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Events/Closure · 1966

Asbestos mining at Wittenoom ends

Closure, 1966, Australia.

What happened

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.1,2,3

Why it matters

The legacy is disease: the WA government says the remnants have already caused thousands of deaths among miners, residents and visitors.1,2,3

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Kitwe: inception recorded

    Kitwe has an inception date of 1936 in Wikidata.4

  2. Sweden sends 10.1 Mt of iron ore to Germany

    Germany took 10,085,817 t, and Narvik shipments were up about 70 per cent on 1942.5,6

  3. Gina Rinehart born

    Gina Rinehart born (date from Wikidata).7

  4. Aberfan disaster

    Aberfan disaster. Wikidata records 144 deaths.8

  5. Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act signed

    It set federal health and safety rules for coal mines.9,10

  6. Nixon ends dollar convertibility into gold

    Gold ceased to have a fixed dollar price.10,11

  7. Shaba invasions trigger a cobalt market panic

    The shock made Western governments worry about cobalt supply from central Africa and still shapes talk of critical minerals.12,13,14

  8. Panguna mine halted

    The closure became tied to the Bougainville conflict.15,16

Open the full timeline

Where next

People

Investigated byDr Eric SaintA doctor warned in 1948 of Wittenoom's asbestos toll, long before the mine closed.17

Mines

Located inWittenoom (Colonial Mine)Mining ran from 1933 to 1966. At the 1962 peak asbestos ranked fourth in WA.1ExamplesJeffrey Mine (Asbestos, Quebec)About 5,000 miners struck at Jeffrey in 1949. Wittenoom mined asbestos from 1933 to 1966.18

Events

Led toWittenoom removed from official mapsMining ended in 1966. The town was degazetted in June 2007.2

Places

Located inWittenoomSee the place where this happened: Wittenoom.1

Sources

  1. Mining and Energy Western Australia: Asbestos (exhibition page) State Library of Western Australia
  2. Information on the former town of Wittenoom (brochure PDF) Government of Western Australia
  3. Wittenoom (item Q3569521), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  4. Wikidata item Q239580 (Kitwe)
  5. Foreign Relations of the United States 1944 vol. IV, document 443 (Swedish iron ore exports) US Department of State, Office of the Historian
  6. Wikidata item Q2602547 (Kiruna Mine)
  7. Wikidata item Q242982 (Gina Rinehart)
  8. Wikidata item Q384291 (Aberfan disaster)
  9. Statement on signing the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 (30 Dec 1969) American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara)
  10. Washington, D.C. (item Q61), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  11. Nixon and the End of the Bretton Woods System, 1971-1973 US Department of State, Office of the Historian
  12. Investigation of U.S. Foreign Reliance on Critical Minerals, OFR 2020-1127 US Geological Survey
  13. Statement of Charles G. Groat, Director, USGS US Geological Survey
  14. Kolwezi (item Q271404), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  15. History: Panguna Mine Bougainville Copper Limited
  16. Panguna mine (item Q17060798), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  17. Asbestos (Mining and Energy Western Australia exhibition) State Library of Western Australia
  18. Jeffrey Mine and asbestos The Canadian Encyclopedia

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0.