula (Mexico). Our sample consists of 1,201 mortality records spanning AD 1835-1900. Findings from Cox proportional hazard models indicate that (1) marriage was associated with a protective effect for both sexes; (2) residing in a mining town was associated with higher mortality for men, but not women; (3) migration was associated with decreased mortality risk for women, but not men; and (4) the risk of mortality increased in the face of infectious disease, but decreased over time. Despite the early initiation of reproduction for women, marriage had a protective effect, likely because marriage linked women to resources. Although mining boomtowns were associated with elevated risk factors generally, only men experienced greater mortality risk, likely due to dangerous working conditions that women did not experience. Last, female, but not male, migrants experienced greater longevity, possibly because exposure to harsh labor conditions eroded the protective effect of selection bias for men. Together, these results shed light on an understudied historical population and broaden our understanding of demographic dynamics in preindustrial settings.

The Archaeological Legacy of the Lignite Boom in Upper Lusatia

At the beginning of the 19th century, nobody in the landscape of the heaths and ponds of Lusatia, a small region in the German-Polish border area, would have suspected the lasting effects of the lignite mining boom on the economy, landscape, and the local communities there. The initially small underground mines soon developed into large open-pit mines. 'Industrial cathedrals' were established, new cities were raised out of the heathland, long-distance transport networks were expanded, and industrial centres emerged that gained importance throughout Europe. The local population and culture changed through migration, adaptation and assimilation, the landscape through the huge earth movements caused by lignite mining. This enormous transformation of an entire region has an impact on identity even today, and still influences political processes. It is now the task of archaeology and heritage management organisations to document this recent past as well and to preserve its cultural value.

Dental health status of the medieval silver-mining community from Kutná Hora (Czech Republic, 13th–16th c.): Impact of socioeconomic changes and mortality crises

ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to evaluate the pathological conditions in teeth from skeletal remains found in the medieval burial ground at Kutná Hora (13th–16th centuries, Czech Republic). We focused on the effect on dental health of socioeconomic changes associated with the boom in silver mining at the site. DesignIn this study, dental caries and antemortem tooth loss were recorded for 469 sexed adults (10,558 permanent teeth). Pathologies were analysed and presented by teeth and alveoli, and the differences between their frequencies were tested in sex-, age-, and burial context-separated groups (mass vs. individual graves). ResultsThe oral conditions were characterised by a low frequency of caries and moderate frequency of antemortem tooth loss (AMTL). For caries, males and females showed the same frequencies while AMTL comparisons indicated a higher rate in females. Most differences emerged between age-separated and burial context-separated groups. The age progression of the pathologies was confirmed for both caries and AMTL. Skeletons from mass burials had higher caries and AMTL frequencies than those buried in individual graves. ConclusionsThe dataset exhibited low caries and below average AMTL rates compared to other medieval European skeletal series. We think that life in this mining centre had a positive effect on the dental health of its inhabitants. The relatively poorer dental health of those buried in mass graves reflected either the specific composition of the population in the first half of the 14th century or the lower resilience of these individuals when facing mortality crises.

Mining-energy boom and local institutional capacities - the case of Colombia

Despite the burgeoning discussion about how the mining-energy sector affects local communities, the roles of local institutions remain understudied as one of the key factors to understand the impact of mining booms on local development. Literature has recently emerged analyzing the role institutions play and finds that natural resource booms can be a curse or a blessing. This article seeks to answer the research question: Do oil and coal-producing municipalities have better institutional capacities? Our research analyzes the incidence that two extractive industries – oil and coal – have on local institutional capacities in Colombia. We use two methodological approaches to study this relationship at a municipality level over the period 2011–2019: a panel data model and a cross sectional exploratory-confirmatory spatial data analysis. The panel estimation results show that municipalities with oil and coal activity have a higher fiscal performance index suggesting that producer municipalities have stronger institutional capacities than non-producer municipalities. However, due to the local development dynamics in each sector's territories, the capacities of coal and oil producing municipalities differ. The spatial analysis reveals spillover effects in the production of oil. Public policy recommendations are made based on the findings.

