Prospector Trails
Every mine, person, rush, disaster and trade route in our sourced history dataset, on one globe. Drag the river of time below, or press play and watch 6,400 years of digging spread across the world.
Drag the globe to turn it. Tap any light for its story and its source.
The production river
Every ridge starts in 1900, the first year with world figures for all the metals, except UK coal (from 1913) and lithium (from 2000). Each ridge is scaled to its own peak, so read the shape: when each metal took off, and when it slowed. Hover or tap for the tonnes.
Rushes compared
Each rush on the same clock: gold output in the years after it began. Below, every figure the dataset holds for the six rushes it compares, from California in 1848 to the lithium boom of 2016.
1848
1897
1886
1851
1893
2016
The cost
Every disaster in the dataset with a recorded death toll since 1800, bar height by the square root of the deaths so the smaller ones still show. Laws and policies sit below the line; a curve joins a disaster to a law where the sources link them.
Where next
1,013 mines, people, events, places, routes, deposit types, minerals and countries, joined by 3,533 sourced links. Each link carries a line on why it matters. Pick a star to open its card and follow the threads.
The atlas as text
Everything on the globe, in order, with its source. Names open the same cards as the globe.
| Year | Event | Where | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1564 | Mercury mining begins at HuancavelicaDiscovery | Peru | Colonial cinnabar mining and refining began at Huancavelica in 1564. Robins and Hagan estimate that between 1564 and 1810 about 17,000 t of mercury vapour was emitted from smelting there. | 12 |
| 1570 | Mercury amalgamation adopted for Potosi silverInvention | Bolivia | Mercury amalgamation was first used industrially for silver in New Spain. The Andes adopted it in the early 1570s, using mercury from Huancavelica. Robins and Hagan estimate about 39,000 t of mercury was released as vapour in silver refining at Potosi. | 12 |
| 1842 | Mines and Collieries Act 1842Law or policy | United Kingdom | The Act prohibited the employment of women and girls in mines and collieries and regulated the employment of boys (long title). | 12 |
| 1848 | California gold rushRush | United States of America | Non-Indian population was about 14,000 when gold was found, nearly 100,000 by the end of 1849 and about 250,000 by 1852. The 1850 census counted 92,597 people. The Census Bureau estimates 750,000 pounds of gold were recovered in 1848 to 1855. | 1234 |
| 1848 | James Marshall finds gold at Sutter's sawmillDiscovery | United States of America | Marshall found a gold nugget in the tailrace of a sawmill he was building for John Sutter on the South Fork of the American River. Word leaked out and reached San Francisco in March 1848. | 123 |
| 1851 | Bathurst and Ophir gold rushRush | Australia | Edward Hargraves and partners found gold near Bathurst in 1851 after he returned from the Californian fields. Within a month a thousand men were looking for gold at the field named Ophir. | 12 |
| 1851 | Victorian gold rushRush | Australia | Gold was notified in the Yarra Ranges and the Pyrenees on 5 July 1851, soon after Hargraves found gold near Bathurst. The Mount Alexander, Ballarat and Bendigo fields followed. Between 1851 and 1861 an average of over 40,000 people a year reached Victoria. Victoria was the largest Australian gold producer for 47 years, until 1898. | 123 |
| 1854 | Eureka StockadeStrike or conflict · 28 deaths | Australia | Ballarat miners opposed the gold licence system. On 30 November 1854 about 500 gathered under the Eureka flag and elected Peter Lalor leader. On 3 December police and troops attacked the stockade. 125 miners were taken prisoner. | 12 |
| 1856 | Bessemer announces his steelmaking processInvention | United Kingdom | Henry Bessemer delivered his paper On the Manufacture of Iron and Steel without Fuel to the British Association meeting at Cheltenham in 1856. It set out the Bessemer process. He opened the Bessemer Steel Works in Sheffield in 1858. | 12 |
| 1858 | Fraser River gold rushRush | Canada | Gold was found in the Fraser River in 1857 and by 1858 it had become a full rush. The BC Legislature says many of the miners were American. Parks Canada puts the number of miners at about 30,000 and says Fort Langley became the centre of the rush. | 123 |
| 1858 | Pikes Peak (Colorado) gold rushRush | United States of America | The Russell brothers and their party found a little gold on Ralston Creek in the summer of 1858 and several towns including Auraria, Denver and Golden followed. Bigger finds came in January 1859 at Chicago Creek and Gold Hill, and John Gregory found lode gold near Black Hawk. As many as 100,000 people may have set out for the goldfields in 1859, but only about 40,000 reached Denver. About 10,000 were left in Colorado by early August 1859. | 12 |
| 1858 | Welcome Nugget found at BallaratRecord | Australia | Twenty-two Cornish miners of the Red Hill Mining Company found the 68.98 kg Welcome Nugget at Bakery Hill, Ballarat, about 55 metres underground. Geoscience Australia calls it the second largest gold nugget ever found. | 12 |
| 1859 | Comstock Lode strikesDiscovery | United States of America | In 1859 placer miners made two strikes of silver and gold ore near Virginia City, Nevada. The NPS calls it the first major silver strike in the United States. The BLM dates the discovery to June 1859. The population of Virginia City and Gold Hill grew from about 4,000 in 1862 to about 25,000 by 1874. | 123 |
| 1861 | Otago gold rushRush | New Zealand | Gabriel Read found gold in Gabriels Gully on 25 May 1861. The Department of Conservation calls it New Zealand's first major gold rush. Dunedin's population jumped and Otago became the wealthiest province. | 12 |
| 1869 | Welcome Stranger nugget foundRecord | Australia | Geoscience Australia says the largest gold nugget ever found was the Welcome Stranger, found in 1869 just under the soil at the base of a tree. It weighed about 70 kg. | 12 |
| 1871 | Kimberley diamond rushRush | South Africa | Digging at the Kimberley mine began in 1871 and ended on 14 August 1914. The mine yielded 2,722 kg of diamonds from 22.5 million tons of ground and left a hole 214 metres deep. | 12 |
| 1872 | General Mining Law of 1872Law or policy | United States of America | The General Mining Law of 10 May 1872 governs claims on federal land for locatable minerals. Under it lode claims can be bought at 5 dollars an acre and placer claims at 2.50 dollars an acre. The BLM guide still states those rates. | 12 |
| 1872 | Holtermann reef gold specimen unearthedRecord | Australia | A mass of reef gold weighing 286 kg, the largest specimen of its kind, came out of Bernhardt Holtermann's Star of Hope mine at Hill End on 19 October 1872. Photographers Merlin and Bayliss recorded it before it was crushed. | 12 |
| 1873 | Alluvial gold found at Pilgrim's RestDiscovery | South Africa | In 1873 Alec 'Wheelbarrow' Patterson found alluvial gold near what is now Pilgrim's Rest. He tried to keep it secret, but William Trafford made a similar find. | 12 |
| 1873 | Rio Tinto Company registered in LondonCompany founded | Spain | Spain decided in 1869 to sell the Rio Tinto mines. A group led by Hugh Matheson made the best offer, and the Rio Tinto Company was registered in London on 29 March 1873 with Matheson as chairman. | 12 |
| 1874 | Black Hills gold rushRush | United States of America | Lt Col George Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills in 1874 and expedition member Horatio N. Ross found gold at French Creek. The Treaty of 1868 had set the land aside as part of a Sioux reservation. Prospectors and supply towns followed. The Homestake claim was located near Lead in April 1876 and sold in 1877 to George Hearst and partners. | 12 |
| 1877 | Schieffelin finds silver at TombstoneRush | United States of America | Ed Schieffelin found silver in the San Pedro Valley in 1877. The NPS landmark file says Tombstone had 6,000 people in 1881 and perhaps 10,000 around 1885, making it the largest town in Arizona Territory. By 1884 the mines had produced 25 million dollars. | 12 |
| 1878 | Leadville silver boomRush | United States of America | Leadville had a few hundred residents at the start of 1878, when it was incorporated. By the end of 1879 it had about 30,000 people, nearly the size of Denver. The Little Pittsburg Mine, found by George Hook and August Rische, was the most notable discovery. | 12 |
| 1882 | Mount Morgan gold mining beginsDiscovery | Australia | Queensland says Mount Morgan was founded as a gold mining town in 1882 and mining continued until November 1990. It was the largest gold mine in Queensland in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with about 250 t of gold and 360,000 t of copper extracted. The work generated about 134 Mt of waste rock and tailings. | 12 |
| 1883 | Charles Rasp finds the Broken Hill orebodyDiscovery | Australia | Boundary rider Charles Rasp found what he thought was tin at Broken Hill in 1883. It proved to be silver and lead, and the Syndicate of Seven floated the Broken Hill Mining Company. | 12 |
| 1883 | Copper-bearing rock found during Canadian Pacific Railway works at SudburyDiscovery | Canada | Tom Flanagan, a blacksmith for the railway construction crew, noticed copper-bearing rock on a hillside in 1883. The find led to the Murray Mine. | 12 |
| 1884 | Barberton gold rushRush | South Africa | SAHO says Barberton was named after Henry Barber on 24 July 1884, after he and his cousin Fred found gold there. Tom McLachlan found the first traces of alluvial gold in the area in 1874. | 12 |
| 1885 | Broken Hill Proprietary Company formedCompany founded | Australia | The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) was formed in 1885 to work the Broken Hill orebody, according to the Broken Hill council history. | 12 |
| 1885 | Gold found in the Kimberley (Halls Creek)Discovery | Australia | The WA Museum says gold was first found in the Kimberley in 1885, but the venture was short-lived. A Southern Cross find followed in 1888. | 12 |
| 1886 | Gold found on the WitwatersrandDiscovery | South Africa | George Harrison is credited with the main reef find on the farm Langlaagte in July 1886. By August the unnamed camp had about 3,000 inhabitants. Nine farms were proclaimed public diggings on 8 September. Johannesburg was named on 3 October and the site declared on 4 October 1886. | 12 |
| 1886 | Hall and Heroult invent electrolytic aluminium smeltingInvention | United States of America | Hall produced his first pieces of metallic aluminium on 23 February 1886 and filed his patent on 9 July 1886. Heroult filed in France on 23 April 1886. The process is known as Hall-Heroult. | 12 |
| 1886 | Witwatersrand gold rushRush | South Africa | The Transvaal gold yield was valued at 11.65 million pounds in 1897, fell to 1.48 million in 1900 during the South African War, and reached 30.99 million in 1909. In 1909 that was about a third of the world total of 91.9 million pounds (computed from the ABS tables). | 123 |
| 1887 | Bulli Colliery explosionDisaster · 81 deaths | Australia | A gas explosion at Bulli Colliery on 23 March 1887 killed 81 men and boys. Only an unconscious boy was carried out alive. The Royal Commission blamed mine management and the miners for lax safety, citing miners who had removed the mesh from their lamps. The immediate cause was found to be an exposed Davy lamp or probably an overcharged shot. | 12 |
| 1887 | Cyanide process for gold developed in ScotlandInvention | United Kingdom | USGS says the process of concentrating gold with cyanide was developed in Scotland in 1887 and was used almost immediately on the Witwatersrand. The Johannesburg timeline records the MacArthur-Forrest process arriving there in May 1890, as surface diggings began to run out. | 123 |
| 1888 | De Beers Consolidated Mines foundedCompany founded | South Africa | South African History Online records De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd as founded on 13 March 1888 to control diamond production in South Africa. | 12 |
| 1888 | Tin mining starts at GreenbushesDiscovery | Australia | Edward Hardman reported tin at Greenbushes in 1886. David Stinton discovered a tin field in 1888, which brought alluvial miners. Talison describes the area as the longest continuously operated mining area in Western Australia. | 123 |
| 1889 | Hamilton Colliery roof fall at GlebeDisaster · 11 deaths | Australia | About 100 men were working in the Hamilton Pit at the Glebe mine, Merewether, when the roof, which had been creaking that morning, collapsed in an area where pillars were being removed. Eleven workers were entombed. The rescue took almost 10 weeks, and some of the men died from injuries and suffocation and some from starvation. | 12 |
| 1890 | Cripple Creek gold rushRush | United States of America | Robert Womack filed a gold claim near Cripple Creek in 1886 but found no investors during the silver boom. In October 1890 he took ore samples for assay in Colorado Springs. The mining district was organized in 1891, and Winfield Scott Stratton became its first millionaire when he staked the Independence Mine on 4 July. By 1990 the district had yielded more than 23 million ounces of gold. | 12 |
| 1890 | LKAB foundedCompany founded | Sweden | Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB was founded on 18 December 1890 on the initiative of Robert Schough, who had claimed deposits at Kiruna. Hjalmar Lundbohm became the first managing director. | 12 |
| 1892 | Bayley and Ford find gold at CoolgardieDiscovery | Australia | Bayley and Ford found gold at Fly Flat. Bayley took 554 ounces to the warden at Southern Cross. Bayley's Reward later produced over 500,000 ounces over about 70 years. | 1234 |
| 1893 | Hannan finds gold at KalgoorlieRush | Australia | Hannan and Flanagan found gold in June 1893 at Mount Charlotte, nine months after Coolgardie. Alluvial gold had been found at Goongarrie in May 1893. Western Australian output reached 1,703,417 fine ounces in 1901 and a peak of 2,064,803 in 1903. WA passed Victoria as the top Australian producer in 1898. | 123 |
| 1895 | South Broken Hill silver mine airblastDisaster · 9 deaths | Australia | On 18 July 1895 ground gave way after the underground manager had ordered men out of the stopes at the South Broken Hill mine. The fall created an airblast that killed eight workers, and a ninth died of his injuries the next day. The general manager had thought it almost impossible for creep to occur because the mine was so extensively timbered. | 12 |
| 1896 | Gold found on Rabbit (Bonanza) CreekDiscovery | Canada | Parks Canada dates the find to the afternoon of 16 August 1896; its history text says the party found gold and staked four claims on 17 August. Accounts differ on who deserves credit. Skookum Jim is generally held to be the discoverer. | 123 |
| 1897 | Ashanti Goldfields listed and Obuasi openedCompany founded | Ghana | Edwin Cade listed Ashanti Goldfields Corporation on the London Stock Exchange on 11 June 1897 and set up operations at Obuasi on 24 December that year. The mine yielded 2,544 ounces in its first year and 4,673 ounces in the second. | 12 |
| 1897 | Klondike gold rushRush | Canada | The SS Portland reached Seattle in July 1897 with over a ton of gold, and thousands set out. Between 1897 and 1900 more than 100,000 people started the journey. No more than 40,000 reached Dawson City. Canada's gold yield rose from 1.24 million pounds in 1897 to 5.74 million in 1900. | 123 |
| 1898 | Dudley Colliery explosionDisaster · 15 deaths | Australia | An explosion at 9.20 am on 21 March 1898 killed 15 mineworkers at Dudley Colliery in the Redhead area of Newcastle. The mine employed 292 workers and had produced about 77,000 tonnes in 1897. It was considered dry and dusty. | 12 |
| 1898 | Nome gold rushRush | United States of America | The NPS dates the gold discovery at Anvil Creek to 20 September 1898, the first large placer strike in Alaska proper. In 1899 miners found gold in the sand of Nome Beach. The NPS says upwards of 20,000 gold hunters were in Nome. From 1898 to 1907 nearly 50 million dollars in gold came from the Seward Peninsula, about 75 percent of it from streams in the Nome region. | 12 |
| 1900 | Balmain Colliery shaft bucket accidentDisaster · 5 deaths | Australia | On 17 March 1900 a bucket carrying six men down the roughly 500 m deep shaft of the Balmain Colliery in inner-west Sydney hit a bunting at about 350 m. Five of the men fell to their deaths and one, William Watkins, held on and survived. | 12 |
| 1900 | Greta Colliery fireDisaster · 5 deaths | Australia | A fire at Greta Colliery on 5 December 1900 killed five men. Seven earlier gob fires at the mine had caused no deaths. The pit was sealed the next afternoon, and remains of two of the men were recovered in early 1902. | 12 |
| 1901 | Broken Hill South Mine rock fallDisaster · 6 deaths | Australia | A rock fall at the Broken Hill South Mine on 24 May 1901 killed six mine workers. The mine produced lead and silver by stoping. | 12 |
| 1902 | Broken Hill Central Mine falls of earthDisaster · 2 deaths | Australia | At about 3 am on 8 October 1902 falls of earth at the Broken Hill Central Mine killed two miners. The lode was up to 300 feet wide and the lowest levels were 800 feet below the surface. Gradual shrinkage of the filled mullock caused creep. | 12 |
| 1902 | Mount Kembla coal mine explosionDisaster · 96 deaths | Australia | A roof fall in a goaf pushed air and methane into the main tunnel of the Mount Kembla mine on 31 July 1902. The blast stirred up coal dust. Of 261 men underground, 96 died, including two rescuers who were overcome by gas. A royal commission sat in 1903. | 12 |
| 1903 | Cobalt silver rushRush | Canada | Silver was found on the shores of Cobalt Lake in the summer of 1903. Within a few years Cobalt was one of the largest silver producers in the world, with 333 million ounces (more than 10,000 t) from 100 mines by 1922. | 12 |
| 1903 | Goldfields Water Supply Scheme opensInvention | Australia | The scheme pumped water 566 km from Mundaring Weir to Mount Charlotte Reservoir at Kalgoorlie, lifting it 390 metres over the Darling Scarp. Work began in 1898. It opened at Coolgardie on 22 January 1903 and at Mount Charlotte on 24 January. | 123 |
| 1905 | Cullinan diamond foundRecord | South Africa | On 26 January 1905 the manager of the Premier mine, Captain Frederick Wells, found a 3,106 carat diamond near the rim of the pit. It was named after Sir Thomas Cullinan, the company chairman. The two largest stones cut from it, Cullinan I and II, weigh 530 and 317 carats. | 12 |
| 1905 | Stanford Merthyr fire and explosionsDisaster · 6 deaths | Australia | A fire was found at 2 am on 29 October 1905 at Stanford Merthyr, near Kurri Kurri, when no one was underground. At 11.30 am, while the main tunnel was being sealed, an explosion killed six people, including company director Henry J Adams. A second explosion hurt no one. The inquest jury found gas from the fire had met a flame but could not show how the fire began. | 12 |
| 1906 | Courrieres coal mine disasterDisaster · 1,099 deaths | France | A fire and then an explosion in the Courrieres mines in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais coalfield killed 1,099 people by the official count. It remains the worst industrial accident of its kind in Europe. | 12 |
| 1906 | Union Miniere du Haut Katanga createdCompany founded | Dem. Rep. Congo | Gecamines dates Union Miniere du Haut Katanga to a royal decree of King Leopold II on 28 October 1906. It came from a merger of a Leopold company with Tanganyika Concessions. | 12 |
| 1907 | Darr mine explosionDisaster · 239 deaths | United States of America | An explosion at the Darr mine in Pennsylvania in December 1907 killed 239 miners. It was part of the month known as Bloody December, when 703 miners died in five US coal mine explosions. | 12 |
| 1907 | Monongah mine explosionDisaster · 361 deaths | United States of America | An explosion at the Fairmont Coal Company mines No. 6 and 8 killed at least 361 men. It is described as the worst mining disaster in US history. The cause was never proven. The US Bureau of Mines was created in 1910, and 6 December became National Miners Day in 2009. | 123 |
| 1907 | Peak year for US coal mining deathsRecord · 3,242 deaths | United States of America | MSHA records 3,242 coal mining deaths in the United States in 1907, the highest year in its series from 1900. | 12 |
| 1907 | Santa Maria School massacre, IquiqueStrike or conflict | Chile | Nitrate workers who had struck and gathered in Iquique were fired on by troops on General Silva Renard's order on 21 December 1907. | 12 |
| 1909 | Cherry mine fireDisaster · 259 deaths | United States of America | On 13 November 1909 a car of hay for the mules was left under a lit oil torch in the Cherry mine in Illinois. The hay caught fire shortly after 1 pm. 481 men and boys had gone down that morning, and 259 died. | 123 |
| 1911 | Coal Mines Act 1911Law or policy | United Kingdom | The UK Parliament passed the Coal Mines Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. 5 c. 50), a consolidating statute for coal mine regulation. | 12 |
| 1913 | Haber-Bosch process comes onlineInvention | Germany | The Haber-Bosch process for ammonia started operating in 1913. In the First World War the British Navy blocked Germany's access to Chilean nitrates, and Germany used synthetic ammonia to make explosives. | 12 |
| 1913 | Senghenydd colliery disasterDisaster · 439 deaths | United Kingdom | An explosion at the Universal Colliery killed 439 miners. It was the worst mining disaster in the history of the British coalfields. A Government inquiry followed. | 123 |
| 1913 | Stag Canon No. 2 mine explosionDisaster · 263 deaths | United States of America | An explosion at the Stag Canon No. 2 mine at Dawson, New Mexico, killed 263 workers in October 1913. Fourteen miners escaped and nine were rescued from the bottom of the air shaft. NIOSH says the cause was an overcharged shot in a dusty pillar section. | 123 |
| 1914 | Kimberley Big Hole stops workClosure | South Africa | Work at the Kimberley mine stopped in August 1914 after 43 years. SAHO dates it to 4 August and Kimberley City Info to 14 August. The Big Hole is 214 m deep and the mine yielded 2,722 kg of diamonds from 22.5 million tons of earth. SAHO says the mine reached 1,083 m depth of workings. | 123 |
| 1914 | Ludlow MassacreStrike or conflict · 21 deaths | United States of America | National Guardsmen aligned with the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company attacked the Ludlow tent colony during a UMWA strike. The attack killed 21 people, including 11 children, and set off ten days of fighting. | 12 |
| 1917 | Anglo American foundedCompany founded | South Africa | Ernest Oppenheimer founded Anglo American in 1917, with funding from the United States and the UK. In 1926 it became the largest single shareholder in De Beers, and Oppenheimer became De Beers chairman in 1929. | 12 |
| 1917 | Granite Mountain shaft fire at ButteDisaster · 163 deaths | United States of America | A fire in the Granite Mountain shaft of the Butte copper mines on 8 June 1917 killed 163 miners, according to the MSHA list of metal and nonmetal mine disasters. | 12 |
