The Kimberley Mine in 1888: a vast stepped pit of grey rock with headgear and ropeways at the rim

History of mining

How prospectors changed the world

A flake of gold in a mill race filled California. A hill of silver paid for an empire. A dig in the Pilbara built a city. This is the history of mining told through the people, mines and rushes that made it, with every fact linked to its source.

Start the storyExplore the atlasOpen the timeline

12chapters
181people
245famous mines
167events
60trade routes
395dated milestones

Wellcome Collection, public domain (Public domain)

The story in 12 chapters

From the first copper to the lithium rush

Each chapter leads into the next: read them in order, or start wherever the map takes you.

  1. Sandstone cliffs known as Solomon's Pillars at Timna01 · 25000 BC-AD 400The first miners: ochre, flint, copper and silverMining is older than farming, writing or the wheel. Long before anyone struck gold in California, people were digging ochre in Western Australia, flint in Belgium and copper in the deserts of the Arabah. This chapter follows the first miners, the metals they found and the trade routes they started.Read the chapter
  2. Satellite image of Cerro Rico and the city of Potosi, Bolivia02 · 1000-1850Silver: the metal that made the first global economyFor about three centuries, one metal moved around the planet faster than any other. Silver from the mountains of Central Europe, Bolivia and Mexico paid for wars, empires and Chinese silk. This chapter follows it from the mine face to the mint, and on across two oceans.Read the chapter
  3. Miners on ladders and wooden platforms in Dolcoath tin mine, Cornwall03 · 1500-1900Going deep: Agricola, steam and the Cornish minesThe richest ore is rarely at the surface. As mines chased it down, they ran into water, bad air and darkness. This chapter is about the people who solved those problems, from a German town doctor to the engineers of Cornwall, and about the children who paid the price before the law stepped in.Read the chapter
  4. The Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah, seen from the International Space Station04 · 1820-1920Copperopolis: how copper wired the worldIn the 19th century copper became the metal of the electric age. Its story moves from a smoky Welsh town to the mountains of Chile, the bush of South Australia and a hill in Montana that its owners called the richest on earth. It ends with an engineer who saw that a mountain of poor ore could be worth more than a vein of rich ore.Read the chapter
  5. A prospector panning for gold, 189905 · 1848-1900Gold fever: the rushes that filled continentsBetween 1848 and 1900 a run of gold strikes pulled people across oceans and continents. They built cities, colonies and states in a few years. They also made some famous names out of people who did not find the gold, and left out some of the people who did.Read the chapter
  6. The Kimberley mine and town in 1888, a woodburytype06 · 1867-1946Diamonds and deep gold: Kimberley and the RandIn southern Africa, two finds twenty years apart changed mining for good. Diamonds at Kimberley created the first great mining monopoly. Gold on the Witwatersrand, mined deep and treated with cyanide, became the largest gold field on Earth. The same small group of men controlled both.Read the chapter
  7. The shaft head at Bois du Cazier, Marcinelle, during the 1956 disaster07 · 1887-2020The cost underground: mining disasters and the laws they forcedMost mining safety rules were written after someone died. This chapter goes through the worst disasters in mining history, from the coal explosions of the early 1900s to the tailings dam failures of our own century. It looks at what went wrong, and at what changed afterwards.Read the chapter
  8. The Kirunavaara iron ore mountain at Kiruna08 · 1856-2025Iron, steel and the PilbaraIron is the most mined metal on earth, but for most of history steel was rare and dear. Then, in 1856, an inventor found a way to make it cheaply. This chapter follows the hunt for iron ore that followed, from the Arctic to India to the red ranges of Western Australia.Read the chapter
  9. Pierre and Marie Curie's laboratory09 · 1789-2025Uranium: from silver mine waste to the atomic ageFor centuries miners threw pitchblende away. It was the black stuff that got in the way of the silver. Then a scientist in Paris found what was inside it, and within fifty years governments were paying almost any price for the ore. This chapter follows uranium from a Bohemian spoil heap to the Manhattan Project and the great mines of today.Read the chapter
  10. Satellite image of the Chuquicamata copper mine, Chile10 · 1952-2025Whose ore is it? Resource nationalismFor most of mining history, the companies that dug the ore came from somewhere else. In the twenty years after 1950, many of the countries where the ore lay decided to take control. This chapter follows those nationalisations, the tin cartel that collapsed, and the new forms the same idea has taken since.Read the chapter
  11. Satellite image of the Escondida copper mine, Chile11 · 1935-2025The giants: how the largest mines in the world were foundIn 1900 the whole world mined less than half a million tonnes of copper. Today a single mine in the Atacama Desert produces more than a million tonnes a year. This chapter tells how the largest mines in the world were found, often under ground that showed nothing at the surface, and how they grew.Read the chapter
  12. Satellite image of lithium evaporation ponds on the Salar de Atacama, Chile12 · 1888-2025The new rush: lithium, cobalt and rare earthsFor most of history, prospectors chased gold, silver, copper, tin and iron. In the twenty-first century the most wanted metals were ones few people had heard of: lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and rare earths. This last chapter follows how they became critical minerals, and asks how the new rush compares with the gold rushes that began this story.Read the chapter

The archive

Explore the history of mining

Every person, mine, event and route in the story has its own page, linked to the next. Pick a door.