Drivers of Global Mineral Demand: 1900–2050

Editor’s note: The aim of the Geology and Mining series is to introduce early career professionals and students to various aspects of mineral exploration, development, and mining in order to share the experiences and insight of each author on the myriad of topics involved with the mineral industry and the ways in which geoscientists contribute to each. Abstract The global demand for minerals has long been known to be characterized by periods of high demand followed by periods of low demand. These are often referred to as cycles. There are cycles of short (multiyear) duration and cycles of long (multidecade) duration. This paper seeks to explain the driving forces behind the long-duration cycles. There have been five such cycles since 1900. Four of them were in the 20th century, and the fifth was the China mining boom, which lasted from about 2000 to 2015. I interpret the main driver of these cycles to be the pace of urban, or suburban, construction. When this is proceeding at a rapid pace, global mineral demand is high. When construction activity slows, mineral demand slows with it. In the 20th century it was the nations of Europe, North America, and, later in the century, the Soviet Union and Japan that were home to most of the world’s construction activity. Their economic fortunes drove the century’s four long-duration cycles. The century began with a 30-year period of high demand driven by the transformation of these economies from predominantly agriculture based to predominantly urban industrial. It ended with a nearly 30-year period of low demand as these same economies, having already urbanized, moved into being predominantly service-based economies, which have a lower per capita mineral demand. At the beginning of the 21st century, China took the lead with its remarkable transformation from an economy that was farm based to one that was urban industrial, which drove global mineral demand to a high level. I argue that the world is now heading into a 30-year period of low urban construction-driven demand as China turns away from reform, India discovers that its economic success is built on weak foundations, and the “advanced countries” continue with their metals-lite transformation toward ever more sophisticated service activities. However, urban construction may be about to be displaced as the principal driver of global mineral demand. This new driver is the restructuring of global energy systems, or, to be more specific, the shift from hydrocarbon-based energy to solar and wind-based energy. Producing energy from solar and wind is far more materials-intensive than from hydrocarbons. Will this shift propel global mineral demand back to high?

The discourse of the Anthropocene and posthumanism: Mining-induced loss of traditional land and the Mongolian nomadic herders

For over five millennia, Mongolia has been home to a remarkably resilient, land-connected, pastoral nomadic way of life and cultural heritage. Traditional local communities of Mongolian nomadic herders are custodians of the land. Since Mongolia’s transition to a democracy and neoliberal capitalist economy in the 1990s, an unprecedented mining boom has set in as large deposits of mineral resources were discovered. The mining boom and climate change impacts have put mounting pressure on herders’ ability to access their traditional land. Drawing on ethnographic research through storywork with Mongolian nomadic herders ( malchid) in their traditional land ( nutag) in the Gobi Desert region in Mongolia, this study aims to expand the discourse of the Anthropocene by engaging with the concept of posthumanism. We unpack the predominant discourse among Mongolian nomadic herders – loss of traditional land – induced by mining. In the Anthropocene – the epoch of human-induced planetary change – herders have become victims of both human-induced global environmental and climate change and the neoliberal capitalist extractive economy. Driven by mining-induced forced displacement from their traditional land and the natural resources on which they depend, herders are marginalised, resulting in the loss of their livelihood and severing of their special relationship and spiritual connection with their traditional land. We conclude that Mongolian nomadic herders’ voices urge us that it is crucial to expand and pluralise the discourse of the Anthropocene by relearning our ancestral ways of knowing, being and doing, and reconnecting to our holistic, spiritually and physically entwined, reciprocal and symbiotic relationship with land, non-human beings and the natural world that are all regarded as living and sentient entities with identity, agency and intentionality. Mongolian nomadic herders’ ancestral cosmology and onto-epistemology turn us to posthuman or more-than-human ways of understanding and interacting with the world, which decentre human exceptionalism and dominant position in the Anthropocene.