| 1920 | Mineral Leasing ActLaw or policy | United States of America | The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 provided for leasing, rather than claiming, of oil, gas, coal and non-energy minerals such as phosphates and sodium on US public lands. It requires a royalty on amounts mined and sold. | 12 |
| 1921 | Battle of Blair MountainStrike or conflict | United States of America | Union miners marched through the southern West Virginia coalfields. In late August 1921 they met mine guards on Blair Mountain in Logan County, and fighting began on 30 August after a dawn patrol skirmish. | 12 |
| 1927 | Bayan Obo iron deposit foundDiscovery | China | USGS says the Bayan Obo deposit was first found as an iron deposit in 1927 and later recognised as a polymetallic iron-rare earth-niobium deposit. It is described as the world's largest known rare earth ore deposit and holds at least 1,500 Mt of iron reserves. | 12 |
| 1930 | Hawks Nest Tunnel silicosis disasterDisaster · 764 deaths | United States of America | Construction of a three-mile tunnel through Gauley Mountain began in 1930. Dry drilling through almost pure silica gave workers silicosis. NPS says at least 764 died and a majority of the dead were African American. | 12 |
| 1934 | Gold Reserve Act signedLaw or policy | United States of America | President Roosevelt signed the Gold Reserve Act on 30 January 1934. People and institutions handed in gold and were paid at 35 dollars an ounce, which cut the dollar's gold value to 59 percent of the 20.67 dollar rate set in 1900. | 12 |
| 1934 | Gresford colliery explosionDisaster · 265 deaths | United Kingdom | An explosion at about 2 am on 22 September 1934 in a section of the Gresford pit killed 265 men according to the 1937 Commons motion. A commission sat from 5 October to mid-December 1934. | 12 |
| 1935 | Construction of Norilsk combine beginsCompany founded | Russia | A Soviet decree of 23 June 1935 launched construction of the Norilsk nickel complex. Between 1935 and 1953 about a third of a million Gulag prisoners built and worked it. The area holds more than a third of the world's nickel reserves and about 40 percent of platinum reserves, the chapter states. | 123 |
| 1938 | Commonwealth bans iron ore exportsLaw or policy | Australia | The Commonwealth government embargoed all iron ore exports in 1938, as an attempt to protect national interests against a militaristic Japan. The Yampi Sound Mining Company had announced in 1936 an intention to supply Japan. | 12 |
| 1942 | Benxihu colliery explosionDisaster · 1,549 deaths | China | A gas and coal dust explosion at the Benxihu (Honkeiko) mine in Liaoning on 26 April 1942 killed an estimated 1,549 miners. Mine managers are reported to have sealed parts of the mine and shut down the ventilation to contain the fire. | 123 |
| 1942 | Congo uranium ore bought for the Manhattan ProjectLaw or policy | Dem. Rep. Congo | The Manhattan Project history says Edgar Sengier of Union Miniere offered ore from Shinkolobwe in March 1942. In early September Colonel Kenneth Nichols met him and moved to buy the 1,200 tons stored on Staten Island. By the end of the year the Army had also bought about 3,000 tons of ore in the Congo. | 123 |
| 1944 | Bretton Woods conferenceLaw or policy | United States of America | Delegates from 44 nations met at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in July 1944. They agreed to set up the IMF and the World Bank. Currencies were fixed to the dollar, and the dollar was fixed to gold at 35 dollars an ounce. | 123 |
| 1946 | African mine workers' strike on the WitwatersrandStrike or conflict · 9 deaths | South Africa | The African Mine Workers' Union, led by J. B. Marks, called a strike from 12 August 1946. The government's Director of Native Labour counted 75,000 strikers, but SAHO says the number was probably nearer 100,000. Police and soldiers drove them back to work. Officially 9 were killed and 1,248 wounded. | 123 |
| 1947 | Centralia No. 5 mine explosionDisaster · 111 deaths | United States of America | An explosion at Centralia No. 5 mine in Illinois killed 111 miners. Eight were rescued and 24 escaped. NIOSH says a poorly stemmed shot using coal dust is the believed cause. | 123 |
| 1947 | Materials ActLaw or policy | United States of America | The Materials Act of 1947 provides for the disposal of mining materials on US public lands, both saleable and leasable. Under it common varieties such as sand and gravel are sold rather than rented or royalty-bearing. From 1955 common varieties of sand, gravel, stone, pumice and cinders were taken out of the Mining Law and placed under this Act. | 12 |
| 1951 | Orient No. 2 mine explosionDisaster · 119 deaths | United States of America | An explosion at Orient No. 2 mine in West Frankfort, Illinois killed 119 of the 256 miners underground. NIOSH says an open ventilation door let methane flow from old panels to an active section. | 123 |
| 1952 | Bolivia nationalises the tin minesNationalisation | Bolivia | After the April 1952 revolution the government nationalised the three largest tin companies, Patino, Hochschild and Aramayo, and set up COMIBOL (created 2 October 1952). Medium mines were left untouched and compensation was promised. | 123 |
| 1952 | Lang Hancock spots iron ore in the Hamersley RangeDiscovery | Australia | Hancock spotted a black outcrop of iron ore while flying over the Hamersley Range above the Turner River and Boolgeeda Creek. | 123 |
| 1955 | Mir kimberlite pipe found in YakutiaDiscovery | Russia | The Mir kimberlite pipe was discovered on 13 June 1955 in the Yakutsk diamondiferous province. | 12 |
| 1956 | Bois du Cazier fire at MarcinelleDisaster · 262 deaths | Belgium | A fire at the Bois du Cazier coal mine at Marcinelle on 8 August 1956 killed 262 miners. Only 13 got out alive. An oil line ran between power cables, which helped cause the fire. The trial court acquitted all the accused on 1 October 1959. | 1234 |
| 1960 | Coalbrook colliery collapseDisaster · 437 deaths | South Africa | About 900 pillars at the Clydesdale colliery at Coalbrook in the northern Free State collapsed on 21 January 1960. The Heritage Portal says 437 miners were buried alive about 180 m down. The rescue effort failed. | 12 |
| 1960 | Iron ore export embargo liftedLaw or policy | Australia | The Commonwealth lifted the iron ore export embargo in 1960. Hancock then worked to attract national and international interest in the Pilbara. In 1963 he and Peter Wright signed a royalty deal of 2.5 per cent of the value of ore mined with Hamersley Iron. | 123 |
| 1961 | London Gold Pool formedLaw or policy | United Kingdom | Eight central banks formed the London Gold Pool on 1 November 1961 to hold the gold price at 35 dollars an ounce. After a run on gold, the pool collapsed in March 1968 and the seven remaining members moved to a two-tier system. | 12 |
| 1966 | Aberfan disasterDisaster · 144 deaths | United Kingdom | A colliery tip slid onto Pantglas Junior School and houses, killing 144 people, 116 of them children. A Tribunal appointed on 26 October 1966 under Lord Justice Edmund Davies found that blame rested upon the National Coal Board. Its report (HC 553) was debated in the Commons on 26 October 1967. | 123 |
| 1966 | Asbestos mining at Wittenoom endsClosure | Australia | Mining at Wittenoom Gorge in the Pilbara ran from 1933 to 1966. At peak production in 1962 asbestos was the fourth most valuable mined product in Western Australia, after gold, iron and coal. | 123 |
| 1966 | Lithium brine production begins at Clayton ValleyInvention | United States of America | USGS says the earliest lithium production from brine was in 1938 as a by-product at Searles Lake, California. The larger Clayton Valley deposit in Nevada began production in 1966. | 12 |
| 1966 | Nickel sulphides found at KambaldaDiscovery | Australia | Western Mining Corporation explorers were told in 1964 that nickel was in rocks around Kambalda. Nickel sulphides were discovered in 1966 and production began the following year. | 12 |
| 1967 | De Beers finds the Orapa kimberliteDiscovery | Botswana | De Beers geologists found Botswana's first diamond-bearing kimberlite on 1 March 1967. On 25 April the same team found the Orapa pipe. | 12 |
| 1967 | Union Miniere nationalised as GecaminesNationalisation | Dem. Rep. Congo | Gecamines says Union Miniere du Haut Katanga was nationalised in 1967 by the state. | 12 |
| 1968 | Consol No. 9 mine explosion at FarmingtonDisaster · 78 deaths | United States of America | An explosion at the Consol No. 9 mine at Farmington, West Virginia on 20 November 1968 killed 78 men. Ninety-nine miners were underground and 21 escaped. The mine was sealed on 30 November, and 19 victims remain entombed. The cause was never determined. | 123 |
| 1969 | De Beers Botswana Mining Company formedCompany founded | Botswana | The De Beers Botswana Mining Company was incorporated on 23 June 1969. It became a 50:50 partnership of the government and De Beers in 1975 and was renamed Debswana in 1992. | 12 |
| 1969 | Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act signedLaw or policy | United States of America | President Nixon signed the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 on 30 December 1969. | 12 |
| 1969 | Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969Law or policy | United Kingdom | The Act (chapter 10) covers the security of tips associated with mines and quarries. | 12 |
| 1969 | Poseidon nickel share boomPrice shock | Australia | Poseidon shares were about 0.80 dollars in early September 1969. After drilling at Windarra, they closed at a peak of 278 dollars on 13 February 1970. The RBA paper calls it an asset-price bubble. Mining shares fell through 1970 and 1971, and Poseidon delisted in 1976. | 12 |
| 1969 | Windarra and Mount Keith nickel foundDiscovery | Australia | The State Library exhibition lists Windarra and Mount Keith as discovered in 1969 and Forrestania in 1971. | 12 |
| 1969 | Zambia takes 51 percent of the copper minesNationalisation | Zambia | After the Mulungushi reforms of April 1968, Zambia took a 51 percent stake in the two main copper groups, Roan Selection Trust and Rhodesian Anglo American, in 1969. ZCCM-IH gives completion dates of 26 June 1970 (Anglo American group) and 16 August 1970 (RST). | 123 |
| 1970 | Mining and Minerals Policy ActLaw or policy | United States of America | The Mining and Mineral Policy Act of 1970 declares it federal policy to foster and encourage private enterprise in a stable domestic minerals industry and the orderly and economic development of domestic mineral resources. It covers all minerals, including sand and gravel, geothermal, coal, and oil and gas. | 12 |
| 1971 | Chile nationalises large copper miningNationalisation | Chile | Allende proposed a constitutional amendment on 21 December 1970. Congress passed it on 11 July 1971 and it became law five days later. Law 17,450 declared the large foreign-owned copper companies, mainly Kennecott and Anaconda, wholly state owned. Codelco was formed on 1 April 1976. | 1234 |
| 1971 | Kimberlite pipes found at JwanengDiscovery | Botswana | Debswana records the discovery of the diamond-bearing pipes D/K2 and D/K7 at Jwaneng in March 1971. The mine was officially opened on 14 August 1982. | 12 |
| 1971 | Nixon ends dollar convertibility into goldLaw or policy | United States of America | Nixon announced the New Economic Policy on 15 August 1971. The dollar had been fixed at $35 an ounce of gold. The policy closed the gold window and the Bretton Woods system ended in the following years. | 12 |
| 1971 | Orapa mine officially openedCompany founded | Botswana | Orapa mine was officially opened on 1 July 1971 by President Sir Seretse Khama. | 12 |
| 1972 | Sunshine silver mine fireDisaster · 91 deaths | United States of America | A fire at the Sunshine silver mine near Kellogg, Idaho on 2 May 1972 killed 91 men. MSHA lists it as the deadliest US metal and nonmetal mine disaster since 1940. | 12 |
| 1974 | Marc Rich + Co AG establishedCompany founded | Switzerland | Glencore says it was founded in 1974 as Marc Rich + Co AG, initially marketing ferro-alloys, and was renamed Glencore after a management buyout from Marc Rich in 1993. | 12 |
| 1975 | Olympic Dam drill hole RD1Discovery | Australia | Drill hole RD1, drilled in 1975, intersected 38 metres averaging 1.0 per cent copper between 353 and 391 metres depth. | 12 |
| 1976 | Scotia mine explosionsDisaster · 26 deaths | United States of America | Two explosions hit the Scotia mine in Kentucky. The first, on 9 March 1976, killed 15 of 116 miners underground. The second, on 11 March during recovery work, killed 11 of 13 workers underground, including several inspectors. | 123 |
| 1978 | Shaba invasions trigger a cobalt market panicPrice shock | Dem. Rep. Congo | Insurgents based in Angola invaded Shaba (Katanga) in 1977 and 1978 and occupied Kolwezi. USGS says this led to a panic in the cobalt market. The USGS director later wrote that guerrilla activity in Shaba made cobalt prices rise precipitously. | 123 |
| 1979 | Argyle diamond pipe AK1 foundDiscovery | Australia | The AK1 pipe was found in October 1979 after prospectors followed diamonds from Smoke Creek. Alluvial mining began in 1983, open pit in 1985 and underground in 2013. | 123 |
| 1980 | Silver price collapse after the Hunt silver squeezePrice shock | United States of America | On 28 March 1980 the CFTC voted not to use its emergency powers to suspend silver futures trading as prices plummeted. | 12 |
| 1981 | Escondida porphyry copper foundDiscovery | Chile | A participant's column says Utah International began exploration in the Quebrada Escondida, south-east of Antofagasta, in 1981. Drill hole 23 was decisive, hitting secondary enrichment with chalcocite and bornite below 300 m of barren cover. | 12 |
| 1982 | Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines formedMerger | Zambia | The two state-controlled copper companies were merged into Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Limited (ZCCM) on 25 March 1982. All its operating divisions had been privatised by 2000. | 12 |
| 1983 | Greenbushes lithium production beginsCompany founded | Australia | Talison says Greenbushes and its predecessor companies have produced lithium minerals since 1983. Exploration in the 1970s found a 5 km pegmatite with tin, tantalum and spodumene. A tantalum market only existed after the 1905 invention of the tantalum filament lamp. | 1234 |
| 1984 | Wilberg mine fireDisaster · 27 deaths | United States of America | A fire at the Wilberg mine in Emery County, Utah on 19 December 1984 killed 27 men, according to MSHA. | 12 |
| 1985 | International Tin Council collapsePrice shock | United Kingdom | The International Tin Agreement ran out of money and stopped market support on 24 October 1985, having borrowed over 900 million pounds. The London Metal Exchange suspended tin trading and the tin price fell to about half its previous level. | 123 |
| 1989 | Panguna mine haltedClosure | Papua New Guinea | Production at Panguna was halted on 15 May 1989 by militant activity and the mine has stayed closed. In 17 years it produced concentrate with 3 Mt of copper, 306 tonnes of gold and 784 tonnes of silver, worth K5.2 billion, about 44 per cent of PNG's exports in that period. | 12 |
| 1991 | Diamonds found at Lac de GrasDiscovery | Canada | In November 1991 geologists Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson found 81 small diamonds at Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories. The government says it set off the greatest diamond staking rush in North American history. By 2004 claims covered more than 28 million hectares in the NWT and Nunavut. | 12 |
| 1991 | South Bulli Colliery gas outburstDisaster · 3 deaths | Australia | On 24 July 1991 three mine workers were asphyxiated by carbon dioxide from an outburst at the coalface at South Bulli Colliery near Wollongong, shortly after roof supports were installed and cutting resumed. | 12 |
| 1992 | Giant Mine strike explosionStrike or conflict · 9 deaths | Canada | During a labour strike at Giant Mine in Yellowknife in 1992, a deliberately set explosion killed nine miners. | 12 |
| 1992 | Summitville mine environmental crisisEnvironment | United States of America | The Summitville gold mine in Colorado was the focus of extensive public attention in 1992 and 1993 for environmental problems. USGS says it catalysed national debate on rules for mining on public lands. | 12 |
| 1992 | Westray mine explosionDisaster · 26 deaths | Canada | At 5:20 am the Westray mine in Plymouth, Pictou County, exploded and killed the 26 miners underground. Justice Peter Richard led the public inquiry and described a story of incompetence and mismanagement. | 12 |
| 1995 | RTZ and CRA form a dual listed groupMerger | United Kingdom | The RTZ Corporation PLC merged with ConZinc RioTinto of Australia (CRA) in 1995 to form RTZ-CRA, in a dual listed company structure across the UK and Australia. | 12 |
| 1996 | Gretley Colliery inrushDisaster · 4 deaths | Australia | On 14 November 1996 water from the long-abandoned Young Wallsend Colliery burst through the face at Gretley Colliery and drowned four men. A 35 to 50 tonne continuous miner was swept 17.5 m. The inquiry found plan errors of 100 to 200 m and that the 50 m borehole rule was widely assumed to cover them. The Department of Mineral Resources, the mine operator and the surveyor all failed to confirm the plan's accuracy. | 12 |
| 1999 | Giant Mine passes to the federal governmentClosure | Canada | Royal Oak Mines went into receivership in 1999 and Giant Mine was transferred to the federal department INAC. Over about 50 years of operation the mine produced 237,000 t of arsenic trioxide waste. | 123 |
| 1999 | Northparkes block cave air blastDisaster · 4 deaths | Australia | At about 2.50 pm on 24 November 1999 about 5.5 million cubic metres of rock fell into the void of the Northparkes copper and gold mine, creating an air blast that killed four workers. About 65 people were underground. The Coroner found production took precedence and the air gap guidelines for block caving had not been followed. | 12 |
| 2000 | Baia Mare cyanide spillEnvironment | Romania | A breach about 25 metres long and 2.5 metres deep in the Aurul tailings dam released about 100,000 cubic metres of tailings water containing cyanide. The spill reached the Lapus river and travelled on to the Somes, Tisza and Danube. | 12 |
| 2000 | DRC cobalt boomRush | Dem. Rep. Congo | DRC cobalt mine output rose from 11,000 t in 2000 to 98,000 t in 2020, according to a USGS study. Cobalt demand for batteries grew 26-fold over the same years. Artisanal output peaked around 2008 at 40 to 53 percent of DRC output and was 9 to 11 percent by 2020. | 123 |
| 2001 | Sullivan mine closesClosure | Canada | The Sullivan lead-zinc mine at Kimberley, British Columbia closed on 21 December 2001. Sulphide showings were found in 1892, Cominco bought the property in 1909 and the mine produced continuously from 1900. | 12 |
| 2002 | BHP leaves Ok Tedi after river damage claimsEnvironment | Papua New Guinea | Landowners sued BHP in 1994 over mine waste in the Ok Tedi and Fly rivers. A 1996 settlement followed. In February 2002 BHP Billiton withdrew from the mine and moved its 52 percent stake to the PNG Sustainable Development Program. | 12 |
| 2002 | Berkeley Pit cleanup settlementEnvironment | United States of America | The US and Montana announced an 87 million dollar settlement with ARCO and five other companies to control acidic, arsenic and metal-bearing mine drainage in the Berkeley Pit at Butte. | 12 |
| 2002 | Mountain Pass mining stopsClosure | United States of America | Mine production at Mountain Pass, California began in 1952 and was discontinued from 2002 to 2011 because of low rare earth prices and environmental permitting issues, USGS says. | 12 |
| 2003 | Kimberley Process Certification Scheme comes into forceLaw or policy | Switzerland | After two years of talks the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was launched and signed by 37 participants at Interlaken, Switzerland. It came into force in 2003. | 12 |
| 2004 | Kiruna relocation announcedEnvironment | Sweden | LKAB and the municipality announced the relocation of Kiruna in 2004. The project moves much of the town about 3 km east. A municipal officer said the new city centre opened on 22 November 2018 and that the old centre would move in 2022. | 123 |
| 2006 | Sago mine explosionDisaster · 12 deaths | United States of America | An explosion at the Sago mine in Upshur County, West Virginia on 2 January 2006 killed 12 miners, according to MSHA. | 12 |
| 2007 | Wittenoom removed from official mapsClosure | Australia | From 1978 the WA government phased down the Wittenoom townsite because of the risk from airborne asbestos fibres. Power was cut in 2006 and the town was degazetted in June 2007. | 12 |
| 2010 | China cuts rare earth export quotaLaw or policy | China | China allocated 7,976 t for the second tranche of its 2010 rare earth export quota in July 2010, against 26,427 t for the second tranche of 2009. USGS puts the full 2010 quota 37.1 percent below 2009. Actual exports in 2010 were 20,258 t, down 40 percent on 2009. | 123 |
| 2010 | Copiapo San Jose mine collapse and rescueDisaster | Chile | A collapse at the San Jose mine near Copiapo on 5 August 2010 trapped 33 miners about 700 m underground. All were brought out alive by 13 October 2010, after 69 days. | 123 |
| 2010 | Pike River coal mine explosionDisaster · 29 deaths | New Zealand | The first explosion at 3:45 pm on 19 November 2010 killed 29 men. The Royal Commission found the company's health and safety systems inadequate and criticised the Department of Labour. It made 16 principal recommendations. | 12 |
| 2010 | Upper Big Branch mine explosionDisaster · 29 deaths | United States of America | At about 3:02 pm a coal dust explosion that began as a methane ignition killed 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine-South in Montcoal, West Virginia, run by Performance Coal Company, a Massey Energy subsidiary. MSHA blamed unlawful company practices. | 12 |
| 2011 | Glencore lists in LondonCompany founded | United Kingdom | Glencore listed on the London Stock Exchange on 24 May 2011. | 12 |
| 2011 | Lynas starts Mount Weld concentrate productionCompany founded | Australia | Lynas began producing rare earth concentrates at its Mount Weld carbonatite complex in Western Australia in 2011, USGS says. Shipments were delayed until 2013 while the processing plant in Malaysia was commissioned. | 12 |
| 2012 | Marikana killingsStrike or conflict · 34 deaths | South Africa | Police shot and killed 34 striking mineworkers near the Lonmin mine at Marikana. The Farlam Commission sat from 1 October 2012 to 14 November 2014 and delivered its report on 31 March 2015. It found Lonmin had failed to engage with workers. | 12 |
| 2012 | Molycorp commissions new Mountain Pass operationsCompany founded | United States of America | In 2012 Molycorp commissioned new mine and processing operations at Mountain Pass with a planned capacity of 19,000 t a year of rare earth oxides. The plan was never fully realised. After rare earth prices fell, Molycorp idled the mine in 2015. | 12 |