People181 prospectors, magnates, engineers and minersFamous mines245 mines, from ochre pits to the Super PitEvents167 rushes, disasters, strikes and lawsTrade routes60 routes, from Bronze Age tin to Pilbara oreTimeline7000 BC to 2026, zoomablePlaces156 boom towns, ghost towns and portsDeposit types30 ways ore formsGlossary318 mining words in plain English

On the globe

Famous mines and the routes their metal took

245 mines and 60 trade routes. Turn the globe, then open any mine for its story.

Drag to turn the globe

In their own words

Letters from the rush

48 letters, diaries and newspaper reports from the rushes, 1848 to 1897, read as walks with the globe moving beneath them.

Daguerreotype of San Francisco in 1851: wooden buildings running down to a bay full of shipsCalifornia, 1848-49Gold! Gold! GOLD!In the words of The Californian, the California Star and Bayard TaylorEngraving of a miner rocking a cradle beside a creek to wash gold from gravelRich Bar, 1851-52Dame Shirley's letters from Rich BarIn the words of Louise Clappe, writing as Dame ShirleyHeadframes and mullock heaps of the gold mines at BendigoBendigo, 1852A lady at the diggingsIn the words of Ellen ClacyPrint of gold seekers in AustraliaEureka, 1854Under the Southern CrossIn the words of Raffaello Carboni and the Ballaarat TimesWood engraving of miners working a silver mineComstock, 1861-76Silver fever in WashoeIn the words of Mark Twain and Dan De QuilleA single-file line of packers climbing the snow slope of the Chilkoot PassKlondike, 1897Over the passes to the KlondikeIn the words of Tappan Adney and the Seattle press
All the walks

For investors and executives

Lessons from mining history

Booms and busts, resource nationalism, discovery to production, price shocks and social licence: what the record shows, for people who invest in or run mining companies. History, not advice.

Offices of the Gold Fields company in Johannesburg, 1896Lesson 01Booms and busts: what mining history showsMining has always moved in waves. A find draws people and money, a town springs up, and then the ore runs out or the price falls. This lesson looks at the pattern across a century and a half, using cases from Nevada to the Pilbara. It is history, not a forecast or advice.Electrical prospecting for ore on Billiton in 1920Lesson 02From discovery to production: the long road to a mineA discovery is not a mine. History shows gaps of a year to more than sixty years between the first find and the first ore. This lesson sets out the timelines of famous deposits and the reasons some moved fast and others waited. It is history, not a forecast or advice.Copper mine at Kolwezi in Shaba provinceLesson 03Resource nationalism: what the record showsGovernments have always wanted a share of what lies under their land. The forms have changed, from crown mines to nationalisation to export bans, but the question has not. This lesson sorts the history into five forms and looks at what happened in each case. It is history, not a forecast or advice.Workers moving earth at a tin mine at Pangkalpinang, BangkaLesson 04Price shocks and the supply responseMetal prices have jumped and crashed many times, sometimes because of a war, sometimes because of a law, sometimes because of a cartel that ran out of money. This lesson looks at what happened to mine output after each shock, using production records. It is history, not a forecast or advice.Satellite view of the Brumadinho tailings dam collapse, Brazil, 2019Lesson 05Social licence: when a mine loses trustA mine needs more than a legal permit. It needs the acceptance of its workers, its neighbours and the wider public, often called a social licence to operate. This lesson looks at cases where that acceptance was lost, what it cost, and what changed afterwards. It is history, not a forecast or advice.Diamond diggings at Kimberley, 1888Lesson 06The deposits that made fortunes, and who kept themMining history is full of fortunes, but the person who found the ore was rarely the one who ended up richest. This lesson sorts the famous fortunes by how they were made: finding, buying, combining, supplying, lending and collecting royalties. It is history, not a forecast or advice.
All lessons

Myths, records and turning points

Myths and turning points

Famous mining stories

The big stories, in depth

Scroll stories on the globe: the Big Hole, the gold rushes then and now, Potosí, the copper giants and Congo cobalt.