The peruvian mining boom and dutch disease. Empirical evidence from 2003 to 2020

The peruvian mining boom and dutch disease. Empirical evidence from 2003 to 2020

Sources of early Islamic silver: lead isotope analysis of dirhams

The expansion of the early Islamic state (c. AD 700–900) was underpinned by the minting of silver coins (dirhams) on an enormous scale. While the wider effects of this coinage have been studied extensively, the sources of silver have attracted less attention and research has relied on literary texts pointing to mines in Arabia and Central Asia. Here, the authors use lead isotope and trace element analyses of more than 100 precisely dated silver coins to provide a geochemical perspective on Islamic silver. The results identify multiple new sources, stretching from Morocco to the Tien Shen, and indicate an Abbasid-period mining boom. These source locations have implications for contemporary geopolitics including on the Islamic-Byzantine frontier.

Long-term mercury loading and trapping dynamics in a Western North America reservoir

Study RegionThe Carson River including Lahontan Reservoir in Northwestern Nevada, USA Study FocusThe discovery, mining, and processing of silver and gold from the Comstock Lode in northwestern Nevada heavily contaminated the Carson River system with mercury (Hg). The river now contains some of the highest recorded water column and bed sediment Hg concentrations reported in peer-reviewed literature. Acute Hg contamination in river and reservoir bed sediment has led to elevated methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations across all trophic levels of Lahontan Reservoir, culminating in significant health risks to humans. Lahontan Reservoir, located downstream from the mills that processed Comstock ore, has served as a Hg trap since the completion of the dam in 1915. Starting in 1997 and extending through 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey has collected and analyzed hundreds of discrete water samples entering and exiting Lahontan Reservoir for unfiltered total Hg (uf.THg), thereby providing a first-of-its-kind opportunity for studying long-term Hg trapping efficiencies within a western North American reservoir. Continuous time series of uf.THg concentration and flux above and below the reservoir were estimated using the weighted regressions on time, discharge, and season with the Kalman filtering (WRTDS-K) method employed with newly developed methods to account for non-natural (i.e., managed) hydrographs below a reservoir. New hydrological insights for the regionAn estimated 31,650 kg (34.89 US tons) of uf.THg entered Lahontan Reservoir during the 25 year period of analysis, accounting for approximately 0.5% of the total uf.THg estimated to have been released to the Carson River system [6.8 million kg (7500 US tons)] over a multi-decade mining boom. Moreover, approximately 92% of the estimated uf.THg entering Lahontan Reservoir was trapped. On an annual basis, however, trapping efficiencies range between 34% and 98%, and are closely related to the total annual discharge. Results also indicate that flow-normalized uf.THg concentrations and loads above and below the reservoir are trending down.

The Gold Mining Boom, North European Capital, and the Reorganization of the Portuguese Slave Trade in Angola (1710-1730)

The article explores the reorganization of the Portuguese slave trade in Angola in the early eighteenth century when an upsurge in traffic took place along with a gold mining boom in Brazil. The appearance of a new group in the administration of the Angola contract, with the political support of the Crown and the financial assistance of merchants connected to London stimulated the expansion of the slaving frontier into Benguela. A large part of the historiography has interpreted this growth of the slave trade in Benguela as a phenomenon produced by local or “internal” developments of the Portuguese empire. My argument is that this shift was related to the international development of capitalism. The growing international competition over slave markets in the Gulf of Guinea and Loango pushed Portuguese authorities and slave traders to focus on the traffic in the areas to the south of Luanda. This process was financed by international credit networks and played a central role in the establishment of a new slaving frontier that supplied captives to the Brazilian goldfields.