| 2012 | WTO dispute over China's rare earth export restrictionsLaw or policy | China | The United States asked for WTO consultations on China's export duties, quotas and licensing for rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum. The EU and Japan filed parallel cases and a panel was set up on 23 July 2012. Findings are not on the opened page. | 12 |
| 2013 | Glencore completes merger with XstrataMerger | Switzerland | Glencore completed its merger with Xstrata on 2 May 2013. | 12 |
| 2013 | Manefay landslides at Bingham CanyonDisaster | United States of America | On 10 April 2013 two landslides carried about 145 Mt of waste rock into the bottom of the Bingham Canyon pit in Utah. The Utah Geological Survey calls them the largest mining-induced landslides in history. No one was hurt, and the damage ran to hundreds of millions of dollars. | 12 |
| 2014 | Mount Polley tailings dam breachDisaster | Canada | The tailings storage facility breached on 4 August 2014. The independent panel reported on 30 January 2015 and found a weak glaciolacustrine layer in the foundation. About 10 million cubic metres of water was in the pool at failure. | 12 |
| 2014 | Soma coal mine disasterDisaster · 301 deaths | Turkey | A fire and explosion at the Eynez mine in Soma killed 301 miners, mostly by carbon monoxide poisoning. It is the worst mining disaster in Turkish history. Trials ran for years. | 12 |
| 2015 | Fundao tailings dam collapse at MarianaDisaster · 19 deaths | Brazil | The Fundao tailings dam at the Samarco iron ore operation failed in November 2015. The Guardian says 19 people died. The London Mining Network reports the dam held 56.4 million cubic metres of tailings after seven years of use. | 123 |
| 2016 | 2016 to 2023 lithium boomRush | Australia | USGS records the US annual average battery-grade lithium carbonate price rising from 8,650 dollars a tonne in 2016 to 15,000 in 2017. Prices later peaked in 2022 and fell in 2023. Western Australia's lithium sales rose from 8.0 billion Australian dollars in 2021-22 to 20.9 billion in 2022-23. | 1234 |
| 2019 | Brumadinho dam collapseDisaster · 270 deaths | Brazil | The tailings dam at the Corrego do Feijao iron ore mine collapsed in 2019 and killed 270 people, according to IndustriALL via the Business and Human Rights Centre. Exact day not on the opened page. | 12 |
| 2020 | Argyle diamond mine ends miningClosure | Australia | Rio Tinto marked the final day of mining at Argyle on 3 November 2020, after more than 865 million carats of rough diamonds. | 12 |
| 2020 | Hpakant jade mine landslideDisaster · 174 deaths | Myanmar | A lake formed by monsoon rain burst through mining waste in Kachin State and swept away informal miners who were scavenging the waste. | 12 |
| 2020 | Indonesia bans nickel ore exportsLaw or policy | Indonesia | Indonesia banned exports of nickel ore in January 2020 to push miners to sell to domestic processors. USGS says the ban was reinstated two years earlier than announced. The EU challenged it at the WTO (DS592). | 1234 |
| 2020 | Juukan Gorge rock shelters destroyedEnvironment | Australia | Rio Tinto blasted the Juukan Gorge rock shelters in the Pilbara in May 2020 to expand the Brockman 4 iron ore mine. ABC says the shelters showed 46,000 years of continuous human habitation. The destruction was legal under section 18 of WA's Aboriginal Heritage Act. Rio Tinto's board review in August 2020 cut executive bonuses. | 1234 |
| 2022 | Leo Lithium lists on the ASXCompany founded | Australia | Leo Lithium raised A$100,041,906 before costs in an initial public offering and began trading on the ASX on 23 June 2022, to fund the Goulamina project in Mali. | 12 |
| 2022 | Lithium prices peakPrice shock | Australia | USGS gives US$68,100 a tonne for the 2022 annual average in its 2024 edition and US$37,000 in its 2023 edition, after a change of price source. In 2023 it fell to US$46,000. | 123 |
| 2022 | Wodgina lithium mine restartsCompany founded | Australia | Trains 1 and 2 at Wodgina restarted in 2022 after the mine had been in care and maintenance (WATC profile). | 12 |
| 2023 | China begins export controls on gallium and germaniumLaw or policy | China | China's Ministry of Commerce announced in July 2023 that exports of gallium and germanium items would need a licence from 1 August 2023. | 12 |
| Opened | Mine | Where | Minerals | Why it is famous | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4400 BC | Spiennes Neolithic flint mines | Belgium | Flint | ICOMOS dates underground flint mining here from the second half of the 5th millennium BCE (between 4400 and 4200 BCE), making it one of the oldest mining sites in Europe. Dates show mining went on through the 4th millennium and into the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE. The site lies 6 km south-east of Mons on two chalk plateaux. Closing year -2500 is a rounded reading of "first half of the 3rd millennium". | 12 |
| 3000 BC | Sar-e-Sang lapis lazuli mines | Afghanistan | Lapis lazuli | Wikidata describes Sar-e-Sang as a town in Badakhshan Province. The lapis lazuli mining history is not yet sourced from an opened page; see NOTES.md. | 1 |
| 2600 BC | Grime's Graves | United Kingdom | Flint | Late Neolithic flint mining complex worked from about 2600 BC to about 2100 BC, with simple pit mining briefly resuming after about 500 years. Became a guardianship monument in 1931. | 12 |
| 1600 BC | Great Orme Mines | United Kingdom | Copper | Bronze Age copper mining about 1600 to 1200 BC. The Bronze Age workings were recognised by Duncan James in the mid-1970s, a second phase is documented from the 1690s, and the mine opened to the public in 1991. | 123 |
| 1500 BC | Hallstatt salt mine | Austria | Industrial salt | ICOMOS reports large-scale salt production at Hallstatt back to the Middle Bronze Age, in the mid 2nd millennium BC. Underground mining began at the end of the Late Bronze Age using a shaft method taken from copper mining, paused briefly, and resumed in the 8th century BC with drift mining. The cemetery gave its name to the Hallstatt culture. Salt output continues, with brine piped to Ebersee and about sixty men employed when the file was written. Opening year -1500 is approximate (circa). | 12 |
| 1300 BC | Timna Valley | Israel | Copper | Copper activity over 6,000 years. Its golden era ran from the end of the 14th century to the dawn of the 9th century BCE, with Egyptian-led expansion in the late 14th to mid 12th century BCE and a peak in the 10th century BCE, with centralised production at Slaves' Hill and Timna 30. | 12 |
| 1000 BC | Wadi Faynan (Khirbat Faynan) | Jordan | Copper | Copper mining and smelting from the Chalcolithic (4500 to 3100 BC) with fairly continuous use until the 4th century AD and a Mamluk phase 1250 to 1516. Roman expansion followed the Nabataean annexation in AD 106 and ores were largely exhausted by Roman mining. Output is described as unparalleled in the southeastern Mediterranean, with the possible exception of Cyprus. | 12 |
| 483 BC | Laurion silver mines | Greece | Silver, Lead | Attic silver-lead mining district tied to Classical Athens. Wikidata gives the mines and a Lavrio archaeological site. Output, dates and depth are not verified; the earlier agent noted that published figures differ by orders of magnitude. | 1 |
| 27 BC | Las Medulas | Spain | Gold | Roman interest began about 27 BC, and over the next 150 years or so it was the most important gold source for Rome. Worked by hydraulic ruina montium with canals up to 100 km long and up to 10,000 miners. Nuggets up to 3 kg are recorded. | 123 |
| 70 | Dolaucothi Gold Mines | United Kingdom | Gold | Romans began the first extensive mining in AD 70 to 80. Mining stopped in October 1938. Mitchell's shaft was deepened to 480 ft (146 m), the deepest on site, and the late-1930s workforce of about 150 to 200 produced several hundred tonnes of ore a week at peak. | 12 |
| 1260 | Kutna Hora silver mines | Czechia | Silver | ICOMOS says the town was founded in the early 1260s because of silver mining, and its mines ranked among the largest in the world in the Middle Ages. Wenceslas II set up the mint at the Vlassky dvur in 1300. Mines were exhausted in the early 1540s. The start year is the foundation of the town, not a dated mine opening. | 12 |
| 1290 | Wieliczka Salt Mine | Poland | Industrial salt | Medieval salt mine with nine levels and a depth of 315 or 327 m depending on the source. Passage length is given as 200 or 320 km in the source, and the sources conflict. Salt mining ended in 1996. Start taken as 1290 from a timeline, with the 13th century stated. | 12 |
| 1420 | Schwaz silver mines (Falkenstein) | Austria | Silver, Copper | Mining began about 1410 and the Falkenstein pits opened in 1420. About 12,000 miners worked there around 1500 and 7,400 in 1554. Ore was extracted until 1957, and it has been a show mine since 1990. The Tirol PDF claims 85 percent of world silver, and habsburger.net gives about 50,000 in silver mining by 1520, so figures conflict. | 1234 |
| 1490 | Idrija mercury mine | Slovenia | Mercury | The museum counts mining from 1490 and held a 500th anniversary of the discovery of mercury ore in 1990. Cinnabar dye was made from the start of mining until 1922. The Kamst pumping system drew pit water from 283 m. The 283 m is a pumping depth, not the mine floor. | 12 |
| 1516 | Jachymov mines | Czechia | Silver, Uranium | Silver town with a Wikidata inception of 1516 (town founding, used here as an approximate start of mining). Output, the thaler minting and the later uranium work are not verified from an opened page. | 12 |
| 1526 | Iwami Ginzan silver mine | Japan | Silver, Copper | Silver seams were found in 1526 and the cupellation smelting method arrived around 1533, which sharply raised output. The Tokugawa took control in 1600, output peaked in the 1620s to 1640s and up to 10,000 people worked there in the early 17th century. Shafts were closed as water drainage got costly (247 of 279 idle by 1823) and the mine shut in 1923 after cheap copper imports. A 1942 attempt to reopen failed after a typhoon in 1943. | 12 |
| 1545 | Cerro Rico de Potosi | Bolivia | Silver, Tin | Silver found in 1545. Toledo's mita from 1573 supplied about 13,000 to 13,400 men a year, and amalgamation was adopted in the early 1570s. Population exceeded 100,000 by 1600 and about 160,000 in 1650. Easy ore was largely exhausted by about 1600, a tin boom followed from the late 1890s, and Comibol took over after 1952. | 1234 |
| 1546 | Zacatecas silver mines | Mexico | Silver | ICOMOS says the town was founded in 1546 after the very rich San Bernabe silver lode was found. By 1550 there were 34 mines working. Silver output peaked in the 16th and 17th centuries before Guanajuato overtook it. | 12 |
| 1548 | Valenciana Mine (Guanajuato) | Mexico | Silver, Gold | Guanajuato silver was found in 1548. Financed by Obregon y Alcocer in the late 18th century, Valenciana then produced about a third of global annual silver. Mining ceased in 1816 in the independence war, the British reopened it 1868 to 1878, a cooperative worked it from 1939 and Great Panther acquired it in 2005. 2023 production at the Valenciana complex was 317,553 oz of silver and 3,879 oz of gold. | 12 |
| 1564 | Huancavelica mercury mine | Peru | Mercury | Cinnabar mining and refining began in 1564, supplying the mercury used to amalgamate silver. About 17,000 t of mercury was emitted 1564 to 1810. The mita there was two months and the population never exceeded 15,000. Coordinates left blank because no Wikidata point was found. | 12 |
| 1623 | Kongsberg silver mines | Norway | Silver, Copper | Two herding children found the silver in summer 1623 and state mining began that autumn. The workforce peaked at 4,075 in 1770. Parliament voted in 1955 to close the works and the last smelting took place in 1958. Deepest level 1,068 m below the surface in Kongens gruve. | 12 |
| 1644 | Roros Copper Works and mines | Norway | Copper | Founded in 1644 and produced for 333 years. Nordgruvene mining began in 1657, and Nyberget (1650) and Olavsgruva (1936) offer tours. | 1234 |
| 1691 | Besshi copper mine | Japan | Copper | Japanese copper mine in Ehime prefecture. Only the opening year (1691, Wikidata inception) and the coordinates are verified; closure, output and depth still need an opened primary page. | 1 |
| 1700 | Dolcoath Mine | United Kingdom | Tin, Copper | Work began in the early 1700s. Williams Shaft reached the 412-fathom (2,472 ft) level, about 754 m, a figure I converted. Opening year is approximate (early 1700s). Closed 1921. | 123 |
| 1832 | Chanarcillo | Chile | Silver | Silver rush after Juan Godoy's discovery, dated 16 May 1832 from one literature entry. Active 1832 to 1890 and now abandoned. | 12 |
| 1844 | Devon Great Consols | United Kingdom | Copper, Arsenic | Began in 1844 and operated until 1903. An arsenic refinery was built in 1922 and works stopped in 1930. The 7th Duke of Bedford was landowner, and a 7 million pound Heritage Lottery Fund project ran 2005 to 2011. | 123 |
| 1845 | Burra (Monster Mine) | Australia | Copper | Copper found in June 1845. About 80,000 t of ore was shipped in the first six years with more than 1,000 workers, mostly Cornish. By 1860 it was the second largest copper producer in the world. Underground mining ended in 1867 and an open cut ran 1870 to 1877. | 12 |
| 1848 | Sutter's Mill (Coloma) | United States of America | Gold | James W. Marshall found gold in the tailrace of Sutter's sawmill on 24 January 1848, starting the California Gold Rush. | 12 |
| 1850 | Empire Mine | United States of America | Gold | Operated 1850 to 1956, with Cornish miners from about the mid-1850s. It closed during the Second World War, reopened in 1945 and closed for good in 1956. Deepest shaft is more than 5,000 vertical ft (the 1,524 m figure converts 5,000 ft and is a minimum). | 12 |
| 1851 | Ballarat goldfield | Australia | Gold | Gold found in July to August 1851, with about 50,000 people in 1871. | 12 |
| 1851 | Bendigo goldfield | Australia | Gold | Gold found in October 1851, with about 400,000 oz a year through the 1850s. The first reefs opened in 1854, output was about 200,000 oz a year around 1900, and 1917 output was a quarter of the 1904 level. | 12 |
| 1851 | Zollverein Coal Mine | Germany | Coal | Coal mining began in 1851. Shaft XII was built 1928 to 1932, and the last shift was on 23 December 1986. | 123 |
| 1852 | Jagersfontein diamond mine | South Africa | Diamonds | Free State open-pit diamond mine. Wikidata gives 1852 as the inception of the town. Mine dates, output and the 2022 tailings failure are not verified from an opened page. | 12 |
| 1858 | Calumet and Hecla (Keweenaw) | United States of America | Copper | Hulbert found an ancient copper cache in 1858. Financing came in 1864, Alexander Agassiz led from 1867 and the merger followed in 1871. Output was 16.2 million lb of copper in the first year. The Osceola fire of 1895 killed 30. Montana overtook Michigan by 1887. Coordinates blank (no Wikidata point for the company item). | 12 |
| 1859 | Bodie | United States of America | Gold | Gold found in 1859 by W. S. Bodey and E. S. Taylor, and Bodey died in a blizzard that November. The Standard (Bunker Hill) strike in the mid-1870s made it a boomtown from 1877, with about 8,500 people in 1879. Decline began in 1881 and a fire struck in 1932. It is preserved in arrested decay as a state historic park. | 12 |
| 1859 | Comstock Lode | United States of America | Silver, Gold, Mercury | Discovered in 1859, the lode was exhausted by 1881. District population reached 25,000 by 1874, and Virginia City is a National Historic Landmark district. | 123 |
| 1860 | Big Pit coal mine, Blaenavon | United Kingdom | Coal, Iron ore | ICOMOS says the first shaft was sunk in 1860 or about 1860 by the Blaenavon Company and the colliery, the last substantial working colliery of the area, closed in 1980. It opened as a mining museum in 1983 and visitors descend the 1860 shaft in a cage. | 12 |
| 1861 | Gabriel's Gully | New Zealand | Gold | Gabriel Read found gold in 1861, starting the Otago rush. Mining continued to the 1930s (approximate end). | 12 |
| 1861 | Moonta Mines | Australia | Copper | Copper found in 1861 and the Moonta Mining Company formed in 1862. Mining closed in 1923 and leaching of waste continued to 1943. | 12 |
| 1862 | Humberstone and Santa Laura saltpetre works | Chile | Nitrate (saltpetre) | Nitrate works in the Atacama listed as a World Heritage Site. Only the coordinates and the UNESCO id are verified from sources I opened; add history from a primary source. ICOMOS says the Peruvian Nitrate Company built Humberstone (first called La Palma) in 1862; it was among the biggest works in Tarapaca until 1889 with about 3,000 people, closed in the crisis and reopened in 1933 under COSACH with the Humberstone name. Santa Laura was built in 1872. Population reached 3,700 by 1940. COSATAN was wound up in 1959 and both works closed; they were auctioned for scrap in 1961. | 123 |
| 1871 | Kimberley Big Hole | South Africa | Diamonds | Dug largely by hand with about 50,000 miners between 1871 and 1914. De Beers formed in 1888 and an underground mine reached 1,097 m before closing in 2005. The depth was originally 240 m. | 123 |
| 1873 | Pilgrim's Rest goldfield | South Africa | Gold | Wikidata describes the town as the place where a gold rush occurred in 1873. Output and closure are not verified from an opened page. | 1 |
| 1876 | Homestake Mine | United States of America | Gold, Silver | Largest and deepest gold mine in North America. The 4,850 ft level now holds an underground laboratory, and Raymond Davis ran his solar neutrino experiment there from the mid-1960s. | 12 |
| 1877 | Bisbee copper mines | United States of America | Copper, Gold, Silver, Lead, Zinc | The city history dates the first claim to 1877 (the Queen Mine sheet says Hugh Jones found copper in 1875). DeWitt Bisbee and investors bought the Queen mine in 1880. Phelps Dodge announced closure in December 1974 and ended underground work in 1975. The city was the largest in the territory in 1910 with over 25,000 people. The Queen Mine tour opened in February 1976 and goes 1,500 feet underground. | 123 |
| 1877 | Leadville | United States of America | Silver, Lead, Gold, Zinc, Copper | Placer gold in the early 1860s led to the Fryer Hill silver-lead discovery in 1877. Population peaked in 1880. Nearby Climax came online in 1917. | 123 |
| 1879 | Climax Mine | United States of America | Molybdenum | Senter found ore in 1879, it came online in 1917 and the Climax Molybdenum Company formed in 1918. It restarted in 1920 and supplied 80 percent of world molybdenum in the Second World War. | 123 |
| 1879 | Jeffrey Mine (Asbestos, Quebec) | Canada | Asbestos | Found in 1879 by Evan Williams and mined from 1881. Johns-Manville ran it from the First World War to 1983. The 1949 strike involved about 5,000 miners. Mill capacity exceeded 600 million kg a year. | 12 |
| 1882 | Mount Morgan Mine | Australia | Gold, Copper | Worked from 1882 to November 1990. Other sources suggest a 1981 end for mining proper, which I could not confirm. | 12 |
| 1883 | Broken Hill | Australia | Silver, Lead, Zinc | Mining has continued since 1883 and the city was listed on the National Heritage List on 20 January 2015. Mineral ids follow the project operations file. | 1234 |
| 1883 | Copper Cliff Mine (Sudbury) | Canada | Copper, Nickel | Thomas Flanagan found ore at the Murray Mine in August 1883. In 1886 the Canadian Copper Company opened Copper Cliff, the first feasible producing mine. INCO formed in 1902 and Falconbridge in 1928, and production and workforce peaked in 1972. Coordinates blank. | 12 |
| 1886 | Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887 | South Africa | Gold | SAHO records the main reef find by George Harrison at Langlaagte in July 1886, the first large company (Witwatersrand Gold Mining Company) on 14 September 1886 and the name Johannesburg on 3 October 1886. By the end of 1887, 14 mines with 93 stamps made about 19,080 oz a year. Johannesburg had about 102,000 people by 1895. Coordinates are approximate and were not read from a source page. | 1 |
| 1888 | Greenbushes | Australia | Lithium, Tantalum | The world's best-known hard-rock lithium mine, in Western Australia. Tin was mined from 1888, tantalum from 1942 and lithium concentrate from 1983. It is now a truck-and-shovel open pit. A June 2025 technical report gives 37.1 Mt of SC6.0 concentrate produced to 30 June 2025. | 123 |
| 1888 | Panasqueira | Portugal | Tungsten | Portugal's Panasqueira is an underground tungsten mine. The first licence dates from 1886 and wolframite was noted in 1888. A mining company formed in 1896 and the mine ran more or less continuously, apart from a pause at the end of the Second World War and a closure in the mid-1990s. Almonty bought it in 2016. | 123 |
| 1890 | Cripple Creek | United States of America | Gold | Bob Womack found ore in Poverty Gulch in 1890. About 150 mines worked by 1894. The Cresson open pit, begun in 1995, was stated to produce more than 250,000 oz a year (undated). | 12 |
| 1892 | Coolgardie goldfield | Australia | Gold | Bayley and Ford found gold at Fly Flat in September 1892. By 1897 the town had about 25,000 people and more than 700 companies. Hannan and Flanagan found gold at Mount Charlotte (Kalgoorlie) in June 1893 and the miner's right was introduced on 10 August 1893. | 1234 |
| 1892 | Sullivan Mine | Canada | Lead, Zinc, Silver | Discovered in 1892 and worked from 1909 to 2001 at Kimberley, British Columbia. | 12 |
| 1893 | Golden Mile, Kalgoorlie-Boulder | Australia | Gold | The Eastern Goldfields Historical Society dates Paddy Hannan, Thomas Flanagan and Daniel Shea's find to June 1893, about 40 km north-east of Coolgardie. Within about a week more than 1,400 men were working the new field. Great Boulder and Ivanhoe were pegged soon after by the Brookman and Pearce syndicate. | 123 |
| 1893 | Great Boulder mine | Australia | Gold | Sam Pearce pegged it as the second lease shortly after Hannan's Find in 1893, and the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society calls it fabulously rich. | 12 |
| 1893 | Ivanhoe mine, Kalgoorlie | Australia | Gold | Sam Pearce's original discovery and the first of 17 leases secured by the Brookman and Pearce syndicate, per the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society. | 12 |
| 1893 | Kalgoorlie | Australia | Gold | Kalgoorlie Super Pit (KCGM) is Australia's best-known open-pit gold mine. USGS lists it fourth among Australian gold mines in 2021 with 15,200 kg, behind Boddington (21,600 kg), Cadia East (18,600 kg) and Fosterville (15,900 kg). Paddy Hannan, Thomas Flanagan and Dan Shea found about 100 oz of alluvial gold at Mount Charlotte in June 1893. The Golden Mile has since produced about 58 Moz. Alan Bond bought leases on the Golden Mile in the 1980s but his company did not finish the merger. The leases were combined in 1989 and KCGM formed to run the Super Pit. KCGM poured its 16 millionth ounce from Fimiston in March 2014. The pit was about 3.5 km long, 1.5 km wide and more than 600 m deep. | 123 |
| 1893 | Mount Lyell mine | Australia | Copper, Gold, Silver | Tasmanian copper mine at Queenstown. The 2014 closure and the river damage are not verified from an opened page; see NOTES.md. | 1 |
