Mining history timeline

Lapis lazuli had spread from the Badakhshan mines to Mesopotamia and Egypt by about 3000 BC.^1,2

Metal finds at Moriken-Wildegg match the Solea ores of Cyprus, which suggests long-distance copper trade around 1400 BC.^7,8

Uluburun shipwreck.⁹

Forty tin ingots from a probable Bronze Age wreck off Devon are close in chemistry to ingots found in Mediterranean wrecks.^3,10

Timna formed part of a wider copper industry under Egyptian control from the end of the 14th to the mid-12th century BC.^11,12

After the Egyptian withdrawal, copper output at Timna and Faynan grew under local control.^11,12

Zhou-era jade from Guanzhong includes pieces of nephrite from the Khotan area of the Tarim Basin.^13,14

Ban Gu records five Tarim kingdoms producing jade, with Khotan the richest and Yarkand known for blue-green jade.^13,14

New digs at Great Zimbabwe found fragments of over a hundred gold-processing vessels from the period CE 1000-1600.^21,22

Banska Stiavnica has an inception date of 1156 in Wikidata.²³

Swansea has an inception date of 1158 in Wikidata.²⁴

Wieliczka Salt Mine: inception recorded as c. 1300.²⁶

Potosi has an inception date of 1545 in Wikidata.²⁸

Guanajuato has an inception date of 1546 in Wikidata.³²

Oñate, Tolosa, Ibarra and Bañuelos founded the city, and Oñate became one of the richest men in New Spain.^30,31

The Japanese copper mine later at the centre of a major river pollution case.³³

The road from Zacatecas to Mexico City started to be developed in 1550, with forts against raids.^30,34

Legazpi left Acapulco with five ships and founded the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines at Cebu.^37,38

Manila galleon trade begins.³⁹

Huancavelica has an inception date of 1571 in Wikidata.⁴¹

Spain settled Manila in 1571, and it became its main trading port in East Asia.^37,42

The first Crown-run consignment to Potosi was 2,500 quintals, about 115 t, and made a loss for the state.⁴³

Viceroy Toledo chose a sea and land route through Arica for the mercury that made Potosi silver recoverable.^43,44

Cerro de Pasco has an inception date of 1578 in Wikidata.⁴⁵

Oruro has an inception date of 1606 in Wikidata.⁴⁶

Mercury waited in Arica warehouses because there were no hide bags to carry it to Potosi.^43,49

Kongsberg has an inception date of 1624 in Wikidata.⁵⁰

Lota has an inception date of 1662 in Wikidata.⁵²

Copper mining at Besshi in Ehime prefecture began on this date in Wikidata.⁵⁴

Ouro Preto has an inception date of 1711 in Wikidata.⁵⁵

The Fukuoka coal mine is dated to 1721 in Wikidata.⁵⁷

Copiapo has an inception date of 1744 in Wikidata.⁵⁹

The company ran the only large copper smelter in Cornwall from 1758 to 1819.^60,61

After 1819 all Cornish copper was smelted in south Wales, where the coal was.^60,61

Rising British demand drew crude copper from Chile to the Swansea smelters from 1825.^64,65

Ballarat has an inception date of 1838 in Wikidata.⁶⁸

Centralia has an inception date of 1841 in Wikidata.⁷⁰

Output of 92,000 marcos equalled about 21,000 kg of silver.^66,67

Imports had grown from 1,670 t in 1834; a duty and freight costs cut ore shipments sharply in 1845.^65,73

Gold escorts carried about a tonne a week from Mount Alexander to Melbourne at the peak.^83,84

Kuala Lumpur has an inception date of 1857 in Wikidata.⁹⁰

Virginia City has an inception date of 1859 in Wikidata.¹⁰⁰

Barkerville has an inception date of 1862 in Wikidata.¹⁰⁴

Butte has an inception date of 1864 in Wikidata.¹⁰⁸

Park City has an inception date of 1869 in Wikidata.¹⁰⁹

Eastern ports took US$462 million, England US$168 million and China US$68 million.^110,111

Output peaked in the 1870s, and copper prices began to fall from 1874.⁶⁴

Kimberley has an inception date of 1873 in Wikidata.¹²⁴

Rio Tinto Group founded.¹²⁵

Bodie has an inception date of 1876 in Wikidata.¹²⁹

Deadwood has an inception date of 1876 in Wikidata.¹³⁰

Homestake Mine: inception.¹³¹

Leadville has an inception date of 1877 in Wikidata.¹³²

Tombstone has an inception date of 1879 in Wikidata.¹³⁷

War of the Pacific begins.¹³⁸

Broken Hill has an inception date of 1883 in Wikidata.¹⁴²

Barberton has an inception date of 1884 in Wikidata.¹⁴⁹

BHP grew from this mine into one of the largest mining companies in the world.^143,144