The Big Hole at Kimberley, South Africa, seen from above, with water at the bottomMining historyThe Big Hole, KimberleyDiamonds · South AfricaThe Super Pit gold mine at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, at sunsetMining historyGold rushes, then and nowGold and lithium · WorldwideCerro Rico rising above the rooftops of Potosí, BoliviaMining historyPotosí, the mountain of silverSilver · BoliviaThe Chuquicamata copper mine in Chile's Atacama Desert, photographed from the International Space StationMining historyThe biggest copper pitsCopper · Utah and ChileGreen malachite on pink cobaltocalcite, a copper and cobalt specimen from Musonoi near KolweziMining historyCongo's copper and cobaltCopper and cobalt · DR CongoThe Kiruna iron ore mine drawn in 3D: the ore body dipping under the town, its levels and shafts, at the moment of the nightly blastData storyA day in the life of a mine3D · Kiruna, SwedenGold drill-hole columns rising over the Yilgarn goldfields on a satellite map of Western AustraliaData storyUnder Western AustraliaDrill holes · Western AustraliaCopper drill-hole columns over South Australia on a satellite mapData storyUnder South AustraliaDrill holes · South AustraliaCopper drill-hole columns over the Cobar Basin on a satellite map of New South WalesData storyUnder New South WalesDrill holes · New South WalesGold drill-hole columns over the Northern Territory on a satellite mapData storyUnder the Northern TerritoryDrill holes · Northern TerritoryGold drill-hole columns over central Victoria on a satellite mapData storyUnder VictoriaDrill holes · VictoriaDrill holes coloured by year across western Tasmania on a satellite mapData storyUnder TasmaniaDrill holes · TasmaniaGold drill-hole columns over the Abitibi on a satellite map of QuébecData storyUnder QuébecDrill holes · QuébecDrill holes coloured by year across Finland and Sweden on a satellite mapData storyUnder the Nordic shieldDrill holes · Finland and SwedenUranium drill-hole columns over the Athabasca Basin on a satellite map of SaskatchewanData storyUnder SaskatchewanDrill holes · SaskatchewanPalladium drill intervals under farmland at Gonneville, Western Australia, in 3DData storyGonneville, hole by holeDiscovery replay · Western AustraliaA block of ground cut out under the Kalgoorlie Super Pit, its drill holes hanging beneath the satellite pictureData storyWhat's beneath your feet?Interactive 3D · anywhere

Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: The Big Hole by Rudolph Botha, CC BY-SA 3.0; Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Cerro Rico over Potosí by Jbmurray, CC BY-SA 4.0; Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0; Malachite on cobaltocalcite, Musonoi by Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sources

  1. Colorado Gold Rush Colorado Encyclopedia
  2. History of Broken Hill Broken Hill City Council
  3. Discovery Claim National Historic Site Parks Canada
  4. Gold Discoverers (Klondike Gold Rush NHP) US National Park Service
  5. Mines and Collieries Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 99), title UK National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
  6. The California Gold Rush (California National Historic Trail) US National Park Service
  7. Eureka Stockade (Golden Victoria, ErgoSlv) State Library Victoria

Pictures on this page: Wellcome Collection, public domain (Public domain); Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Potosi, Bolivia, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Dolcoath tin mine, Camborne, Cornwall: miners in a mine shaft, standing on wooden platforms connected by ladders. Photograph by J. C. Burrow, 1890/1910., Burrow, J. C., 1852-1914 (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Earth Observations taken by the Expedition 15 Crew, NASA JSC (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Kimberley, South Africa: the Kimberley mine and town. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Mijnramp Bois du Caizier, Marcinelle, België. Schacht, Rossem, Wim van / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Kirunavaara gruva, Kiruna., Fotograf okänd, / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); The laboratories of Marie and Pierre Curie, Paris: room where experiments on uranium ore took place. Photograph, ca. 1900., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Chiquicamata Mine, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Escondida Mine, Chile, NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Salar de Atacama, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); South Africa: a crowd of people gathered outside The Goldfields offices in Johannesburg. 1896., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Elektrisk malmletning. Undersökningar på Billiton, 1920., Okänd / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Kopermijn te Kolwezi in de provincie Shaba (Katanka), Mieremet, Rob / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); NASA's ASTER Shows Brazilian City After Dam Disaster, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Abraham Gesner Photo.png, Unknown author (Public domain); Abraham Gottlob Werner.jpg, Christian Leberecht Vogel (Public domain); Adolph Sutro by Brady.jpg, Mathew Benjamin Brady / Levin Corbin Handy (Public domain); Portrait of Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov 1745.jpg, Unknown author (CC BY-SA 4.0); Stieler, Joseph Karl - Alexander von Humboldt - 1843.jpg, Joseph Karl Stieler (Public domain); Alfred Beit00.jpg, Giovanni Boldini (Public domain); Alfred Chester Beatty.png, Unknown author (Public domain); AlfredNobel2.jpg, Unknown author (Public domain); Andrew Forrest (cropped).jpg, Chatham House (CC BY 2.0); Library of Congress, no known restrictions (Public domain); Library of Congress, no known restrictions (Public domain); Wellcome Collection, public domain (Public domain); Wellcome Collection, public domain (Public domain); Malachite on cobaltocalcite, Musonoi, Ji-Elle, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0); Library of Congress, no known restrictions (Public domain); Library of Congress, no known restrictions (Public domain); Library of Congress, no known restrictions (Public domain); Goudzoekers in Australië, een Australisch meisje met haar broertje, een zendingspost op Nieuw-Zeeland en een bisschop op een slee, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); A silver mine: miners digging. Wood engraving., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0).

Built from the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: 2,096 sources, each fact checked against a page that states it. Rows resting on restricted statistics are left out.