| 1897 | Klondike (Bonanza Creek) | Canada | Gold | The rush of 1897 to 1898 drew tens of thousands. The first dredge arrived in autumn 1899. Dredge No. 4 began in May 1913, sank in 1924, was refloated in 1927 and worked until 1940, and Bonanza Creek dredging ended 1959 or 1960 (sources conflict). It recovered up to 800 oz in a day. | 123 |
| 1898 | Britannia Mine | Canada | Copper, Zinc | Copper found in 1898 with production from late 1904 or 1905. Anaconda Canada closed it in November 1974. Pollution led to a water treatment agreement in 1997. | 12 |
| 1898 | Kiruna | Sweden | Iron ore | Kiruna in Swedish Lapland is a large underground iron-ore mine of LKAB, a company founded in 1890. Underground mining has run since the 1950s and the main haulage level is now at 1,365 m. | 12 |
| 1899 | Buenavista | Mexico | Copper, Silver, Molybdenum | Described by Southern Copper as the oldest continuously operated copper mine in North America, with operations dating from 1899. Anaconda bought it in 1917 and began the first open pit in the early 1940s. Minera Mexico bought the assets in 1990 for USD 475 million. A second concentrator began in 2016. | 12 |
| 1900 | Kennecott Mines | United States of America | Copper | Rich copper ore found in 1900 and the first trainload shipped in April 1911. The camp closed in 1938. | 12 |
| 1903 | Bingham Canyon | United States of America | Copper, Silver, Gold, Molybdenum | Kennecott's Bingham Canyon mine near Salt Lake City, Utah, has been mined and processed since 1903. Rio Tinto operates it and reports 133.6 kt of refined copper for Kennecott in 2025 (193 kt in 2024). | 123 |
| 1903 | Cobalt silver camp | Canada | Silver, Cobalt | Silver found in summer 1903 during railway construction. Output faded by the late 1920s. | 12 |
| 1904 | Kabwe (Broken Hill) lead mine | Zambia | Lead | HRW says the mine and smelter polluted the area from 1904 to 1994 and that mine closed in 1994 with no comprehensive clean-up. A 2018 study reported over 95 percent of children in exposed townships had elevated blood lead. The opening year is the start of the pollution period given by HRW, not a verified mine start. | 12 |
| 1905 | El Teniente | Chile | Copper, Molybdenum | El Teniente in the Andes of central Chile is an underground copper and molybdenum mine. The Braden Copper Company of the United States began works in 1904, and Codelco's 2015 report gives 1905 as the year the mine opened. The state took 51 per cent in 1966 and the mine was nationalised in 1971. In 2018 the division made 465,040 t of copper and 6,756 t of molybdenum, the most of any Codelco division that year. | 1234 |
| 1907 | Tsumeb mine | Namibia | Copper, Lead, Zinc | Namibian base-metal mine and mineral locality. Wikidata gives 1907 as inception of the mine item. Minerals are named from general listings and output and closure are not verified from an opened page. | 1 |
| 1908 | Kolmanskop | Namibia | Diamonds | Namib desert diamond town. Wikidata gives inception 1908 and dissolution 1956 for the town, used here as the working period. Diamond output is not verified from an opened page. | 1 |
| 1910 | Chino | United States of America | Copper | Open-pit copper complex in New Mexico, in operation since 1910. 2025 output 150 million lb of copper (100% owned by Freeport). | 12 |
| 1915 | Chuquicamata | Chile | Copper, Molybdenum | Chuquicamata in northern Chile began under the Chile Exploration Company, owned by the Guggenheim family of New York, in 1915. Its engineers used open-pit methods that were new at the time. The Chilean state took a 51 per cent share in 1966 and nationalised the large copper mines in 1971. Codelco was created on 1 April 1976. The division made 320,744 t of copper and 12,172 t of molybdenum in 2018. USGS reports 385,309 t of copper from the mine in 2019. The underground mine began operating in August 2019 at a total cost of about USD 5.5 billion. USGS says it was expected to ramp up by 2026 to more than 320,000 t of copper and 16,000 t of molybdenum a year, and to add 40 years of life. Codelco's 2018 report calls the open pit the largest in the world and says it will stop being exploited as the underground mine takes over. | 1234 |
| 1916 | Sangdong | South Korea | Tungsten | South Korea's Sangdong tungsten mine. Mineralisation was found in 1916 and the main deposit in 1939-40. The mine worked until 1994, at up to 750,200 t of ore a year. Almonty reports commercial mining began in December 2025 with the plant in commissioning. | 123 |
| 1933 | Wittenoom (Colonial Mine) | Australia | Asbestos | Asbestos mining ran from 1933 to 1966. The townsite was phased down from 1978, official status was removed in December 2006, it was degazetted in June 2007 and listed a contaminated site in 2008. The state cites thousands of fatalities. | 123 |
| 1936 | Big Bell mine | Australia | Gold | Murchison gold mine and company town. One blog page says the town was established in 1936 and the mine worked until 2003. Treat both years as low-confidence until checked against the WA Heritage Council or DMIRS. | 12 |
| 1937 | Shinkolobwe | Dem. Rep. Congo | Uranium, Cobalt | Union Minire du Haut-Katanga ore, up to 60 times richer than average, supplied the Manhattan Project: 1,000 t was stockpiled in New York and 3,000 t shipped, and 3.4 million lb was purchased in 1944. Officially closed 2004. | 12 |
| 1939 | Morenci | United States of America | Copper, Molybdenum | Open-pit copper and molybdenum complex in Arizona in continuous operation since 1939, after earlier underground mining from the 1880s. Freeport owns 72%. Its share of 2025 copper was 497 million lb (about 225 kt). | 12 |
| 1945 | Bagdad | United States of America | Copper, Molybdenum | Open-pit copper and molybdenum complex in Arizona, in operation since 1945 after earlier underground mining. 2025 output 149 million lb of copper. | 12 |
| 1948 | Giant Mine | Canada | Gold, Arsenic | More than 50 years of gold mining left about 237,000 t of arsenic trioxide in five stopes and 11 chambers. Remediation began in 2021; the territorial page says it should finish by 2038 and the federal page says about 10 years. | 123 |
| 1952 | Mountain Pass | United States of America | Rare earths | California's Mountain Pass has mined rare earths since 1952, first by Molybdenum Corporation of America, then Unocal (1977 to 1998) and Molycorp (from 2008). Operations were cold-idled in mid-2015 and MP Materials bought the site in July 2017. REO in concentrate was 50,692 t in 2025 (45,455 t in 2024). | 12 |
| 1955 | Berkeley Pit | United States of America | Copper | MBMG says the pit mined copper in the upper and central part of the Butte ore body between 1955 and 1982. Dewatering pumps were switched off on 22 April 1982, the pit lake formed in November 1983 when the Kelley mine water reached the pit bottom elevation, and more than 3,000 snow geese died on it in November 2016. Water is now treated under US EPA-led clean-up work. | 12 |
| 1955 | Mir diamond mine | Russia | Diamonds | The Mir pipe in Yakutia was found in 1955. Wikidata gives 1957 as its start. ALROSA says open-pit mining ended in 2001 and underground mining has run since 2009. After an incident in August 2017 mining was suspended and the field is on conservation. ALROSA reports an average diamond grade above 3 carats a tonne. The 2017 year is the suspension date, not a final closure. | 12 |
| 1955 | Udachnaya pipe (Udachny mine) | Russia | Diamonds | Udachnaya is a diamond kimberlite pipe in Yakutia, found in 1955. ALROSA says open-pit mining began in 1971 and ended in 2015, and the pipe is now worked underground. The company dates the founding of the Udachny mine to 1967. USGS lists the Udachninskiy mining and beneficiation complex (Zarnitsa and Udachnyy) with a capacity of 5.8 million carats a year in 2021. | 1234 |
| 1958 | Muruntau | Uzbekistan | Gold | Muruntau in the Kyzylkum desert is one of the biggest open-pit gold mines on earth. The deposit was found in 1958 and USGS records open-pit mining by Navoi since 1969. The state combine accounted for about 80% of Uzbek gold. | 123 |
| 1959 | Sierrita | United States of America | Copper, Molybdenum | Open-pit copper and molybdenum mine near Tucson, Arizona, in operation since 1959. 2025 output 184 million lb of copper. | 12 |
| 1960 | Toquepala | Peru | Copper, Molybdenum, Silver | Toquepala is a large open-pit copper mine in southern Peru. Southern Copper has held an interest in the area since 1945, overburden removal began in 1957 and ore production in 1960. It has two concentrators of 60,000 t a day each, the second opened in the fourth quarter of 2018, and an SX-EW plant of 56,336 t a year of cathode. USGS credits the 2018 expansion for a 25 per cent rise in Southern Copper output in 2019. | 123 |
| 1962 | Goldstrike (Nevada Gold Mines) | United States of America | Gold, Copper, Silver | Goldstrike (Betze-Post) was part of Barrick's Nevada operations and, since 1 July 2019, forms part of the Carlin Complex in Nevada Gold Mines. Deep Post was found in 1986 and Betze and Screamer in 1987-88. Atlas Minerals first found gold at Goldstrike in 1962 and PanCana first mined it in 1976. Barrick took 50 per cent and management on 31 December 1986, and 100 per cent in January 1987. | 123 |
| 1965 | Carlin (Nevada Gold Mines) | United States of America | Gold, Copper, Silver | Part of the Carlin Complex in Nevada Gold Mines. Open-pit mining began at Carlin in 1965 after Newmont explored the trend from 1961. Barrick's 61.5% share of Carlin was 775 koz of gold in 2024. Prospecting began in the south area around Gold Quarry in 1870. The Gold Quarry and Rain deposits were found in 1980, and a further 10 deposits were identified by 1988. | 123 |
| 1966 | Hamersley Mines - Mount Tom Price | Australia | Iron ore | Rio Tinto's Hamersley mines in the Pilbara, including Tom Price, produced 229.6 Mt in 2025 (224.8 Mt in 2024) on a 100% basis. Mount Tom Price began operations in 1966, the first of Hamersley Iron's mines. Its lease sits under the Iron Ore (Hamersley Range) Agreement Act 1963. Paraburdoo followed in 1974. | 123 |
| 1966 | Kambalda nickel | Australia | Nickel | Nickel sulphides were discovered in 1966 with production in 1967, launching the Western Australian nickel industry. | 1234 |
| 1966 | Silver Peak | United States of America | Lithium | The only commercial lithium brine operation in the United States. Albemarle has operated at Silver Peak, Nevada, since 1966 and describes it as continuous lithium brine production. | 123 |
| 1967 | Carajas S11D / Northern System | Brazil | Iron ore | Vale's Northern System in Para is the world's largest iron-ore province in use. Geological surveys began in 1922, US Steel explored from July 1967, Serra Norte began in 1984 and S11D (Serra Sul) in 2016. In 2025 Serra Norte produced 78.1 Mt and Serra Sul 86.0 Mt, including third-party purchases and run-of-mine feed. | 12 |
| 1967 | Mittersill (Felbertal tungsten mine) | Austria | Tungsten | The Felbertal scheelite deposit near Mittersill in Salzburg was found in 1967 and became the type example of a strata-bound tungsten deposit. Wolfram Bergbau und Hutten has operated the mine since 1975. A 2018 field guide gives about 500,000 t of ore a year at 0.3% WO3 and about 16 Mt of ore produced to date. It is one of the biggest tungsten mines outside China. | 123 |
| 1967 | Tyrone | United States of America | Copper | Open-pit copper mine in New Mexico, in operation since 1967. 2025 output 32 million lb of copper. | 12 |
| 1969 | Cortez (Nevada Gold Mines) | United States of America | Gold, Copper, Silver | Nevada Gold Mines operation on the Cortez Trend. The Cortez Hills discovery was announced in April 2003. Barrick's 61.5% share of Cortez was 444 koz in 2024. A joint venture formed in 1964 to explore the area, and the original Cortez mine started in 1969. The Pipeline deposits were found in 1991. Barrick took full ownership in 2008, and a gold royalty became payable in September 2022 after Cortez had produced more than 15 Moz since 1 January 2008. | 123 |
| 1969 | Mount Newman | Australia | Iron ore | Mt Newman joint venture in the Pilbara. Production began at Mt Whaleback in 1969. BHP's Western Australia Iron Ore is guided at 253 to 264 Mt (BHP share) for FY2027. The lease sits under the Iron Ore (Mount Newman) Agreement Act 1964. USGS lists BHP 85 per cent, Mitsui-Itochu Iron 10 per cent and Itochu Minerals and Energy of Australia 5 per cent, with a capacity of 42 Mt a year in 2021. | 1234 |
| 1971 | Orapa | Botswana | Diamonds | Orapa is described by De Beers as the largest open-pit diamond mine in the world by area. Wikidata gives 1971 as the inception year. Debswana operates it. | 12 |
| 1972 | Grasberg minerals district | Indonesia | Copper, Gold, Silver | Grasberg minerals district in Papua, Indonesia, is one of the largest copper and gold producers. In 2025 it produced 1,015 million lb of copper and 937 koz of gold (100% basis). That was lower than 2024 (1,800 million lb; 1,861 koz) after the September 2025 mud rush. Freeport and its predecessors have operated in the area since 1967. The Ertsberg outcrop was first reached by the 1936 Cartenz expedition, and Freeport's Forbes Wilson and Del Flint went back to it in 1960. Mining production began in 1972. The Grasberg deposit was found in 1988. Open-pit mining ran from 1990 to 2019 and made over 27 billion lb of copper and 46 Moz of gold. Block-cave mining began in 2019. | 1234 |
| 1972 | Panguna mine | Papua New Guinea | Copper, Gold, Silver | Mined 1972 to 1989 until civil conflict closed it. HRLC puts conflict deaths at up to 15,000, a contested figure. | 123 |
| 1974 | Hamersley Mines - Paraburdoo | Australia | Iron ore | Paraburdoo began operating in 1974, after Mount Tom Price (1966), on a lease under the Iron Ore (Hamersley Range) Agreement Act 1968. Rio Tinto and China Baowu opened the Western Range mine, its 18th Pilbara iron ore mine, on 6 June 2025. It is tied to the Paraburdoo hub by an 18 km conveyor and has a capacity of up to 25 Mt a year. | 12 |
| 1975 | Olimpiada | Russia | Gold | Olimpiada is described as Russia's largest operating gold mine. It lies in the Severo-Yeniseisky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai. The deposit was found in 1975, development began in the 1980s and production started in 1996. It produced 1.38 Moz of gold in 2019 and 1.32 Moz in 2018. Sulphide ore is treated by bio-oxidation. The source is a trade-press profile written around 2020, so current output is not stated. | 12 |
| 1975 | Olympic Dam | Australia | Uranium, Copper, Gold, Silver | South Australia's Olympic Dam is an underground copper, gold, silver and uranium operation. BHP's Copper South Australia produced 321 kt payable copper, 393 koz gold and 3.6 kt uranium in the year to June 2026. The deposit has no surface outcrop. A magnetic anomaly led to drilling that proved a large copper-gold-uranium body in 1975. The Roxby Downs Indenture Act of 1982 set the mining terms, and copper production began in 1988. BHP bought it with Western Mining Corporation in 2005. Milling capacity was raised to 11 Mtpa in 2023. BHP places it 560 km north-west of Adelaide. | 1234 |
| 1975 | Pueblo Viejo | Dominican Rep. | Gold, Copper, Silver | Large gold mine in the Dominican Republic. It reached commercial production in January 2013 under a special lease agreement. Barrick's 60% share produced 352 koz in 2024; Newmont's 40% equity share was 253 koz in 2025. Early mining here dates to the 1500s. Rosario Resources started modern mining in 1975, the Dominican state took over in 1979 and the mine stopped in 1999. Placer Dome won the 2001 bid to lease it, Barrick bought Placer Dome in 2006 and Newmont says the new mine began operating in September 2014. The state lease runs 25 years from 26 February 2008, with extensions possible. | 12345 |
| 1976 | Cuajone | Peru | Copper, Molybdenum, Silver | Cuajone is an open-pit copper mine in the Moquegua region of southern Peru. Southern Copper has held an interest since 1954, with Cerro de Pasco, Newmont and Asarco among the earlier owners. Overburden removal began in 1970 and ore production in 1976. The concentrator can mill 90,000 t a day. In February 2022 protests blocked the railway between Cuajone and Ilo. | 1 |
| 1976 | Henderson | United States of America | Molybdenum | Underground molybdenum complex in Colorado, in operation since 1976. 2025 output 13 million lb of molybdenum. | 12 |
| 1976 | Inkai | Kazakhstan | Uranium | Inkai is an in-situ recovery uranium operation in Kazakhstan, owned 40 per cent by Cameco and 60 per cent by Kazatomprom. The deposit was found between 1976 and 1978. JV Inkai was registered in 1996 and received its mining licence for Block 1 in 1999. The first half of the main processing plant was commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2008. Output in 2025 was 8.4 million lb of uranium on a 100 per cent basis, with 10.4 million lb planned for 2026. Cameco gives 2045 as the mine life, based on the licence term. | 123 |
| 1976 | Rossing | Namibia | Uranium | Rossing is an open-pit uranium mine in Namibia's Erongo Region. Wikidata dates it to 1976. It produced 2,111 t of uranium in 2020, about 4 per cent of world output. China National Uranium Corporation held the majority, and the Namibian government held a minority. | 1234 |
| 1980 | Carlin - Gold Quarry | United States of America | Gold | Gold Quarry deposit on the Carlin Trend, discovered in 1980 according to Barrick's annual information form. | 12 |
| 1980 | Ranger uranium mine | Australia | Uranium | Pit mining ended in 2012, stockpile feed ran 2013 to 2021, and production ceased in January 2021. Rehabilitation was due January 2026; I could not confirm the position after that. | 1234 |
| 1981 | Escondida | Chile | Copper, Silver, Gold | Chile's Escondida is a very large open-pit copper operation. BHP reports 1,261 kt of copper in the year to June 2026 (1,305 kt in FY2025), on a 100 per cent basis. Geochemical exploration from 1978 led to the discovery in 1981. | 12 |
| 1982 | Jwaneng | Botswana | Diamonds | Debswana's Jwaneng, which De Beers calls the richest diamond mine in the world by value. Wikidata gives 1982 as its inception year. Jwaneng was offline for all of Q4 2025. | 12 |
| 1986 | Mponeng | South Africa | Gold | One of the deepest mines in the world. It works the Ventersdorp Contact Reef at 3,160 m to 3,740 m below datum, with development at 3,841 m. The shaft system and plant were commissioned in 1986 and renamed Mponeng in 1999. Output was 333,402 oz in the year to June 2025. | 123 |
| 1989 | Red Dog | United States of America | Zinc, Lead, Silver | Red Dog is a zinc-lead mine in the DeLong Mountains, 144 km north of Kotzebue, Alaska. It began production in 1989 and shipped its first concentrate in 1990. Teck Alaska owns and runs it on land leased from the NANA Regional Corporation, an Alaska Native corporation that receives a share of net proceeds. The mine area is about 1,000 ha. | 12 |
| 1992 | Rammelsberg mine | Germany | Silver, Copper, Lead, Zinc, Gold | ICOMOS says the site has been mined for silver, copper, lead, zinc and gold since as early as the 3rd century BC, with the first written mention at the start of the 11th century. The rich silver ore was a main reason Henry II sited an Imperial residence nearby and held an Imperial Assembly there in 1009. In 1552 the mine passed from the town of Goslar to the Duchy of Brandenburg, Prussia took it in 1866 and the last mine closed in 1988. | 12 |
| 1994 | Diavik | Canada | Diamonds | Diamond mine in Canada's Northwest Territories run by Rio Tinto. Rio's 2025 report notes pending closure and downgraded all remaining reserves. Aber Resources and Rio Tinto Exploration began exploring around Lac de Gras in 1991 and 1992. The A21, A154 South, A154 North and A418 kimberlite pipes were found in 1994 and 1995. Construction was approved in 2000 and diamond production started in 2003. A fourth pipe began production in 2018, and Rio Tinto became sole owner in November 2021 after buying Dominion Diamond Mines' 40 per cent. Rio gave the mine life as running through early 2026. | 123 |
| 1995 | Mount Keith | Australia | Nickel | Mount Keith is a disseminated nickel sulphide open pit in the Goldfields of Western Australia. Western Mining Corporation commissioned it in 1995 and BHP acquired it in 2005. The concentrator has a nominal capacity of 11 Mtpa of ore. Nickel West moved to temporary suspension in the period to 31 December 2024. | 12 |
| 1996 | Catoca | Angola | Diamonds | Catoca is a kimberlite diamond mine in Lunda Sul Province, Angola. It accounts for more than 80 per cent of the country's diamond output. USGS gives a capacity of about 8 million carats a year and output of 6.49 million carats in 2020. Wikidata dates the mine to 1996. | 12 |
| 1996 | El Abra | Chile | Copper | Open-pit copper complex in Chile's Antofagasta region, in operation since 1996. Freeport holds 51%; 2025 production was 201 million lb of copper (100% basis). | 12 |
| 1997 | Cannington | Australia | Silver, Lead, Zinc | Cannington is an underground silver, lead and zinc mine in north-west Queensland, 85 km south-west of McKinlay. USGS lists capacities of about 700,000 kg of silver, 265,000 t of lead and 100,000 t of zinc a year in 2021. Wikidata dates its start to 1997. | 123 |
| 1998 | Ekati | Canada | Diamonds | Ekati is a diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Wikidata dates its inception to 14 October 1998. Output, ownership and current status are not yet sourced from a page we opened. | 1 |
| 1999 | McArthur River / Key Lake | Canada | Uranium | McArthur River mine (in service since 1999) feeds the Key Lake mill (since 1983). Ore is mined 530 to 640 m below surface. Together they have produced 583 million lb of U3O8 on a 100% basis. | 12 |
| 2001 | Falun Mine (Stora Kopparberg) | Sweden | Copper | World's largest copper producer in the 17th and 18th centuries, with up to 1,200 underground workers and Polhem's water-wheel lifting system. Legend dates mining to about AD 700. Production stopped in 1992. | 123 |
| 2005 | Voisey's Bay | Canada | Nickel, Copper, Cobalt | Voisey's Bay in Newfoundland and Labrador is a nickel-copper-cobalt mine. Vale's 2025 annual report gives a start year of 2005, a Vale interest of 90 per cent and a projected end of reserves in 2039. Vale's nickel operations in Sudbury, Thompson and Voisey's Bay made 89,600 t of nickel in 2020, 54 per cent of Canada's mined nickel. | 123 |
| 2011 | Oyu Tolgoi | Mongolia | Copper, Gold, Silver | Mongolia's Oyu Tolgoi started open-pit mining in 2011, with the concentrator running in 2013. Underground mining reached sustainable production in March 2023, through shafts about 1.3 km deep. It produced 345 kt of copper in concentrate in 2025 (100% basis). | 123 |
| 2013 | Kibali | Dem. Rep. Congo | Gold, Copper, Silver | Gold mine in north-eastern DR Congo with open pit and underground workings. AngloGold Ashanti says it has operated since 2013. Barrick's 45% share was 309 koz in 2024. | 123 |
| 2013 | Tropicana | Australia | Gold | Gold mine in the Western Australian desert. AngloGold Ashanti records Tropicana and Kibali as the two projects commissioned in the second half of 2013. AngloGold Ashanti says Tropicana was one of two gold projects commissioned in the second half of 2013, with Kibali. It made 305 koz of gold on a 70 per cent attributable basis in 2025. The lease expires in 2036. USGS places it 330 km north-east of Kalgoorlie. | 1234 |