Overlapping governmentalities and the cosmo-politics of Mongolian water- and miningscapes

Since transitioning to a market-based economy, Mongolia has experienced a mining boom that turned extractive industries into a key contributor to the country’s national budget. However, benefits from mining activities are allocated unevenly, with increasing rural poverty and degradation of water resources that threaten the livelihood and health of pastoralists, in particular. Regulatory efforts to improve the protection of water resources are confronted with severe implementation challenges as notions of what constitutes appropriate interpretations of the rules and appropriate ways of behaving diverge.Applying Foucault’s concept of governmentality and tying it to the literature on social imaginaries, I show how different rationalities overlap in Mongolian water- and miningscapes. They shape an extractive imaginary perpetuated by technical- managerial truth claims, an increasing monetization of social and social-environmental relationships, an imperative for industrial-economic development, and a state that performs sovereignty by enforcing procedures rather than substantive laws. However, an alternative, cosmo-political imaginary exists that derives its moral imperatives and individual incentive structures from an understanding that human land-use is contingent on the approval of spiritual entities that inhabit nature. As multiple governmentalities exercise power simultaneously, their interaction produces subjectivities that align with various and contradictory positions towards mining and that require negotiation. This challenges simplistic accounts of a homogeneous ‘state’ or ‘community’, as well as a priori assumptions about the interests and rationalities that motivate the behavior of stakeholders. It thus supports a call for environmental governance research and practice to give more attention to the cognitive-symbolic dimension of social-environmental interactions.

Frac Sand Facilities and Their Potential Effects on the Groundwater Resources of the Monahans-Mescalero Sand Ecosystem, Permian Basin, Texas

Up until the end of the oil and gas boom in 2014, much of the sand used in the Permian Basin for hydraulic fracturing was sourced from upper Midwest of the United States. Because of substantial cost savings, producers in the Permian Basin began using local sand resources, creating an associated boom in local frac-sand mining in the Monahans-Mescalaro Sand Ecosystem. By December 2018, 17 frac-sand operations had registered with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality with 16 being operational with a cumulative annual capacity of 56.8 million tons and a self-reported 2,927 acres of disturbed land. We identified 230 production wells for the 16 facilities with depths ranging from 80 to 1,199 feet and most completed in the Pecos Valley Alluvium and/or Dockum aquifers. Estimated frac sand facility water use (10,000 to 40,000 acre-feet per year, based on 60 to 250 gallons of water consumed per ton of produced sand) rivals or exceeds that of water used in the four counties (Crane, Ector, Ward, and Winkler) with active frac sand facilities (23,500 acre-feet per year). Modeling suggests that long-term pumping of the unconfined Pecos Valley Aquifer may be a challenge requiring additional wells over time or the use of alternative water supplies. For the confined Dockum Aquifer, simulations suggest that pumping might completely deplete artesian pressure at the well field after 10 years.

Non-tradables in Brazilian economic history

PurposeThe purpose is to market a reinterpretation of Brazilian economic history highlighting the importance of non-tradable goods to understand major historical developments such as the lack of industrialization in the mining boom; the rise and contribution of industries to development in the early 20th century; indexation as hyperinflation in the late 20th century; growth and cycles in the early 21st century.Design/methodology/approachSection 2 introduces analytical perspectives on the relationship between non-tradables, transport costs and external shocks. Section 3 presents a historical overview of the gold and coffee cycles in the Brazilian economy, which highlights the crucial role played by transport costs in the genesis of industrialization. Thus, in a more precise way, industrialization was not an import substitution process but the substitution of non-tradables by the domestic tradable manufactures.FindingsSection 4 shows that Brazilian statistical records and historiography disregard this characterization and, to that extent, underestimate economic growth in the primary export phase (1872–1920) and overestimate growth rates in the industrialization period (1920–1940). Section 5 shifts to the end of the 20th century to analyze the relationship between non-tradables, indexation and hyperinflation. Section 6 concludes with a brief discussion of the role played by the terms of trade and non-tradables in the unfolding of the 2014 economic crisis.Originality/valueDistance from international markets and a continental geographic size made transport costs in Brazil historically prohibitive: the relevance of non-tradables in the Brazilian economic history. While the theme is not new, it seldom received proper attention in the historiography.