| 2014 | Cigar Lake | Canada | Uranium | High-grade uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan, mined about 480 m down with a jet-boring method. It was commissioned in 2014 and began commercial operation in May 2015. Cameco reports 174.5 million lb of U3O8 produced since commissioning and an average grade of 16.33% U3O8 at the end of 2025. | 12 |
| 2016 | Las Bambas | Peru | Copper, Molybdenum, Silver, Gold | Peruvian copper mine that reached commercial production in 2016. MMG reports 410,834 t of copper concentrate produced in 2025, against a plant design of 450,000 t a year. | 12 |
| Agnew | Australia | Gold | Agnew is an underground gold operation in the northern Goldfields of Western Australia, 23 km west of Leinster. Gold Fields reports 245.3 koz of gold in 2025 and a 1.35 Mtpa processing capacity. Waroonga is the key deposit being expanded. | 123 | |
| Ahafo | Ghana | Gold | Ghanaian gold operation. Newmont declared commercial production at Ahafo North in the fourth quarter of 2025. Ahafo South produced 664 koz in 2025. | 12 | |
| Almaden mercury mines | Spain | Mercury | Worked since Roman times for about two thousand years and said to have supplied about one third of all the mercury used by humans. Mining closed in 2003 and the Almaden Mining Park joined the World Heritage List in 2012 with Idrija. | 12 | |
| Antamina | Peru | Copper, Zinc, Molybdenum, Silver | Large copper and zinc mine in Ancash, Peru, joint-owned by several majors. Teck's 22.5% share was 86 kt of copper in concentrate and 102 kt of zinc in concentrate in 2025. Teck gives life of mine to 2036. | 12 | |
| Araxa (CBMM) | Brazil | Niobium, Phosphate rock | CBMM's Araxa in Minas Gerais, Brazil, is a niobium and phosphate mine. History not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Argyle diamond mine | Australia | Diamonds | Last day of mining was 3 November 2020 after 37 years. Closure works were expected to finish in 2026. | 1234 | |
| Balama | Mozambique | Graphite (natural) | Balama in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, is a large natural graphite mine. It produced 67 kt of graphite in 2025 and 35 kt in 2024, in a campaign-mode restart. | 123 | |
| Bald Hill | Australia | Lithium, Tantalum | Bald Hill is a lithium and tantalum mine 50 km south-east of Kambalda in Western Australia. USGS lists it as on care and maintenance in 2021, with a spodumene concentrate capacity of 150,000 t a year. | 12 | |
| Banska Stiavnica mining district | Slovakia | Silver, Gold | Slovak mining town. Wikidata gives a town inception of 1156. Mining history, output and heritage status are not verified from an opened page; see NOTES.md. | 1 | |
| Bayan Obo | China | Rare earths, Iron ore, Niobium | Inner Mongolia mine listed in the internal operations table for rare earths, iron ore and niobium. Mine-level history not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Bikita | Zimbabwe | Lithium, Caesium, Beryllium | Zimbabwe's Bikita is a lithium, caesium and beryllium mine. History not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Bisie (Mpama North and South) | Dem. Rep. Congo | Tin | Eastern DR Congo's Bisie mine produced 18,576 t of tin in concentrate in 2025, a record, according to the International Tin Association's report of Alphamin's announcement. | 123 | |
| Boddington | Australia | Gold, Copper, Silver | Open-pit gold and copper mine 130 km south-east of Perth, Western Australia, with North and South pits. Newmont has owned it outright since June 2009. Gold output was 565 koz in 2025, 590 koz in 2024 and 745 koz in 2023. USGS ranked it Australia's top gold mine in 2021 at 21,600 kg. Boddington is 130 km south-east of Perth. Newmont has owned all of it since June 2009, when it bought the last 33.33 per cent from AngloGold Ashanti Australia. The lease area is 21,070 ha. | 1234 | |
| Botallack Mine | United Kingdom | Tin, Copper, Arsenic | Clifftop Crowns engine houses with an arsenic labyrinth and calciner. St Just undersea mining was more concentrated than anywhere else in the 18th and 19th centuries. | 123 | |
| Browns Range | Australia | Rare earths | Browns Range is a heavy rare earth project 160 km southeast of Halls Creek in Western Australia, near the Northern Territory border. The operator says its Wolverine deposit is the highest-grade dysprosium and terbium deposit known in Australia. That is a company claim. Pilot plant history is not yet sourced from a page we opened. | 12 | |
| Bunker Hill Mine (Coeur d'Alene) | United States of America | Silver, Lead, Zinc | Coeur d'Alene basin is a leading silver, lead and zinc producer. About 62 Mt of tailings were discharged to streams until 1968, the site joined the National Priorities List in 1983, and the cleanup area is a 21-square-mile Box. Coordinates blank. | 12 | |
| Butte copper district | United States of America | Copper | MBMG says underground mining at Butte ceased in 1975 after over 150 years of hard-rock mining, milling and smelting. More than 100 vertical shafts served the workings and many exceeded 1 km in depth. The Continental Pit has been worked for low-grade copper and molybdenum since early 1986. Closure year is for underground mining only; deepest_m is the "exceeded 1 km" statement rounded to 1000. | 12 | |
| Cadia | Australia | Gold, Copper, Silver | Block-cave gold and copper mine near Orange, New South Wales. Output was 385 koz of gold in 2025. Two new panel caves are being built. USGS put Cadia East at 18,600 kg in 2021. Newcrest acquired Cadia in 1991, and Newmont took 100 per cent through its 2023 purchase of Newcrest. The main mining lease runs to October 2038 and can be renewed. | 1234 | |
| Cerro Verde | Peru | Copper, Molybdenum | Large open-pit copper and molybdenum mine near Arequipa, Peru. In operation since the 1970s and bought in 1994 from the Peruvian government by a Phelps Dodge predecessor. 2025 output was 863 million lb of copper and 21 million lb of molybdenum (100% basis). | 12 | |
| Christmas Creek | Australia | Iron ore | Christmas Creek is a Fortescue iron ore mine in the Chichester Ranges of the East Pilbara. USGS counts it within the Cloudbreak operation, which had a listed capacity of 55 Mt a year in 2021. See the Cloudbreak row for the combined figure. | 12 | |
| Cloudbreak | Australia | Iron ore | USGS treats Cloudbreak as one iron ore operation in the Chichester Ranges of the East Pilbara that includes Christmas Creek, WhiteKnight, Mount Lewin, Mount Nicholas and Flinders. Fortescue owns it fully. The 2021 capacity listed is 55 Mt a year. | 12 | |
| Collahuasi | Chile | Copper, Molybdenum | Collahuasi in Chile's Tarapaca Region is a copper and molybdenum joint venture of Anglo American (44 per cent), Glencore (44 per cent) and Japan Collahuasi Resources (12 per cent). In 2019 it had capacity for about 570,000 t of copper concentrate a year and made nearly 10 per cent of Chile's mined copper. Plans then aimed to raise throughput to 210,000 t a day by 2025. | 12 | |
| Consolidated Murchison (Antimony Line) | South Africa | Antimony, Gold | South African antimony and gold mine. History not yet sourced. USGS 2021 lists the Consolidated Murchison mine near Gravelotte, run by Stibium Mining, with an antimony capacity of 5,500 t a year. | 12 | |
| Creighton | Canada | Nickel, Copper | Creighton is an underground nickel-copper mine in the Sudbury Basin, Ontario. Vale's 2025 annual report dates its Sudbury underground operations to 1885, with a Vale interest of 90 per cent and reserves projected to last to 2046 or 2047. The 1885 date applies to the Sudbury complex, not to Creighton alone. | 12 | |
| Crown Mines | South Africa | Gold | Witwatersrand gold mine in Gauteng. Only the coordinates are verified from an opened page; production and closure still to source. | 1 | |
| Cue and Day Dawn goldfield | Australia | Gold | Murchison goldfield towns. Wikidata lists Day Dawn as a ghost town and Cue as a town. History, output and dates are not verified from an opened page. | 12 | |
| East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) | South Africa | Gold | Gold mine group on the East Rand listed by Wikidata. Only a coarse point is verified; history still to source. | 1 | |
| Freiberg silver mining district | Germany | Silver, Lead, Zinc | Saxon silver town; Wikidata gives a town inception of 1186. Mining dates and output are not verified from an opened page. | 12 | |
| Geevor Tin Mine | United Kingdom | Tin | Closed in 1990 and described as the largest metalliferous mine site open to the public in the UK. | 123 | |
| Gejiu | China | Tin | Chinese tin district in Yunnan. History not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Goulamina | Mali | Lithium | Wikidata records Goulamina as a lithium mine in southern Mali. USGS reports two lithium mining operations in Mali that started in 2024 and does not name them. Mali's lithium mine output is estimated at 9,400 t of lithium content in 2025, up from 770 t in 2024. The link between Goulamina and those figures is not stated by USGS. | 12 | |
| Hemerdon | United Kingdom | Tungsten, Tin | South Devon tungsten and tin deposit that Tungsten West plans to restart. Wikidata lists it as a tin mine in Devon. | 12 | |
| Hill End goldfield | Australia | Gold | New South Wales gold town, now a historic site. The NSW Heritage register page returned an access error, so the rush dates and the Holtermann nugget are not verified; see NOTES.md. | 1 | |
| Husab | Namibia | Uranium | Namibian uranium mine owned by China General Nuclear, according to USGS's 2020-21 Namibia chapter. Husab produced 3,302 t of uranium in 2020, about 7 per cent of world output. China General Nuclear Power Group owns 90 per cent and Epangelo Mining 10 per cent. USGS says two of the world's ten largest uranium mines are in Namibia. | 123 | |
| Impala Rustenburg | South Africa | Platinum group metals | The Impala Rustenburg mine near Rustenburg in North West Province produced about 38,500 kg of PGMs and gold in 2020, against 43,800 kg in 2019. It works PGM ore of the Bushveld Complex. | 12 | |
| Jundee | Australia | Gold | Jundee-Nimary is an open-pit and underground gold operation 45 km north-east of Wiluna in Western Australia. USGS listed it under Newmont with a gold capacity of 12,000 kg a year for 2021. Opening year and current ownership are not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Kamoa-Kakula | Dem. Rep. Congo | Copper | Underground copper complex in Lualaba, DR Congo. It produced 388,838 t of copper in concentrate in 2025, inside revised guidance. Ivanhoe reported in January 2026 that Kakula's underground workings were being dewatered and mining on the western side had restarted. | 12 | |
| Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) / Katanga Mining Complex | Dem. Rep. Congo | Cobalt, Copper | Katanga Mining, 75 per cent Glencore and 25 per cent Gecamines, runs the KOV, KTO and Mashamba East mines and the Luilu refinery in DR Congo. It made 270,700 t of refined copper and 23,900 t of cobalt in hydroxide in 2020, against 234,500 t and 17,100 t in 2019. The target was 300,000 t of copper and 30,000 t of cobalt hydroxide a year by 2022. | 12 | |
| Kansanshi | Zambia | Copper, Gold | Kansanshi in Zambia makes copper and gold. It was Zambia's only large-scale gold producer, and its gold output fell almost 12 per cent to 3,993 kg in 2020 from 4,522 kg in 2019. In September 2020 First Quantum announced a USD 650 million plan to raise capacity by 25 Mt a year, due by 2025. | 123 | |
| Kathleen Valley | Australia | Lithium, Tantalum | Lithium and tantalum mine in Western Australia. History not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Kenticha | Ethiopia | Tantalum, Lithium | Ethiopian tantalum and lithium mine. History not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Khibiny apatite mines | Russia | Phosphate rock | The Khibiny massif on the Kola Peninsula supplies Russia's apatite. USGS lists the Khibiny apatite association of OAO Apatit (PhosAgro) with a capacity of 15 Mt a year of apatite concentrate in 2021, and 12 Mt a year in a second table row for PhosAgro's Kola mines. USGS also lists nepheline syenite from an apatite complex on Kola and rare earth work by OAO Apatit at the Lovozerskoye deposit. | 12 | |
| Kidd Mine (Kidd Creek) | Canada | Copper, Zinc, Silver | Described in December 2024 as the world's deepest base metals mine, with closure announced for the end of 2026. Status should be re-checked after that date. | 1234 | |
| Kisanfu (KFM) | Dem. Rep. Congo | Cobalt, Copper | Copper and cobalt open pit in Lualaba, DR Congo. History not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Koolyanobbing | Australia | Iron ore | Koolyanobbing is an open-pit iron ore operation in the Yilgarn region, about 50 km north-north-east of Southern Cross in Western Australia. USGS lists Koolyanobbing Central under Portman Ltd with a capacity of 6 Mt a year in 2021. Opening year is not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Kvanefjeld | Greenland | Rare earths | Kvanefjeld is a proposed mine and mineral deposit in Kujalleq in southern Greenland. Greenland has no rare earth mine output, and USGS puts its rare earth reserves at 1.5 Mt of oxide. The status here is a Wikidata description; the deposit size, the uranium law and the licence dispute are not yet sourced from a page we opened. | 12 | |
| Lake View and Star mine | Australia | Gold | One of the Golden Mile leases at Boulder. Only the coordinates are verified (Wikidata item Lake View Mine); the history of the company still needs a primary page. | 1 | |
| Langer Heinrich | Namibia | Uranium | Namibian uranium mine, 75% owned by Paladin. USGS noted a restart plan for the mine in its 2020-21 Namibia chapter. USGS says the mine was on care and maintenance from 2018, lies in the Namib Desert 80 km east of Walvis Bay, and was owned 75 per cent by Paladin. Paladin released a restart plan in November 2021. | 1234 | |
| Levant Mine and Beam Engine | United Kingdom | Copper, Tin | Undersea mine at St Just. Its beam engine, built in 1840, is the oldest surviving Cornish beam engine and is still steamed. | 1234 | |
| Lihir | Papua New Guinea | Gold, Copper, Silver | Open-pit gold mine on Aniolam Island, Papua New Guinea. Newcrest bought it in 2010 and Newmont took full ownership with the 2023 Newcrest purchase. Gold output was 585 koz in 2025 and reserves were 16.0 Moz at the end of 2025. Lihir lies on Aniolam Island, about 900 km north-east of Port Moresby, and is an epithermal gold deposit in an alkalic volcanic island chain. Newcrest acquired it in 2010 and Newmont took full ownership by buying Newcrest in 2023. | 123 | |
| Mibra | Brazil | Tantalum, Tin, Lithium | Brazilian tantalum, tin and lithium mine. History not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Moa | Cuba | Nickel, Cobalt | Cuban nickel and cobalt operation. History not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Mogalakwena | South Africa | Platinum group metals, Nickel, Copper | Mogalakwena is a PGM mine in the Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex. In 2020 it produced 35,032 kg of PGMs, 43 per cent of Anglo American Platinum's mined PGM output and 57 per cent of its palladium. USGS notes that Northern Limb deposits tend to be richer in palladium. | 12 | |
| Molo | Madagascar | Graphite (natural) | Graphite mine in the Toliara province of Madagascar. NextSource says phase 1 has begun producing concentrate of 94 to 97% fixed carbon. | 1 | |
| Morro Velho gold mine | Brazil | Gold | Wikidata lists Morro Velho as a Brazilian gold mine. The earlier agent judged the Wikidata point doubtful, so accuracy is set wide. No history was verified; see NOTES.md. | 1 | |
| Mount Isa Mines | Australia | Copper, Lead, Zinc, Silver | Mount Isa in Queensland is a long-running lead, zinc, silver and copper centre. In 2020 Glencore's Mount Isa Mines, including George Fisher and Lady Loretta, produced 633,500 t of zinc, 230 t of silver and 216,800 t of lead, according to USGS. The Mount Isa copper smelter has a stated capacity of 250,000 t a year and the lead smelter 240,000 t. | 12 | |
| Mount Isa Mines | Australia | Copper, Lead, Zinc, Silver | Glencore said on 8 May 2025 that no decision had yet been made on its smelter and refinery, with talks continuing and studies on a Black Star open cut and tailings reprocessing. The later outcome is unknown to me. | 12 | |
| Mount Marion | Australia | Lithium | Spodumene mine in the Goldfields of Western Australia. Mine-level history not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Mount Weld | Australia | Rare earths | Lynas's rare earth mine in Western Australia. Lynas reports record concentrate production in FY25 and total NdPr output of 6,558 t and total REO output of 10,462 t for the group in that year. | 12 | |
| Mt Cattlin | Australia | Lithium, Tantalum | Lithium and tantalum mine in Western Australia, listed in Rio Tinto's 2025 report among its lithium assets. Rio Tinto reports that the Mt Cattlin spodumene operation was placed on care and maintenance by the end of March 2025, soon after Rio completed its purchase of Arcadium Lithium. | 123 | |
| Murrin Murrin | Australia | Nickel, Cobalt | Open-pit nickel-cobalt mine 60 km east of Leonora, Western Australia. USGS records 2,000 t of cobalt capacity and ownership of Minara (60%) and Glencore (40%) in 2020-21. | 12 | |
| Mutanda | Dem. Rep. Congo | Cobalt, Copper | Glencore's Mutanda produced 103,200 t of copper in 2019, then went to care and maintenance at the end of 2019 because of low cobalt prices. | 12 | |
| Niobec | Canada | Niobium | Underground niobium mine in Quebec. History not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Nkomati | South Africa | Nickel, Cobalt, Copper, Platinum group metals, Chromium | Nkomati mine, run by African Rainbow Minerals with Norilsk Nickel. USGS notes chromite sales of 165,000 t in 2020, down from 424,000 t. | 12 | |
| Nolans | Australia | Rare earths, Phosphate rock | Nolans is a neodymium and praseodymium project 135 km north of Alice Springs. The Nolans Bore deposit holds a JORC 2012 resource of 56 Mt at 2.6% total rare earth oxide and 11% phosphate (as at 7 June 2017). Ore reserves are 29.5 Mt at 2.9% TREO (as at 16 March 2020). The plan covers 38 years at 340,000 t of concentrate a year, plus a by-product of 144,000 t a year of phosphoric acid. | 1 | |
| Norilsk-Taimyr (Nornickel) | Russia | Nickel, Copper, Platinum group metals, Cobalt | Nornickel's Norilsk-Taimyr operations in Siberia. USGS records the company as responsible for 99.3% of Russia's marketable cobalt in 2020-21. | 12 | |
| Nova (Nova-Bollinger) | Australia | Nickel | Nova is a nickel mine in Western Australia. Wikidata gives the location and calls it a nickel mine. Output, ownership and dates are not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Obuasi | Ghana | Gold | Ghanaian underground gold mine. AngloGold Ashanti's 2025 filing describes it as an underground mine in its Africa Region. | 12 | |
| Ok Tedi mine | Papua New Guinea | Copper, Gold | Wikidata describes it as a Papua New Guinean copper and gold mine. Dates, tailings history and ownership changes were found only on pages that could not be opened (archived or blocked); see NOTES.md. | 1 | |
| Oktyabrsky and Talnakh mines (Norilsk) | Russia | Nickel, Copper, Platinum group metals, Cobalt | The Talnakhskoye and Oktyabrskoye deposits near Norilsk are Nornickel's largest ore sources. The Polar Division mined 18.42 Mt of ore in 2019, including 5.37 Mt at the Oktyabrsky mine, 4.08 Mt at Taimyrsky and 4.00 Mt at Komsomolsky. The mines use slicing and chamber methods with cut-and-fill. Discovery and opening dates are not yet sourced from a page we opened. | 12 | |
| Olaroz | Argentina | Lithium | Olaroz is a lithium brine operation on a salt pan in Jujuy province, Argentina. Rio Tinto completed its purchase of Arcadium Lithium in March 2025, and Arcadium held 66.5% of Olaroz. Rio reports record carbonate production at Olaroz in 2025, with stage 1 at full capacity and stage 2 performing as expected. | 12 | |
| Ouro Preto and the Minas Gerais gold fields | Brazil | Gold | Brazil mined about 1,200 t of gold in the 18th century with Minas Gerais supplying the lion's share. Ouro Preto was state capital until 1897, and 17 percent of enslaved people imported into Brazil in the 18th century went to the mines. The Passagem mine near Mariana produced more than 30 t over three centuries. | 12 | |
| Panzhihua | China | Vanadium, Titanium minerals, Iron ore | Chinese vanadium, titanium and iron-ore complex. History not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Pasto Bueno | Peru | Tungsten | Pasto Bueno is a tungsten mine in the Ancash region of Peru. A Peruvian news agency report from about 2011 says the Consuzo sector was the main mining focus in the 1970s, when a plant treating 1,000 tonnes a day ran. The Loreto vein has historic production of 1.95 Mt of ore at 0.95% WO3. Drilling in 2010 found a high-grade zone at depth, and Malaga partly reopened the old workings in 2010. Current status is not stated. | 1 | |
| Picher (Tri-State district) | United States of America | Zinc, Lead | Mining spread to Picher 1904 to 1908 and the largest ore strike came in 1913. Peak employment was 11,187 men in 1924. The district gave more than half of First World War zinc and 45 percent of lead. Most mines closed in the 1960s and Eagle-Picher ended in 1967, leaving the Tar Creek Superfund site. | 12 | |
| Pilgangoora | Australia | Lithium, Tantalum | Pilbara lithium and tantalum operation in Western Australia. Spodumene output was 221.3 kt in the June 2025 quarter and 224.8 kt in the September 2025 quarter after the P1000 expansion. A 2 Mtpa-plus study is due in FY27. | 12 | |
| Pitinga | Brazil | Tin, Niobium, Tantalum | Brazilian tin, niobium and tantalum mine. History not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Porgera | Papua New Guinea | Gold | Gold mine in Enga Province, PNG, with an open pit and underground mine. USGS lists Barrick and Zijin at 47.5% each in 2020-21. The Papua New Guinea government did not renew the old special mining lease. A new lease went to New Porgera Limited in 2023, and on 22 December 2023 Barrick signed a commencement agreement that gave it 24.5 per cent of the new venture. | 1234 | |
| Raglan | Canada | Nickel, Cobalt, Copper | Raglan is a nickel mine in Nunavik, northern Quebec, in the Ungava region. Glencore's Sudbury and Raglan mines together produced 56,500 t of nickel in 2020. USGS lists a cobalt capacity of 700 t a year and a copper capacity of 7,000 t a year. | 12 | |
| Renison | Australia | Tin | Renison Bell underground tin mine in Tasmania, run by the Bluestone Mines Tasmania joint venture (Metal X 50%, Greentech 50%) in 2020-21. | 12 | |
| Riotinto mining district | Spain | Silver, Copper, Lead | Silver production peaked in Roman times and continued until the crisis of the early 3rd century AD, after which copper lodes were worked. Greenland ice isotopes indicate about 70 percent of the metal worked between 150 BC and AD 50 came from Riotinto. A Roman lead ingot was found in 2015. | 12 | |
| Robinson Deep mine | South Africa | Gold | Deep-level mine on the Witwatersrand main reef near central Johannesburg. Only the coordinates are verified. SAHO lists a Robinson Mine in production by the end of 1887, but that is not shown to be this company. | 1 | |
| Rosia Montana gold district | Romania | Gold, Silver | Transylvanian gold district. The Roman, modern and protest history is not verified from an opened page (BBC and other news pages were blocked); see NOTES.md. | 1 | |
| Roy Hill | Australia | Iron ore | Roy Hill is an iron ore mine 340 km south-east of Port Hedland in the Pilbara. USGS lists Hancock Prospecting 70%, Marubeni 15%, POSCO Australia 12.5% and China Steel 2.5%, with a capacity of 55 Mt a year in 2021. Opening year is not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Ruashi | Dem. Rep. Congo | Cobalt, Copper | Ruashi Mining is 75 per cent owned by Jinchuan Group International Resources and makes copper and cobalt in DR Congo. In 2019 it made 5,070 t of cobalt in hydroxide. USGS gave the remaining mine life as 8 years, and Jinchuan began a plant for low-grade ore in June 2020 that could extend it. | 12 | |
| Sado gold and silver mine | Japan | Gold, Silver | Gold and silver mine on Sado island, Niigata. Only the heritage status and coordinates are verified here; mining dates and output still need a primary page. | 12 | |
| Safford | United States of America | Copper | Open-pit copper mine in Arizona. In 2025 the Lone Star deposit was the only one actively mined; output was 287 million lb of copper. | 12 | |
| Salar de Atacama (SQM / Nova Andino Litio) | Chile | Lithium, Potash | Chile's Salar de Atacama brine fields. SQM reports that its Chilean lithium carbonate capacity reached 180,000 t a year after the 2022 expansions. Albemarle holds 100% of its own Salar de Atacama brine operation. | 123 | |
| Salar del Hombre Muerto (Fenix) | Argentina | Lithium | Argentine lithium brine operation (Fenix), listed in Rio Tinto's 2025 report within the Arcadium Lithium assets. | 12 | |
| San Rafael | Peru | Tin | Peru's San Rafael is an underground tin mine. History not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Serra Pelada | Brazil | Gold | Wikidata describes it as a former large gold mine in Brazil. The 1980 rush, numbers of diggers, output and closure are only in unopened pages (see NOTES.md). | 1 | |
| Shizhuyuan | China | Tungsten, Bismuth, Tin, Fluorspar | Chinese polymetallic mine producing tungsten, bismuth, tin and fluorspar. History not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Sons of Gwalia | Australia | Gold | Closed in 1963 and reopened in the 1980s by Sons of Gwalia Ltd. Between 1895 and 1915 the large WA mines produced 66 million pounds, 56 percent of WA gold, and by 1925 Gwalia was the only big mine outside the Golden Mile. | 123 | |
| Sorowako | Indonesia | Nickel | PT Vale Indonesia's nickel mine at Sorowako, Sulawesi, producing nickel matte per USGS 2020-21. | 12 | |
| South Crofty mine | United Kingdom | Tin, Copper | ICOMOS describes South Crofty as the last Cornish tin mine to close, in 1998, after the 1866 copper crash left only tin mines working. It lies within the Camborne and Redruth area of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (inscribed 2006). | 12 | |
| St Ives | Australia | Gold | St Ives is a gold operation in the eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, 75 km south-south-east of Kalgoorlie. Gold Fields reports 369.6 koz of gold in 2025 and a 4.7 Mtpa processing capacity. The Invincible underground complex is its main ore source, and the company expects mine life into 2040. | 12 | |
| Stibnite | United States of America | Antimony, Gold, Tungsten | Stibnite in central Idaho was the largest US tungsten mine and the main US antimony source in the Second World War. Claims were staked in 1914 and Bradley Mining took an option in 1927. Donald White of the US Geological Survey found scheelite in drill cores in February 1940. From 1941 to 1945 the mine produced 831,829 WO3 units of tungsten, about 40 per cent of US output, and 10,828 t of antimony, about 90 per cent. Perpetua received a Record of Decision in January 2025 and a conditional Notice to Proceed on 19 September 2025. | 123 | |
| Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations - Fraser | Canada | Nickel | Fraser is one of Vale's Sudbury nickel mines in Ontario, where Vale sells 70% of by-product gold under a stream for 20 years. | 12 | |
| Tanco | Canada | Tantalum, Caesium, Lithium | Tanco in Manitoba mines tantalum, caesium and lithium. History not yet sourced. | 1 | |
| Tarnowskie Gory lead-silver-zinc mine | Poland | Lead, Silver, Zinc | Silesian lead-silver-zinc mining site with an underground water management system, on the World Heritage List since 2017. Dates and output are not verified from an opened page. | 12 | |
| TauTona | South Africa | Gold | Deep gold mine near Carletonville, South Africa, placed on orderly closure by AngloGold Ashanti in 2017. It is now part of Harmony's Mponeng area. | 123 | |
| Telfer | Australia | Gold, Copper, Silver | Telfer is a gold and copper mine in the Great Sandy Desert, 400 km east-south-east of Port Hedland, Western Australia. USGS listed it under Newcrest Mining with a gold capacity of 15,000 kg a year for 2021. Discovery, opening and current ownership are not yet sourced. | 12 | |
| Tenke Fungurume (TFM) | Dem. Rep. Congo | Cobalt, Copper | Copper and cobalt mine in Lualaba, DR Congo. In 2020 it produced 182,597 t of refined copper and 15,436 t of cobalt in hydroxide (2019: 177,956 t and 16,098 t). | 12 | |
| Thacker Pass | United States of America | Lithium | Large lithium clay project in the McDermitt Caldera, Humboldt County, Nevada. Lithium Americas targets mechanical completion of Phase 1 in late 2027, backed by a USD 2.26 billion US Department of Energy loan. | 12 | |
| Tonglushan copper mine | China | Copper | Wikidata lists the item as a Chinese copper mine and a separate item as an archaeological site. Dates and output are not verified; add from the Chinese heritage authority or a peer-reviewed paper. | 12 | |
| Uis | Namibia | Tin, Tantalum | Uis tin and tantalum mine in Namibia. Andrada Mining describes established tin and tantalum concentrate production with possible rubidium and niobium credits. Uis Tin Mining Company, 85 per cent owned by AfriTin Mining, made 63.9 t of tin concentrate in November 2020 and 248 t in December 2020 when it reached commercial production. Phase 1 was designed to ramp up to 720 t a year of concentrate, and Namibia's tin output rose by 3,020 per cent in 2020. | 123 | |
| Venetia | South Africa | Diamonds | Venetia is a De Beers diamond mine in South Africa. It produced 3.77 million carats in 2020, up from 1.92 million in 2019 on higher grades, and 5.31 million carats in 2021. Surface reserves were near depletion by the end of 2020, so De Beers was building Venetia Underground to extend the life beyond 2045. Underground output was due to start in the third quarter of 2022. | 12 | |
| Voisey's Bay / Ovoid | Canada | Nickel, Copper, Cobalt | Vale's Voisey's Bay nickel and copper operation in Newfoundland and Labrador. | 12 | |
| Weda Bay | Indonesia | Nickel | Indonesian laterite nickel mine. PT Weda Bay Nickel commissioned a ferronickel smelter in Central Halmahera in 2020 with 300,000 t a year capacity. PT Weda Bay Nickel commissioned a smelter in Central Halmahera, North Maluku, in 2020 with capacity for 300,000 t a year of ferronickel. USGS says the Weda Bay industrial zone was expected to employ up to 30,000 workers. | 123 | |
| Wheal Jane | United Kingdom | Tin | Wikidata calls it a disused tin mine in West Cornwall. Closure year, output and the 1992 water release are not verified from an opened page. | 1 | |
| Windimurra | Australia | Vanadium | Vanadium operation in Western Australia, listed in USGS 2020-21. | 12 | |
| Wodgina | Australia | Lithium, Tantalum | Western Australian hard-rock lithium mine, 50% Albemarle and 50% Mineral Resources through MARBL. Idled in 2019 and restarted in the second quarter of 2022. USGS says the mine was placed on care and maintenance in 2020 and that the joint venture announced a restart in late 2021. Since the October 2023 restructuring Albemarle and Mineral Resources each own 50 per cent, and Mineral Resources runs the mine. | 1234 | |
| Xikuangshan | China | Antimony | Hunan's Xikuangshan is the best known antimony field in China. History not yet sourced. USGS 2021 lists Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star Antimony, wholly owned by China Minmetals, at Lengshuijiang in Hunan, with ore capacity of 600,000 t a year and metal capacity of 40,000 t a year. | 12 | |
| Yanacocha | Peru | Gold, Silver | Gold mine in northern Peru made up of open pits on leach pads: La Quinua, Yanacocha, Carachugo and Maqui Maqui complexes. | 12 | |
| Zawar zinc mines | India | Zinc, Lead | Hindustan Zinc presents Zawar as a 3,000 year old mining legacy and lists it among its mining operations. No coordinates, dates or output were verified from the page opened. Wikidata item for Zawar is a place in Sikkim and was not used. | 1 |
| Born | Person | Roles | Legacy | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | Pliny the Elder | writer, rescuer | Books 33 to 37 of his Natural History deal with mineralogy and its use in life and art. The 1911 Britannica gives his dates as c. AD 23-79. | 12 |
| 1459 | Jakob Fugger the Rich | magnate, financier | Built a combined system of finance and politics, backing Maximilian, and entered Hungarian mining and metals trade centred on Neusohl from 1494. | 12 |
| 1494 | Georgius Agricola (Georg Bauer) | scientist, writer | Author of De re metallica (Basel 1556), a standard work on mining and smelting. He was mayor of Chemnitz four times. | 1 |
| 1497 | Bartolome de Medina | engineer, scientist | In the patio process ore was crushed to slime and mixed with salt, water, magistral and mercury, and horses trampled it. It needed little wood or water and replaced smelting as the main way to extract silver, driving output in Mexico and Peru. | 123 |
| 1504 | Johann Mathesius | writer | Lutheran pastor in Joachimsthal who married the daughter of a mining official. Agricola knew and valued him there. | 12 |
| 1645 | Hans Carl von Carlowitz | engineer, writer | Worried by forests of the Erzgebirge stripped by mining and trades, he published Sylvicultura oeconomica in 1713, the first purely forestry book in the world. | 1 |
| 1653 | Georg von Giesche | magnate | Regarded as the founder of modern Upper Silesian calamine digging, from which the region's large zinc output grew. | 1 |
| 1656 | Nikita Demidov | magnate | Peter the Great ennobled him in 1720. The 1911 Britannica gives his birth as about 1665, while Wikidata gives 1656. | 123 |
| 1663 | Thomas Newcomen | engineer | The DNB says his engine remained the model for pumping engines for nearly three quarters of a century. An engine for Edmonstone Colliery, Midlothian, was contracted in 1725. He was baptised at Dartmouth on 28 February 1663. | 1 |
| 1678 | Akinfiy Demidov | magnate | The 1911 Britannica gives his death as about 1740 and Wikidata as 1745. Later Demidovs funded science and the arts. | 123 |
| 1737 | Matonabbee | explorer | A Chipewyan leader whose knowledge of the copper country shaped early northern exploration. | 1 |
| 1742 | Carl Wilhelm Scheele | scientist | The 1911 Britannica calls his record as a discoverer of new substances probably unequalled. In 1778 he also obtained molybdic acid from molybdenite and in 1775 studied arsenic acid. | 12 |
| 1749 | Abraham Gottlob Werner | geologist, scientist | His Freiberg teaching drew students such as Alexander von Humboldt. He died in Dresden and was buried in Freiberg. | 123 |
| 1752 | Friedrich Wilhelm von Reden | engineer, politician | Built up ore mining at Tarnowitz and the Friedrichshuette, where he installed the first steam engine in 1788 and which met all Prussia's lead needs. He became Prussian minister in 1803, succeeding Heynitz. | 12 |
| 1761 | William Gregor | scientist, geologist | In 1797 Klaproth, who had named the metal, acknowledged that the discovery belonged solely to Gregor. The mineral is sometimes called gregorite. | 12 |
| 1769 | Alexander von Humboldt | scientist, explorer, engineer | As Oberbergmeister in Ansbach-Bayreuth he raised mine yields, worked on a safety lamp and breathing apparatus, and founded from his own funds a mining school at Steben in 1793, the first of its kind, which the state took over. | 12 |
| 1771 | Richard Trevithick | engineer | Pioneer of the high-pressure engine and the first steam railway locomotive (1803). In 1816 he went to Peru to install engines in mines. | 12 |
| 1778 | Humphry Davy | scientist, engineer | Published On the Safety Lamp for Coal Mines in 1818, was made a baronet on 20 October 1818 and also gave support to the Geological Society of Cornwall founded in 1813. Born at Penzance; died in Geneva. | 1 |
| 1779 | John Taylor | engineer, financier | Founded the consolidated mines at Gwennap in 1819. Treasurer of the Geological Society from 1816 to 1844, fellow of the Royal Society from 1825 and a founder of the British Association. He wrote Statements concerning the Profits of Mining in England (1825) and edited Records of Mining (1829). | 123 |
| 1796 | Paul Edmund de Strzelecki | explorer, geologist | Governor Gipps asked him not to publicise the gold for fear of unrest among convicts and labourers, so the find was kept quiet until the 1851 rush (DNB). | 12 |
| 1797 | Abraham Gesner | geologist, scientist | Held US patents for kerosene burning fluids from 27 June 1854. | 12 |
| 1798 | William Logan | geologist | Founder and first director of the Geological Survey of Canada. His mineral display won the Grand Medal of Honour at the Paris Exposition of 1855. | 1 |
| 1801 | Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury | politician | Known as Lord Ashley when he pressed for inquiry into the mines. An 1842 Act passed under his care ended the apprenticeship system and barred women and boys under thirteen from underground work. | 12 |
| 1803 | John Sutter | magnate | His mill race was where James Marshall found gold, starting the California gold rush. Appletons describes him as of Swiss parentage, born in Baden. | 12 |
| 1812 | James Marshall | prospector | His discovery brought a great influx of people to California. A bronze statue of him stands at Coloma, according to Appletons. | 1 |
| 1813 | Henry Bessemer | engineer, scientist | His converter blew air through molten iron to remove carbon and impurities. The Sheffield works became profitable about ten years after opening. He was knighted in 1879. | 123 |
| 1816 | Edward Hammond Hargraves | prospector, explorer | Described by the DNB as the pioneer of gold-mining in Australia. The DNB also notes the idea was already 'in the air', since Strzelecki had found gold-bearing quartz in 1839 and Murchison had predicted such deposits. | 12 |
| 1817 | Billy Barker | prospector, miner | The boom town of Barkerville grew up around the strike and was named after him. | 1 |
| 1820 | George Hearst | magnate, politician | Held interests in important mines in Utah, South Dakota and Montana, became US Senator from California in 1886 and helped launch the publishing career of his son William Randolph Hearst. | 12 |
| 1820 | Henry 'Pancake' Comstock | prospector | The Comstock Lode is named after him although others found the ore. | 1 |
| 1820 | John 'Cariboo' Cameron | prospector | The village of Camerontown was named after him and the Cameron Claim became one of the largest operations in the Cariboo. | 1 |
| 1821 | William Sharon | financier, politician | Built a Comstock monopoly of mines, mills and the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. | 12 |
| 1823 | Mifflin Wistar Gibbs | financier | Opened a Victoria store in partnership with Peter Lester, reportedly the first mercantile business outside the Hudson's Bay Company, and became a businessman and politician. Over 400 Black migrants have been identified who reached Vancouver Island, most from 1858 to 1860. | 1 |
| 1824 | Alfred Selwyn | geologist | He assessed the coal and gold fields of Tasmania and South Australia, then succeeded William Logan as director of the Geological Survey of Canada. | 1 |
| 1825 | Gabriel Read | prospector | Wikidata describes him as a gold prospector and farmer. The Otago gold rush is associated with his name, but no primary page for the 1861 find was reachable. | 12 |
| 1825 | Robert Dunsmuir | magnate, miner, politician | Staked the rich Wellington coal seam north of Nanaimo and created Dunsmuir, Diggle Limited in 1873 with naval officers' money. | 12 |
| 1826 | Louis Ah Mouy | financier | Sent large quantities of goods to Ballarat. In September 1855 he and Lowe Kong Meng were joint agents for passengers sailing to China. The Public Record Office Victoria article says his career deserves more research. | 123 |
| 1828 | Meyer Guggenheim | magnate, financier | His firm grew into the most important silver-smelting company in the world and in 1900 joined the American Smelting and Refining Company, keeping a controlling interest. He had eight sons, and several of them carried the business on. | 1234 |
| 1830 | Adolph Sutro | engineer, financier, politician | Became mayor of San Francisco and used Comstock wealth to buy Bay City real estate. | 12 |
| 1830 | Horace Tabor | magnate, prospector | Leadville and Colorado silver history. The story that he told his wife to hold on to the Matchless is not supported by recent scholarship. | 123 |
| 1831 | John Mackay | magnate, miner | Workers praised his daily visits underground in miner's clothes. Mackay School of Mines at Reno carries his name. | 12 |
| 1831 | Lowe Kong Meng | financier, magnate | On 30 May 1859 he led a delegation of Melbourne's Chinese merchants to the Chief Secretary to plead exemption from the residence tax. By the early 1860s his firm had branches in Melbourne, Mauritius, Hong Kong and London, and he was customs agent for 53 ships between 1857 and 1867. | 123 |
| 1832 | Thomas Flanagan | prospector | Co-discoverer of the Kalgoorlie field with Hannan and O'Shea. | 12 |
| 1833 | Alfred Nobel | scientist, financier | Dynamite and blasting gelatine made large-scale mining and tunnelling cheaper. His will created the Nobel Prizes. | 12 |
| 1833 | Augusta Tabor | financier | An astute businesswoman who invested her settlement wisely and was one of the wealthiest women in Denver. | 1 |
| 1833 | Chief Ouray | politician | Leader of the Tabeguache Ute band whom the US named chief of all Utes in Colorado. Ouray County and the town of Ouray carry his name. | 1 |
| 1833 | Ferdinand von Richthofen | geologist, explorer, scientist | Later a professor of geography at Bonn, he developed a systematic geomorphology from his China observations. | 1 |
| 1835 | Alexander Agassiz | engineer, magnate | President of Calumet and Hecla from 1871 until his death. In 1883 he installed a giant engine able to lift 24 tons of rock from 1,200 metres. He gave about 500,000 dollars to Harvard from his copper fortune. | 1 |
| 1837 | Carl Mauch | explorer, prospector, geologist | His maps were the first of south-east Africa, and the NDB says they carried geological notes on gold and coal. Funds for his equipment came from about 2600 thalers raised through August Petermann. | 1 |
| 1837 | Thomas Frood | prospector | He found a deposit near Sudbury that the Canadian Copper Company president wanted to buy as one of the district's richest. | 1 |
| 1838 | John William Cove | rescuer | A physician who with colleagues from Amherst, Oxford and Parrsboro treated the 17 burned and maimed survivors of the 1891 Springhill explosion without an ambulance or hospital; four later died. | 1 |
| 1839 | David Moffat | financier | Banker and railroad builder who linked Denver to the Rockies by the Moffat Road, still used today. | 1 |
| 1839 | Jamsetji Tata | magnate, financier | The works town was named Jamshedpur for him. In 1898 he offered property valued at 200,000 pounds for a research institute, which became the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore. | 1234 |
| 1839 | William A. Clark | magnate, politician, financier | Montana elected him again in January 1901 and he served one term, retiring in 1907. The Mining Foundation of the Southwest records that Clara Clark, one of Montana Tech's first women mining engineers, evaluated ore deposits for him. | 1234 |
| 1840 | Ignace Tonene (Nias) | prospector | A Temagami Ojibwa chief and fur trader who became a prospector in his sixties. | 1 |
| 1840 | Paddy Hannan | prospector | Kalgoorlie grew from the rush to 'Hannans'. Its main street carries his name and has a bronze statue of him. | 123 |
| 1840 | Rossiter W. Raymond | engineer, writer | Studied at Freiberg, became US Commissioner of Mineral Statistics in 1868 and advised Congress on the Mining Law of 1872. He edited the Engineering and Mining Journal from 1867 to 1890 and was Secretary of the American Institute of Mining Engineers from 1884 to 1911. | 123 |
| 1843 | Joseph R. De Lamar | magnate, financier | In the 1890s he sent Jackling and Gemmel to examine Bingham Canyon. He declined to invest, but the report helped start its development. Three former mining towns carry his name. | 1 |
| 1843 | Marcus Daly | magnate, prospector | Managed the Anaconda Copper Mining Company from 1881 to the late 1890s and built the Bitterroot Stock Farm, sawmills and a town to feed his smelters. The finding aid spells his birth county as Craven; it is presumably Cavan. | 12 |
| 1843 | Sammy Marks | magnate, financier | Founded the town of Vereeniging through a mining company, developed the Viljoen's Drift coal mine and the Witbank coalfield, and served as senator from 1910 to 1920. | 12 |
| 1844 | Charles Rudd | magnate, financier | The concession promised 100 pounds a month, 1,000 Martini-Henry rifles with 100,000 rounds, and a steamboat on the Zambezi or 500 pounds instead. A royal charter for the British South Africa Company followed on 29 October 1889. | 1234 |
| 1844 | Henry Skeffington Poole | engineer | Mining engineer who lobbied for change after accidents had killed one miner in forty over seven years in Nova Scotia. | 1 |
| 1845 | Lobengula | politician | Signed the Rudd Concession on 30 October 1888 after Dr Jameson arrived at Bulawayo. He had earlier granted mineral cessions to Baines (1871) and Swinburne (1872). The 1911 source is an imperial-era account. | 1234 |
| 1845 | Nellie Cashman | prospector, miner | She ran boarding houses to fund her mining. In 1901 only one per cent of Yukon miners were women, and she was one of them. | 12 |
| 1845 | Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson | magnate, politician | Made a fortune buying diamonds from Africans on the Vaal and diamond-bearing land at Kimberley. He was mayor of Kimberley in 1880, sat in the Cape parliament, and stood aloof from Rand mining combinations. | 1 |
| 1847 | Hermann Eckstein | financier, magnate | His firm became a leading house on the Rand. The Dictionary of National Biography names him only briefly, in the Beit entry. | 123 |
| 1848 | Henry Swift | miner, victim | Seen by some as a self-made man and by others as an autocratic boss; criticism grew during a bitter 1890 strike that miners won by flooding the lower levels. | 1 |
| 1849 | Clara Kinney | magnate, financier | Patented 25 claims in the Sleeping Beauty Mountains between 1907 and 1919. The Foundation describes her as the most prolific and successful woman mine owner in the Globe-Miami district. | 1 |
| 1849 | George Mercer Dawson | geologist | His survey reports and his ethnological work earned international attention. | 12 |
| 1850 | Chief Isaac (Tr'ondek Han) | politician | Founded the village of Moosehide on the Yukon River through diplomacy during the Klondike rush, when Han lands were overrun. The Tr'ondek Hwech'in later negotiated a treaty and self-government. | 1 |
| 1850 | Edwin Gilpin | engineer | Inspector of mines in Nova Scotia after the 1891 Springhill explosion that killed 125 men and boys. DCB says he made a material difference to mine safety. | 1 |
| 1850 | Julius Wernher | magnate, financier | A leader in consolidating the Kimberley mines into De Beers Consolidated in 1888. The firm became Wernher, Beit and Co. in 1890. He gave 250,000 pounds to Imperial College and left a Watteau to the National Gallery. He became a baronet in 1905. | 1234 |
| 1850 | Thomas F. Walsh | prospector, magnate | Sold Camp Bird to a London syndicate in 1902 for cash, ore and stock. He paid miners better than any union could and gave Ouray a library. His daughter Evalyn and her husband Edward McLean co-owned the Hope diamond. | 1 |
| 1851 | Barney Barnato | magnate, financier | His Barnato Diamond Mining Company was the main rival to De Beers before the 1888 merger. He later sat in the Cape Parliament for Kimberley. | 123 |
| 1851 | James Dunsmuir | magnate, politician | He became lieutenant governor of British Columbia and helped run the family coal and railway business after 1889. | 12 |
| 1851 | Mary Catherine (Mollie) Gortner | prospector | The Mollie Kathleen Mine worked until 1961 and still runs tours. Her son Perry held a third interest and managed it until 1949. | 1 |
| 1852 | William Ford (Coolgardie) | prospector | Co-discoverer of Coolgardie. | 12 |
| 1853 | Alfred Beit | financier | His firm Wernher, Beit and Co. was a forerunner in the Rand deep-level system, which the DNB says is chiefly due for later Rand prosperity. He left the residue of his fortune to his brother Otto and left an estate at Hamburg to the city. | 12 |
| 1853 | Cecil Rhodes | magnate, politician, financier | Formed De Beers Consolidated in 1888 and the British South Africa Company. His will funded the Rhodes scholarships. His colonial legacy remains contested. | 1 |
| 1854 | Elizabeth 'Baby Doe' Tabor | financier | The subject of films and an opera, and a symbol of the boom and bust of Colorado silver. | 1 |
| 1855 | Skookum Jim Mason (Keish) | prospector, miner | His estate paid yearly sums to his family and a large part was left in trust for Yukon Indians. The DCB gives him a full biography as a Tagish packer and prospector. | 1 |
| 1856 | Daniel Guggenheim | magnate, financier | Retired in 1923 and founded the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Foundation in 1924. His aeronautics fund supported Robert Goddard's rocket work. | 1234 |
| 1856 | John Stewart MacArthur | scientist, engineer | After his 1890 demonstration on the Witwatersrand, recovery from complex ores rose from about 45 to 98 per cent and monthly gold output roughly doubled within two years. He later refined radium at Runcorn and Balloch. | 123 |
| 1856 | Keir Hardie | labour leader, politician, miner | Secretary of the Ayrshire miners from 1881 and of the Scottish miners' federation from 1886. At Mid-Lanark in 1888 he polled 617 of 7,381 votes in what is described as the first independent labour contest. He chaired the Scottish Labour Party. | 123 |
| 1859 | Dorabji Tata | magnate, financier | With his cousin RD Tata he carried his father's steel project forward after 1904, and the first ingot was rolled in 1912. | 1234 |
| 1860 | Daniel M. Barringer | geologist, magnate | Eugene Shoemaker's research gave proof of the impact origin in 1960. | 1 |
| 1860 | Dawson Charlie (Kaa Goox) | prospector, miner | Bought the Caribou Hotel in Carcross. Born to a Tagish mother and Tlingit father, he is one of the Indigenous discoverers often left out of Klondike stories. | 1 |
| 1860 | George Carmack | prospector | Credited as discoverer of the Klondike gold, a title shared in the record with Keish and Dawson Charlie. | 123 |
| 1860 | Reuben Wells Leonard | magnate, engineer | DCB says it became lore that he viewed his great wealth as a public trust. He gave to universities, churches and hospitals. | 12 |
| 1860 | Simon Iturri Patino | magnate | Later bought tin mines in Thailand and Malaysia and for decades dominated the world tin market. He died in Buenos Aires on 20 April 1947. The 1952 revolution nationalised his Bolivian mines. | 12345 |
| 1860 | Waldemar Lindgren | geologist, scientist, engineer | Spent 31 years at the USGS, rising to Chief Geologist in 1911, then headed the geology department at MIT until 1933. His Mineral Deposits (1913) became a classic, and he helped found Economic Geology in 1905. | 123 |
| 1862 | Kate Carmack (Shaaw Tlaa) | prospector | A Tagish woman whose wage work, fish camp and family alliance sat behind the Klondike discovery. Her brother Skookum Jim built her a cabin at Carcross. | 123 |
| 1863 | Charles Martin Hall | scientist, engineer | The 1911 Britannica says that by the end of the 19th century the Heroult-Hall method alone was used to make aluminium worldwide. A Hall-process plant was built at Niagara Falls in 1894. | 123 |
| 1863 | Paul Heroult | scientist, engineer | The Britannica says it is idle to argue who first thought of the method, as new ideas are often born in several minds at once. | 123 |
| 1864 | Andrew Gibb Maitland | geologist | Produced hundreds of field maps and 91 survey bulletins. Gibb River and the Maitland Range are named after him. | 1 |
| 1865 | Arthur Bayley | prospector | Opened the first big Western Australian goldfield. Hannan wrote that only Bayley's claim was still working at Coolgardie in 1893. | 123 |
| 1865 | Jules Cornet | geologist, explorer | A professor at Mons and Ghent, he trained about 80 geologists and engineers who worked in Congo. The copper mineral cornetite, described in 1912, is named for him. | 123 |
| 1865 | Spencer Penrose | magnate, financier | His fortune funded landmarks in Colorado Springs, including the Broadmoor Hotel and the El Pomar Foundation. | 1 |
| 1867 | John M. Callow | engineer, scientist | Born in Norfolk, he came to the United States in 1890 and originated pneumatic flotation for treating ores. The Callow flotation machine was widely used in the first decades of flotation. He held 18 patents and won the Douglas medal in 1926. | 1 |
| 1867 | Joseph Whiteside Boyle | magnate, rescuer | His dredging operation peaked with four dredges, three of them the world's largest, and a power plant. In 1917 to 1919 he helped rescue about 50 high-ranking Romanians held in Odessa and became a national hero in Romania. | 123 |
| 1867 | Margaret 'Molly' Brown | rescuer, financier | Survived the Titanic in 1912 and used her languages to coordinate and comfort survivors. Her Denver home is now a museum. She was never known as Molly in her life. | 1 |
| 1867 | Marie Curie | scientist | She used the residue left after uranium salts were extracted from St Joachimsthal pitchblende as raw material. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911. | 12 |
| 1867 | Noah Timmins | magnate, financier | Cobalt eventually gave 26 million ounces of silver and the Hollinger claims nearly 600 million dollars of gold before underground work ended in 1968. | 1 |
| 1867 | Simon Guggenheim | magnate, politician | Served as a US senator from Colorado from 1907 to 1913. In 1925 he set up the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, which has funded thousands of scholars, scientists and artists. | 1234 |
| 1869 | Daniel C. Jackling | engineer, magnate | As manager and later president of Utah Copper he developed Bingham as the first large open pit mine and concentrator complex in the United States. He applied the same scale to the Chino and Ray mines. | 123 |
| 1869 | F. Augustus Heinze | magnate, engineer, financier | Depositors ran on banks linked to the group, including the Knickerbocker Trust. United Copper failed in 1913 and Heinze died in 1914. | 1234 |
| 1869 | J. B. McLachlan | miner, labour leader | After the 25 July 1917 explosion at New Waterford killed 65 men and boys, he pushed for compensation, prosecution of company officials and changes to the Coal Mines Regulation Act. | 1 |
| 1869 | William D. Haywood | labour leader | Acquitted on 29 July 1907 after a trial that began on 9 May with Clarence Darrow defending. He was a founder of the IWW and wrote The General Strike (1911). | 1234 |
| 1871 | Hans Merensky | geologist, prospector | His find set off a platinum rush and two mining companies he founded. The reef is among the world's largest platinum deposits. He also suspected diamonds in Namaqualand fossil oyster beds. | 1 |
| 1873 | Sidney Percival Bunting | labour leader, politician | Lawyer in Johannesburg and a founder of the Communist Party of South Africa. With Thibedi he worked to launch an African mineworkers' union. | 12 |
| 1874 | Herbert Hoover | engineer, politician | Superintendent of Sons of Gwalia until late 1898, then moved to China and became a Bewick Moreing partner. He became US President (1929-33). The State Library of WA says he was known for cutting costs and driving workers hard. | 12 |
| 1874 | Robert Service | writer | Called the Bard of the Yukon. The Shooting of Dan McGrew and The Cremation of Sam McGee became two of the most memorised poems in English. He was never a prospector. | 1 |
| 1875 | Alfred Chester Beatty | magnate, engineer | Left the Guggenheims in 1908 and founded Selection Trust in London in 1914. He made a fortune in what are now Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo through Rhodesian Selection Trust and the Bwana M'Kubwa and Mufulira mines. Naturalised British in 1933, he became the first person given honorary Irish citizenship in 1957. | 123 |
| 1876 | Clara Clark | engineer | Worked as an assayer at Gibsonville, Idaho, and as a consultant to William A. Clark, and owned parts of claims in Butte. She was the only female life member of the American Mining Congress from Montana and kept encouraging other women to take up mining engineering. | 1 |
| 1876 | Claude de Bernales | magnate, financier | Called the man with the Midas touch. Built London Court in Perth and Overton Lodge in Cottesloe. | 1 |
| 1879 | Edgar Sengier | magnate, engineer | At the end of 1940, fearing a takeover of the Congo, he had a lot of very rich ore from Shinkolobwe shipped to New York, where it was stored on Staten Island. The first grams of Union Miniere radium came out of the Olen plant in late 1922. Wikidata gives his birth as 19 October. | 123 |
| 1879 | Joe Hill | miner, labour leader, writer | Born Joel Hagglund in Gavle, he reached New York in 1902 and worked in the Park City mines from 1913. His IWW songs include The Preacher and the Slave and There Is Power in a Union. | 123 |
| 1879 | Selwyn Blaylock | engineer, magnate | Rose from smelter superintendent to general manager (1919) and president (1939) of Consolidated Mining and Smelting, later Cominco. DCB notes net profits never fell below 9 million dollars through the Second World War. | 1 |
| 1880 | Ernest Oppenheimer | magnate, financier, politician | Founded Anglo American in September 1917 with J. P. Morgan finance, chaired De Beers from 1929 and formed the Central Selling Organization. | 1 |
| 1881 | Essington Lewis | magnate, engineer | Expanded ore output at Iron Knob after BHP moved into steel at Newcastle in 1913. In May 1940 he became Director-General of Munitions, and after the war he backed the Whyalla steelworks and shipyards. He accepted the Companion of Honour in 1943. | 123 |
| 1881 | Mauricio (Moritz) Hochschild | magnate, rescuer | Documents found from 1999 show he helped as many as 20,000 Jews escape the Nazis, funding resettlement in Bolivia from 1939. Unesco added his company archive to the Memory of the World Register in 2016. | 12 |
| 1882 | Mary 'Pickhandle Mary' Fitzgerald | labour leader | Earned her nickname in 1911 when she led women into a hardware store armed with pick handles. In 1921 she became the first woman on the Johannesburg City Council. | 1 |
| 1883 | Isabel Little | engineer | Worked as an assayer and mining consultant and spoke openly about the hardships underground and miners' reluctance to admit women. She promoted women in mining engineering. | 1 |
| 1885 | Benjamin Hollinger | prospector | The Hollinger gold mine and the Porcupine camp became a pillar of Ontario's economy. | 1 |
| 1887 | Albert 'Ginger' Goodwin | miner, labour leader | His funeral drew a mile-long procession and his death prompted British Columbia's first general strike. The circumstances of his death are still disputed. | 1 |
| 1891 | James Paul Norrie | engineer, prospector | DCB says the Malartic area owes him a great deal; in 2011 Osisko began an open-pit mine combining several sites he helped exploit. He sold his Ile Tiblemont shares to an American group for a considerable sum. | 1 |
| 1891 | Stanley Siscoe (Stanislaw Szyszka) | miner, prospector | Formed the Siscoe Mining Syndicate and later Siscoe Gold Mines Limited, whose capital stock rose to five million shares by 1930. | 1 |
| 1893 | Zeno Lightfoot Dili | miner, rescuer, victim | An Apache cage operator from San Carlos, he was posthumously given a gold medal by the Joseph A. Holmes Safety Association in 1935. His story marks the part Apache miners played in Arizona copper mining. | 1 |
| 1896 | Antenor Patino | magnate | A Bolivian diplomat in Madrid, Paris and London, he began building the Hotel Las Hadas at Manzanillo, Mexico, in the mid-1960s. | 12 |
| 1903 | J. B. Marks | labour leader, politician | The union struck on 12 August 1946 with over 100000 miners. SAHO says soldiers forced them back into the shafts and hundreds were killed. | 1 |
| 1904 | Stan Hilditch | prospector | BHP developed the Mt Newman mine after the export embargo lifted in 1961. | 1 |
| 1906 | Herbert Edmund Davies, Baron Edmund-Davies | rescuer | A south Wales barrister, he chaired the tribunal into the Aberfan disaster from 26 October 1966. It sat for 76 days, heard 136 witnesses and reported on 3 August 1967 that blame rested on the National Coal Board. It was the longest inquiry of its type in Britain up to then. | 1234 |
| 1907 | Victor Paz Estenssoro | politician | On 31 October 1952 his government decreed the nationalisation of the properties of Aramayo, Hochschild and Patino. COMIBOL was set up in 1952 to run about 163 mines. In 1985 his economic policy cut 23,000 mining jobs. | 1234 |
| 1908 | Gaur Radebe | labour leader | Helped found the African Mineworkers' Union in 1941 and later joined the Pan Africanist Congress. | 1 |
| 1908 | Harry Oppenheimer | magnate, politician | Took control of the family businesses when his father died in 1957 and remained a De Beers director until 1994. The Guardian says he was the last of the Randlords and an early businessman to open talks with the ANC. | 1 |
| 1908 | Jean Jacques Dozy | geologist, explorer | Freeport's Forbes Wilson read it and in 1960 trekked about 200 miles with Del Flint and John Bowenkamp. Sampling indicated about 13 million tons above 4 per cent copper. | 12 |
| 1908 | Peter Wright (Pilbara) | prospector, magnate | Co-signed the royalty deal covering the deposits they found and others later exploited. | 12 |
| 1908 | Salvador Allende | politician | On 21 December 1970 he proposed a constitutional amendment to expropriate the copper companies. Congress passed it on 11 July 1971 and it became law five days later. US companies including Anaconda and Kennecott received little or no compensation. | 123 |
| 1909 | Lang Hancock | prospector, magnate | In 1963 Hancock and partner Peter Wright signed a deal with Rio Tinto's Hamersley Iron for royalties of 2.5 per cent of the value of all ore mined, in perpetuity. His daughter Gina Rinehart chairs Hancock Prospecting. | 12 |
| 1910 | Alfred Robens, Baron Robens of Woldingham | politician | The Tribunal judged parts of his evidence unreliable. The Aberfan inquiry found the Board responsible for the 1966 disaster. | 123 |
| 1914 | Juan Lechin Oquendo | labour leader, politician | Wikidata describes him as a trade unionist and Vice President of Bolivia. After 1952 the miners' federation shared management of COMIBOL, the state mining company. | 12 |
| 1914 | Ken Shirley | prospector | He started prospecting at Coober Pedy and Tennant Creek and pegged the Jubilee mine in 1936. | 12 |
| 1919 | Moise Tshombe | politician | Proclaimed the independence of Katanga on 11 July 1960. Copper export revenue was central to the dispute with the central government. He accepted the UN plan on 14 January 1963, which ended the secession. | 12 |
| 1921 | Seretse Khama | politician | First president of Botswana from independence in 1966 until his death. Diamond mining began with De Beers in 1971 and Orapa opened as a Debswana mine. Debswana is a 50-50 venture between government and De Beers Centenary. In 2003 diamonds were about 36 per cent of GDP. | 12 |
| 1924 | Kenneth Kaunda | politician | On 10 August 1969 he announced the nationalisation of Zambia's copper mining firms. The state bought a controlling interest in the two largest concerns, owned by Anglo American and Roan Selection Trust. In 1982 they were merged as ZCCM, with the state holding 60.3 per cent. | 1234 |
| 1930 | Elijah Barayi | labour leader, miner | In May 1985 he led 9000 miners at Blyvooruitzicht on strike over the dismissal of two shaft stewards. He became the first president of COSATU. He started in 1960 as a clerk at State Mines, Brakpan. | 1 |
| 1930 | Mary 'Mother' Jones | labour leader | Published an autobiography in 1925 and died aged 100 at Silver Spring, Maryland. The NPS calls her one of the fiercest upholders of labour rights. | 1 |
| 1937 | Domitila Barrios de Chungara | labour leader, writer | General secretary of the Housewives Committee of the Twentieth Century, which pressed for better conditions for miners. With four other women she organised a 1977 to 1978 hunger strike of 4,000 people. Her testimony Let Me Speak! appeared in English in 1978. | 123 |
| 1950 | Robert Friedland | magnate, financier | Contracted geologists made the Voisey's Bay nickel-copper find while he co-led Diamond Fields Resources, and Inco bought it in 1996 for 4.3 billion Canadian dollars. Ivanhoe began exploring Oyu Tolgoi in 2000, and Rio Tinto took majority control in 2012. Ivanhoe's 2009 Kamoa find is described as the DRC's largest copper discovery in a century. Historic facts only. | 12 |
| 1952 | Cyril Ramaphosa | labour leader | Historic mining role only: founding secretary of the NUM. SAHO records him elected President of South Africa on 15 February 2018. | 12 |
| 1954 | Gina Rinehart | magnate | Chair of Hancock Prospecting, which operates the Hope Downs and Roy Hill mines in the Pilbara (State Library of WA). | 123 |
| 1961 | Andrew Forrest | magnate | Fortescue shipped its first ore on 15 May 2008, and Cloudbreak began mining that month at about 40 million tonnes a year. Christmas Creek started in May 2009. He stepped down as chief executive in August 2011 and became chairman. These are historic facts from a 2012 report. | 123 |
| Arthur H. Sweeney | miner | Collie coal miner whose recorded interview is in the State Library of WA exhibition. Miners were paid a tonnage rate to break coal and load it into skips pulled by horses. | 1 | |
| Aw-gee-nah (English Chief) | explorer | Chipewyan chief who led a band to Fort Churchill after Matonabbee's death and the smallpox epidemic of 1781-83. | 1 | |
| Bill 'Scotty' Jack | miner | Collie coalfields interviewee in the State Library of WA exhibition, describing the mechanisation after 1945 when continuous miners were introduced. | 1 | |
| Carlos Victor Aramayo | magnate | Oxford-educated, one of the three Bolivian tin barons, a trio seen as a cartel with more power than the state. | 12 | |
| Dan O'Shea | prospector | Co-discoverer of the Kalgoorlie field. | 1 | |
| David Stinton | prospector | His field later became the Greenbushes mine, where tin, tantalum and spodumene (a lithium mineral) are now produced. | 1 | |
| Dr Eric Saint | whistleblower, scientist | Court cases in the 1970s and 1980s established the danger was widely known long before the mine closed in 1966. The state government effectively abandoned Wittenoom in 1979. | 1 | |
| Edward Hardman | geologist | His report preceded the 1888 tin field discovery by David Stinton. | 1 | |
| Fanny Bendixen | miner, financier | Ran saloons in Barkerville, Van Winkle and Stanley and was the only woman regularly listed in Barkerville's business directory into the 1890s. Her will was disputed after her death. | 1 | |
| Frank Keeney | labour leader | Strike leader in the West Virginia mine wars. He and other strike leaders doubted Jones's claimed Harding telegram and kept the 1921 march on Logan County going. | 12 | |
| Jack London | writer | His Yukon novels and short stories, including Smoke Bellew and A Daughter of the Snows, made him a fortune (NPS). | 1 | |
| James Fair | miner, politician | The Big Bonanza yielded over 60 million dollars. Fair served a lacklustre Senate term and was generally disliked (Online Nevada Encyclopedia). | 12 | |
| Jim and Jimmy Larcombe (Golden Eagle nugget) | prospector | The find prompted a rush of over a thousand prospectors to the area (State Library of WA). | 1 | |
| John D. Rockefeller Jr. | financier | After Ludlow he was the main target of union and public hostility as the primary stockholder of Colorado Fuel and Iron. Upton Sinclair and others protested outside his New York office. | 12 | |
| Klatsassin | victim | The Dictionary of Canadian Biography links the uprising to a smallpox threat, earlier hardship and the pressure of the gold rush road. It describes him as the instigator and main planner. | 1 | |
| Leander Starr Jameson | politician | He took responsibility for the raid and did not implicate Rhodes, though the failure forced Rhodes to resign. He later became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. | 12 | |
| Louis Tikas | labour leader, victim | Named among the victims of the Ludlow Massacre, in which at least 19 people died, including 13 women and children. He led the striking miners at Ludlow, Colorado, as a Greek-American. | 12 | |
| Luis Urzua | miner, victim | The Guardian describes him as the leader whose discipline held the group together. The Chilean health minister said a shift foreman is effectively 'owner of the mine' during his shift. | 12 | |
| Lulu Mae Johnson (Eads) | victim | She co-ran the Flora Dora dance hall, later the Royal Alexandra, and was charged in 1907 over women on the premises. | 1 | |
| Mario Gomez | miner, victim | His handwritten note was read out live on television by President Pinera. | 1 | |
| Robert 'Bob' Womack | prospector | His persistence led to the Cripple Creek Mining District, organised in April 1891. | 1 | |
| Robert Wardrop Forrest | scientist | The brothers' research syndicate was backed by George Morton. The MacArthur-Forrest process is named partly for them. | 1 | |
| T. W. Thibedi | labour leader | Described by Roux as for some years the only African communist in South Africa, he organised African workers' unions in the 1920s. After expulsion he worked with Bunting to launch an African mineworkers' union, a task the left achieved a decade later. | 1 | |
| Tappan Adney | writer | Wrote The Klondike Stampede, one of the best first-hand accounts of the gold rush. | 1 | |
| Wajarri Yamatji ochre miners of Wilgie Mia (group) | miner | The State Library of WA says Wilgie Mia is estimated to be 27,000 years old and is believed to be the oldest continually worked mine site in human history. Ochre from it was traded as far as Ravensthorpe, Queensland and the Nullarbor. The site remains sacred to Wajarri Yamatji people. | 1 | |
| William Forrest | scientist | Co-named in the MacArthur-Forrest cyanide process, which transformed Witwatersrand gold recovery from 1890. | 1 | |
| William Stewart | politician | US Senator for Nevada for twenty-eight years. | 1 | |
| Winfield Scott Stratton | prospector, magnate | His Independence strike opened the way for investors such as Count James Pourtales later in 1891. | 1 | |
| Woolf Joel | financier, victim | Nephew of Barney Barnato. His brother S. B. Joel sat on the Johannesburg reform committee after the Jameson raid. | 1 |
| From | Route | Mode | What moved | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3000 BC | Badakhshan lapis lazuli to Egypt | caravan | Lapis lazuli was spread through the Ancient East and Egypt by the end of the 4th millennium BC. The Badakhshan mines, of which Sar-e-Sang is the best known, are widely held to be the only ancient source. Gerzean graves at Naqada held lapis, and one held a Mesopotamian cylinder seal. | 1234 |
| 1400 BC | Cypriot copper to the Swiss plateau (c. 1400 BC) | ship | Analysis of metal finds at Moriken-Wildegg points to copper matching the Solea ores of Cyprus around 1400 BC. The authors present it as new evidence for long-distance copper trade, not as proof of the route. | 123 |
| 1300 BC | Arabah copper (Timna and Faynan) to Pi-Ramesses | caravan | Egypt controlled operations at Timna from the end of the 14th to the mid-12th century BCE. Some copper at Pi-Ramesses, capital of the 19th dynasty, has lead isotopes within the range of Faynan and Timna ores. The route is inferred; Faynan and Timna cannot be separated by the data. | 1234 |
| 1300 BC | Cornish tin to the Levant (Bronze Age) | ship | Tin ingots from wrecks off Hishuley Carmel, Kfar Samir South and near Haifa match Cornwall and Devon ores in lead isotopes, trace elements and ore age. Dating of the Israeli ingots is given as 13th to 12th century BC in one study and about 1400 to 1300 BC in another. The start year uses the 13th century BC. | 1234 |
| 1046 BC | Khotan jade to the Zhou heartland | caravan | A Western Zhou assemblage at Guanzhong (1046-771 BCE) held items of Khotanese nephrite. The Hanshu of the first century CE names Khotan as rich in jade and Yarkand for blue-green jade. | 123 |
| 600 BC | Cornish tin to southern France (Iron Age) | ship | Tin ingots from the Rochelongue wreck, dated about 600 BC, are consistent with Cornwall and Devon tin. The source treats the sea link between south-west Britain and the Mediterranean as likely but gives no route. | 123 |
| 483 BC | Laurion silver to Athens | road | Silver from the Lavrion mines in south-east Attica funded the Athenian fleet and the silver owl coinage. New lead isotope work dates the rich third contact to shortly before 483/2 BCE, when Lavrion silver became the bulk of supply. The road is assumed; the source gives no transport route. | 123 |
| 1545 | Potosi silver to Seville | ship | UNESCO links the City of Potosi to the 16th-century influx of precious metals into Seville. Route stages and volumes are not recorded in this dataset. | 1 |
| 1550 | Japanese silver to China | ship | Japan was the main source of silver for China in the second half of the 16th century. The supply stopped when Japan closed itself to foreign trade in 1638, which left American silver as the main supply. The start year is an approximate reading of second half of the 16th century. | 123 |
| 1550 | Zacatecas to Mexico City silver (Camino de la Plata) | road | The first stretch of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro carried silver from Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi and Guanajuato to the viceroyal capital. Development of the road began in 1550, four years after the Zacatecas silver vein was found. | 123 |
| 1565 | Acapulco to Manila silver (Manila galleon) | ship | Silver coin from Mexico bought Chinese silk and porcelain in Manila. An export quota limited Chinese goods sent to Mexico, starting at 250,000 pesos and rising to 300,000 (1702), 500,000 (1734) and 750,000 (1776). The end year follows the title of the standard study of the trade (La nao de China 1565-1815) cited by the source. | 123 |
| 1574 | Arica to Potosi mercury | caravan | The last stage of the mercury route carried quicksilver up from Arica to the Potosi refineries. The first Crown consignment in 1574 was 2,500 quintals (115 t). The land stage took at least 22 days. | 123 |
| 1574 | Chincha to Arica mercury | ship | Toledo decided in 1574 that Huancavelica mercury would reach Potosi by a mixed sea and land route through Arica. The sea stage ran from Chincha to Arica. In 1608 about 1,500 quintals sat in the warehouses at Arica for lack of hide bags to carry them on. | 123 |
| 1574 | Huancavelica to Chincha mercury | caravan | Mercury from Huancavelica was needed to amalgamate Potosi silver. From 1574 Viceroy Toledo had it sent to the coast at Chincha, shipped to Arica and carried on to Potosi. A mercury factor was appointed at Pisco on 17 July 1574 to oversee shipments. | 123 |
| 1825 | Chilean copper ore to Swansea | ship | Raw copper shipments from Chile to Swansea began in 1825. British imports of Chilean ore grew from 1,670 t in 1834 to 19,829 t in 1843 and totalled 92,941 t over 1836-43. Chile sent 99.6 per cent of its copper ore to Britain in 1844 and 93.4 per cent in 1845, then local smelting grew. Volume is ore imported into Britain. | 12345 |
| 1830 | Swansea copper to world markets | ship | Swansea smelters often made 40 per cent of world copper output between 1830 and 1870 and over half in the 19th century. The city depended on the sea both for ore imports and for exporting ingots. No destination port is named, so the end point has no coordinates. | 1234 |
| 1849 | San Francisco to Panama gold (Pacific Mail steamers) | ship | The first US contract mail service to California ran by steamer to Panama from 1849. The Winfield Scott left San Francisco for Panama on 1 December 1853 with US$1 million in gold and was wrecked the next night. Treasure sent to Panama in 1854-69 totalled US$9,053,526. | 12345 |
| 1852 | Victorian gold to London (gold ships) | ship | In the peak years 1852-55 Victoria produced most of the worlds gold, and escorts carried about a tonne a week to Melbourne. The Madagascar sailed from Port Phillip in July 1853 with over 60,000 oz of gold dust for the Bank of England and was never seen again. | 1234 |
| 1854 | San Francisco treasure to China | ship | Treasure shipped from San Francisco to China in 1854-69 was worth US$68,050,250 over 16 years. | 123 |
| 1854 | San Francisco treasure to England | ship | Treasure shipped from San Francisco to England in 1854-69 was worth US$167,703,292 over 16 years. | 123 |
| 1854 | San Francisco treasure to eastern US ports | ship | Treasure shipped from San Francisco to eastern ports in 1854-69 was worth US$462,088,066 in total, over 16 years. The source does not split it between New York and other ports. Treasure here means gold and silver. | 1234 |
| 1873 | Chilean nitrate from Antofagasta to Europe | ship | The Antofagasta Nitrate Company built a first railway from El Carmen to the port of Antofagasta in 1873. Chile exported 2,035,707 short tons of nitrate in 1914 and 2,230,054 in 1915 from all ports (USGS), with Welsh coal as return cargo. | 123 |
| 1892 | Bolivian tin from Oruro to Antofagasta (railway) | rail | The railway from the Pacific coast reached Oruro in 1892 and cut the cost of exporting to Europe. Bolivian tin output rose from 3,749.5 t in 1887 to 9,279.5 t in 1899. The volume is Bolivian tin output, not recorded exports. | 1234 |
| 1897 | Klondike gold from St. Michael to Seattle (SS Portland, 1897) | ship | The steamship Portland reached Seattle on 17 July 1897 from St. Michael, Alaska, with 68 miners and more than a ton of gold. The news set off the rush. Stampeders went the other way over the White Pass or Chilkoot Pass from Skagway and Dyea. | 1234 |
| 1902 | Kiruna iron ore to Narvik (Ofoten Line) | rail | Ore goes by rail to Narvik in Norway, an ice-free port. Narvik handles about two-thirds of LKAB exports and has a capacity of around 30 Mt a year. The Ofoten Line opened on 15 November 1902 (Wikidata). | 123 |
| 1903 | Malay States tin ore to Penang smelters | ship | From 1903 an export duty levied in the Malay States indirectly protected the Straits tin smelters at Penang and Singapore against American competition. In 1922-31 Penang tin exports each year exceeded those of Singapore. | 123 |
| 1911 | Katanga copper ore to Belgium | ship | Katanga production began in 1911. At first the hand-mined ore was shipped to Belgium for processing because there were few surface plants. In peacetime Union Minière output first met Belgian demand and the rest was sold on the London market. | 123 |
| 1913 | La Paz to Arica railway (Bolivian minerals) | rail | The 1904 peace treaty obliged Chile to build a railway for Bolivian foreign trade. It was handed over on 13 May 1913 and ran until 2005. Bolivian mineral exports grew after the treaty. | 1234 |
| 1939 | Swedish iron ore to Germany in the Second World War | ship | Under the 1939 trade agreement Sweden sent about 10 Mt of iron ore a year to Germany. In 1943 exports to Germany were 10,085,817 metric tons and shipments through Narvik rose about 70 per cent on 1942. The end year is not stated in the source. | 123 |
| 1940 | Kolyma gold flown to Khabarovsk | air | Dalstroi gold output was 80 t in 1940 and 70.5 t in 1944. During the 1944 visit by Henry Wallace the washed gold was flown out twice a week to Novosibirsk or Khabarovsk. The start year is the 1940 production peak. The volume is production, not freight. | 123 |
| 1940 | Kolyma gold flown to Novosibirsk | air | The second air destination for gold from the Dalstroi mines in 1944. The source does not say how often each city was used. | 123 |
| 1940 | Shinkolobwe uranium ore to New York (Staten Island) | ship | In 1940 Edgar Sengier sent about 1,200 tons of Shinkolobwe ore to the United States to keep it from Germany. It was stored in drums on Staten Island. In 1942 Colonel Nichols bought it, plus about 3,000 tons still in the Congo. Shinkolobwe gave two-thirds of the uranium used in the Manhattan Project. | 12345 |
| 1969 | Mount Whaleback iron ore to Port Hedland (Mount Newman railway) | rail | The railway was built in 21 months from 1968 and the Mt Newman project was officially opened on 26 June 1969. Ore goes to Nelson Point at Port Hedland for export. Trains weigh 25,000 t or more. | 1234 |
| 1976 | Zambian copper via TAZARA to Dar es Salaam | rail | After Rhodesia declared independence in 1965 Zambia needed an outlet for copper, which was 97 per cent of its foreign exchange in 1969. China agreed to fund the US$415 million line in 1967. Copper moved by road more after the 1992-2000 privatisation of the mines. | 1234 |
| 2022 | Guinea bauxite to China | ship | China imported 125 Mt of bauxite in 2022 and Guinea supplied 56 per cent of it (USGS). The 70 Mt figure is derived as 56 per cent of 125 Mt and is not stated in the source. Origin point is the Sangaredi mine area from the repo operations table. | 1 |
| 2022 | Indonesian bauxite to China | ship | Indonesia mined about 30.4 Mt of bauxite in 2022 and exported about 19 Mt, all to China (USGS). Indonesia planned a bauxite export ban from mid-2023. | 1 |
| 2025 | Congolese cobalt to China | road | Congo (Kinshasa) mined 230,000 t of cobalt in 2025 (contained metal, mine production, not export volume). Mine output was exported after processing into intermediates such as cobalt hydroxide, and China is the leading refiner and consumer (USGS). | 12 |
| 2025 | Pilbara iron ore from Port Hedland to China | ship | Port Hedland shipped 546 Mt of iron ore in 2024-25, 61 per cent of WA iron ore export volume. China took 85 per cent of the value of WA iron ore exports in the 12 months to September 2025. Australian iron ore exports to China were 746 Mt in 2022 (USGS). | 123 |
| Arica to Callao silver | ship | Silver from Arica, Potosi and Oruro was delivered to Callao, the port of Lima, under rules issued by the government of Peru under the Marquis of Montesclaros. A royal letter of 30 December 1607 set the calendar for deliveries. Start year of the leg is not given in the source. | 123 | |
| Australian spodumene to China | ship | Australia exported 2.7 Mt of spodumene ores and concentrates in 2022 (all destinations, USGS). China accounted for 99 per cent of Western Australia's lithium exports by value in 2023, which were A$18.4 billion (WA government profile). | 12 | |
| Bolivian tin from Antofagasta to Liverpool | ship | Liverpool-based merchants arranged imports and resale of Bolivian ore, and in 1901 Penpoll built a Liverpool smelter solely for Bolivian material. The sources do not give shipping dates or tonnages for the sea leg. | 123 | |
| Callao to Panama silver (Pacific leg) | ship | From Callao the silver went by sea to Tierra Firme on the isthmus of Panama. The source names the region, not a port, so the Pacific terminus shown here is a display point. | 123 | |
| Chilean nitrate from Iquique to Europe | ship | Chile exported 2,748,124 short tons of nitrate of soda in 1912 and 3,018,469 in 1913 from all ports (USGS). Welsh coal was the return cargo of nitrate ships. Shares by port are not in the source. | 12 | |
| Cornish copper ore to Swansea | ship | Copper smelting in Cornwall ended after 1819 and all Cornish copper was smelted in south Wales because shipping the ore to the coalfield made better commercial sense. Cobbed raw ore went first, later partly smelted regulus. Hayle had vital links with the Swansea smelters. The start year of shipments is not dated in the sources. | 1234 | |
| Dutch East Indies tin ore to Singapore | ship | Singapore tin trade came increasingly from ore imported from elsewhere, particularly the Dutch East Indies. After 1939 ore was again sent to Singapore for smelting, and also to Penang for the first time. | 123 | |
| Havana to Seville silver (Bahamas channel) | ship | From Havana the treasure fleet crossed the Atlantic through the Bahamas channel to Seville. Another source says most American silver went to Seville to fund the Spanish empire, and that about a third of the silver ended in China. | 1234 | |
| Katanga and Copperbelt copper via Rhodesia to Beira | rail | One of the five export routes for Shaba traffic listed in 1979 ran south through Zambia and Rhodesia to Beira or Maputo. It was closed when the report was written, and transit used to take 15 to 25 days. | 123 | |
| Katanga copper via Lake Tanganyika to Dar es Salaam | rail | The eastern route needed two transhipments and took 20 to 30 days from factory to quayside. | 123 | |
| Katanga copper via the Benguela Railway to Lobito | rail | Benguela Railway construction began in 1903 to carry Katanga and Zambian ore to the Atlantic. Transit times were 10 to 13 days. The route was closed to Zairian traffic from August 1975. Opening dates differ across sources and no source opened here gives a reliable completion year. | 12345 | |
| Kiruna iron ore to Lulea (Iron Ore Line) | rail | Ore also goes south by rail to Lulea on the Gulf of Bothnia. The Gulf can freeze in winter, so Narvik takes more of the traffic then. Opening dates for the line differ in Wikidata and are not used. | 1234 | |
| Manila to China silver | ship | Of the American silver, most went to Seville but about a third reached China, according to the source (citing Folch 2013). Silver was worth far more against gold in China than in Mexico, which drew it east. Ports in China are not named. | 123 | |
| Mexico City to Acapulco (Pacific silver road) | road | The road from the capital to Acapulco supported the Asian trade. Acapulco was the port the Manila galleons left from and returned to. | 123 | |
| Mexico City to Veracruz (Atlantic silver road) | road | The earliest road ran from Veracruz on the Gulf coast to Mexico City. It served the European trade by sea to Cadiz and Seville. The source does not give silver tonnage for this road. | 123 | |
| Panama City to Portobelo silver (Camino de Cruces) | caravan | The Camino de Cruces linked Panama overland to the Atlantic port of Portobelo. Spanish ships called at Portobelo with European goods and sailed back with South American gold and silver. | 123 | |
| Pilbara iron ore from Cape Lambert to China | ship | Cape Lambert shipped 159 Mt of iron ore in 2024-25 (down 6 per cent). China took 85 per cent of WA iron ore export value in the 12 months to September 2025. | 12 | |
| Pilbara iron ore from Dampier to China | ship | Dampier shipped 138 Mt of iron ore in 2024-25 (up 2 per cent). China took 85 per cent of WA iron ore export value in the 12 months to September 2025. | 12 | |
| Portobelo to Havana silver (Tierra Firme fleet) | ship | Treasure ships left Portobelo with South American silver and gold and gathered at Havana before the Atlantic crossing. Havana had to be reached before the end of summer because of hurricanes. | 1234 | |
| Potosi silver to Arica (Ruta de la Plata) | caravan | Silver left Potosi by pack animal for the Pacific port of Arica. A scholar quoted by Correa Vera puts the journey at 10 to 12 days in good weather. Silver deliveries from Arica, Potosi and Oruro to Callao were later regulated by the colonial government of Peru. | 1234 | |
| Veracruz to Seville silver (New Spain fleet) | ship | Mexico City road to Veracruz was built to support the European trade by sea to Cadiz and Seville. The caminos reales increased exports of ore to Spain and the coining of large amounts of currency. | 123 | |
| Witwatersrand gold to London | ship | Transvaal gold was shipped to London and sold in the bullion market. Rand mining firms built a London network for brokerage, insurance, refining and marketing, and sent gold to Europe for smelting, assaying, refining and sale. The study covers 1890-1914. | 123 |
| Deposit type | Minerals | What it is | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banded iron formation (Superior and Algoma types) | Iron ore | Thin layers of iron-rich rock alternating with chert, in beds of great lateral extent. | 1 |
| Carbonatite and alkaline intrusion | Rare earths, Niobium, Phosphate rock, Iron ore | Round igneous complexes with a core of carbonate rock that hold rare earths, niobium, phosphate and iron. | 12 |
| Epithermal vein (Creede type) | Gold, Lead, Zinc, Copper | Quartz-carbonate veins with galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, tellurides and gold in volcanic rocks. | 1 |
| Evaporite potash | Potash | Potassium salt beds in thick evaporite basins. | 1 |
| Heavy mineral sands (shoreline placer) | Titanium minerals, Zirconium (zircon), Rare earths | Narrow bodies of sand rich in ilmenite, rutile and zircon along old beaches and dunes. | 1 |
| Ion-adsorption clay rare earths | Rare earths | Weathered clay from which rare earths are leached, mined in southern China and valued for medium and heavy rare earths. | 1 |
| Kimberlite and lamproite pipe | Diamonds | Carrot-shaped pipes of volcanic breccia that carry diamonds up from the mantle. | 1 |
| Laterite-type bauxite | Aluminium and bauxite, Gallium | Aluminium-rich weathering crust, mainly gibbsite and boehmite. | 1 |
| Layered intrusion PGM and chromite (Bushveld type) | Platinum group metals, Chromium, Nickel, Copper | Platinum-group metals in sulphide layers and chromitite layers in big layered mafic and ultramafic intrusions. | 1 |
| Lithium brine (salar) | Lithium | Salty groundwater in a closed desert basin that is rich in dissolved lithium and is pumped to the surface and evaporated. | 1 |
| Lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite | Lithium, Caesium, Tantalum, Beryllium, Tin | Very coarse-grained granite bodies, small but rich in rare minerals, that carry lithium, caesium and tantalum. | 1 |
| Magmatic nickel-copper-PGE sulphide | Nickel, Copper, Platinum group metals | Sulphide melt that separated from mafic or ultramafic magma and settled as lenses and layers. | 1 |
| Marine phosphorite | Phosphate rock | Beds of phosphate pellets and nodules within marine sediments. | 1 |
| Metamorphic graphite (flake, amorphous and vein) | Graphite (natural) | Graphite in carbonaceous metamorphic rock, as flake, amorphous graphite or high-purity veins. | 1 |
| Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) lead-zinc | Zinc, Lead | Sphalerite and galena in limestone and dolostone, with no link to igneous rock. | 1 |
| Nickel laterite | Nickel, Cobalt | Nickel-rich soil layers made by deep tropical weathering of ultramafic rock. | 12 |
| Olympic Dam type (iron oxide copper-gold-uranium) | Copper, Uranium, Gold, Silver, Rare earths | A huge hematite-rich breccia body with copper, uranium, gold and rare-earth minerals. | 1 |
| Orogenic gold (low-sulphide gold-quartz veins) | Gold | Gold in large, long quartz veins cutting metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks. | 1 |
| Placer gold and tin | Gold, Tin, Platinum group metals | Gold, platinum-group alloys or cassiterite concentrated in river gravels and beaches. | 1 |
| Podiform chromite | Chromium | Pods of chromite in deformed ultramafic rock of ophiolites. | 1 |
| Porphyry copper | Copper, Molybdenum, Gold, Silver | Copper sulphide in many fine veinlets and scattered grains through a large body of altered porphyry rock and the rock around it. | 12 |
| Quartz-pebble conglomerate gold-uranium (Witwatersrand type) | Gold, Uranium | Gold, uranium and some platinum-group metals in ancient river-laid conglomerate beds. | 1 |
| Sandstone-hosted (roll-front) uranium | Uranium | Uranium oxides in permeable sandstone, in tabular bodies or crescent-shaped rolls. | 1 |
| Sediment-hosted stratabound copper | Copper, Silver | Copper sulphides scattered through grey or black beds that sit within red-bed sandstone and shale sequences. | 12 |
| Sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) zinc-lead | Zinc, Lead | Sheet-like beds of zinc and lead sulphide laid down with black shale in basins. | 12 |
| Sedimentary manganese | Manganese | Beds of manganese carbonate and oxide laid down in shallow sea around the rim of oxygen-poor basins. | 1 |
| Tin greisen and tin vein | Tin, Tungsten, Beryllium | Tin oxide in altered granite near its roof, in veins, stockworks and pipes. | 1 |
| Tungsten skarn | Tungsten, Molybdenum | Scheelite in lime-silicate rock formed where a granite meets limestone. | 1 |
| Unconformity-related uranium | Uranium, Gold | Uranium as pitchblende in breccias and fractures close to an ancient erosion surface under younger sandstone. | 1 |
| Volcanogenic massive sulphide (Kuroko type) | Copper, Zinc, Lead | Lenses of massive iron, copper and zinc sulphide laid down on the sea floor in volcanic rocks. | 1 |
About this atlas: the rows come from Prospector Trails' mining history reference layer, researched in October 2026 from the sources linked beside each fact. Where sources disagree we give the figure the source gives and say so. Positions of ancient sites are approximate. People are placed at the mine, place or event most tied to them. Portraits are from Wikimedia Commons, with author and licence on each card. Nothing here is investment advice.