Johannesburg has an inception date of 1886 in Wikidata.¹⁵⁵

It was the base of a rise to 9,279.5 t by 1899 as silver faded.¹²²

De Beers founded.¹⁶²

Greenbushes has an inception date of 1889 in Wikidata.¹⁶⁷

LKAB built the iron mines and the model town of Kiruna.^172,173

Monongah has an inception date of 1891 in Wikidata.¹⁷⁴

Greater Sudbury has an inception date of 1893 in Wikidata.¹⁷⁸

Kalgoorlie-Boulder has an inception date of 1893 in Wikidata.¹⁷⁹

Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company founded.¹⁸⁰

Jameson Raid.¹⁸²

Dawson City has an inception date of 1896 in Wikidata.¹⁸⁴

Port Hedland was gazetted in 1896.¹⁸⁹

It marks the start of Ashanti Goldfields' operations at Obuasi.^190,191

Kambalda has an inception date of 1897 in Wikidata.¹⁹²

Kiruna Mine: inception.¹⁹⁹

Laverton has an inception date of 1898 in Wikidata.²⁰⁰

Nome has an inception date of 1898 in Wikidata.²⁰⁴

Annual output had nearly tripled in twelve years, ahead of the tin boom of the 1900s.^122,176

Second Boer War begins.²⁰⁵

Kiruna has an inception date of 1900 in Wikidata.²¹⁰

Goldfield has an inception date of 1902 in Wikidata.²¹⁴

The mine near Cullinan that later yielded the Cullinan diamond.²¹⁸

Rhyolite has an inception date of 1904 in Wikidata.²²⁶

Cullinan Diamond found.²²⁸

Tsumeb has an inception date of 1905 in Wikidata.²³¹

It ran Katanga's mines until nationalisation in 1967 and is the origin of Gecamines.^233,234

Oxide ore near the surface was mined by hand and at first shipped to Belgium for processing.^250,251

Timmins has an inception date of 1912 in Wikidata.²⁵²

The 1913 figure was the high point of the 1912-15 run; 1914 fell to 2,035,707 short tons.^254,255

The Big Hole is the largest hand-dug excavation in the world and the centre of the Kimberley diamond story.^115,262,263

Chuquicamata: inception.²⁶⁶

Coober Pedy has an inception date of 1915 in Wikidata.²⁶⁷

US use of sodium nitrate rose from a normal 600,000 tons to about 1.3 million short tons.²⁵⁴

Anglo American founded.²⁶⁹

An uprising on the Witwatersrand began on 28 December 1921 and ran into 1922 (dates from Wikidata).^274,275

Mount Isa has an inception date of 1923 in Wikidata.²⁷⁶

The Katanga base metal mine is dated to 1925 in Wikidata.²⁷⁷

Nornickel describes itself as one of the world's largest producers of palladium and Class I nickel, and the plant was built by Gulag labour.^287,288,289

Norilsk has an inception date of 1935 in Wikidata.²⁹⁰

Kitwe has an inception date of 1936 in Wikidata.²⁹¹

Yellowknife has an inception date of 1936 in Wikidata.²⁹²

Union Minière stopped work because radium and uranium stocks covered the next 30 years of demand.^293,294

Of 168 tons used in the US that year, 106 tons came from the Congo and 26 tons from Colorado.^294,297

Manhattan Project begins.²⁹⁸

Sengier shipped the ore to keep it out of German hands and stored it in a warehouse.^297,299,300

Output fell to 75.7 t in 1941, 74.4 t in 1942, 70.1 t in 1943 and 70.5 t in 1944.^301,302

The Tanzanian diamond mine is dated to 1940 in Wikidata.³⁰³

Contracts with Sengier secured the ore needed for wartime work.^297,300

Vale founded.³⁰⁷

Germany took 10,085,817 t, and Narvik shipments were up about 70 per cent on 1942.^308,309

Town gazetted for the asbestos mine.³¹⁶

Wittenoom has an inception date of 1950 in Wikidata.³¹⁷

The southern Peru copper mine is dated to 1960 in Wikidata.³³⁵

Town gazetted for the Mount Tom Price iron ore mine.³³⁸

A large expansion for iron ore export began in 1965.¹⁸⁹

The legacy is disease: the WA government says the remnants have already caused thousands of deaths among miners, residents and visitors.^342,343,344

Newman has an inception date of 1966 in Wikidata.³⁴⁷

The mine closed in 1966 because of falling reserves and high costs.³¹⁶

A tripartite agreement signed in Beijing started surveys of the line.^339,349,350

The dependence made a safe export route a political priority.^339,340

Debswana is the joint venture behind Botswana's diamond mines.^351,357

A second townsite was set up 4 km west of the original.³⁴⁸

Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck opened the project that railed Mount Whaleback ore to Port Hedland.^356,361

The RBA paper says the 1974 Senate Select Committee report documented abuses during the boom and recommended changes to the regulation of financial markets.^362,363

The Botswana diamond mine is dated to 1971 in Wikidata.³⁷⁴

Orapa was the first mine opened by the company, ahead of Letlhakane (1977) and Jwaneng (1982).^351,352

The Papua copper-gold mine is dated to 1972 in Wikidata.³⁷⁵

Panguna mine: inception.³⁷⁶

The Mongolian copper company is dated to 1974 in Wikidata.³⁷⁸

The firm grew from a metals trader into a producer and trader of more than 90 commodities.^379,380

Political differences between Zaire and Angola shut the shortest route for Shaba exports.^381,382

The Namibian open pit uranium mine is dated to 1976 in Wikidata.³⁸⁵

The shock made Western governments worry about cobalt supply from central Africa and still shapes talk of critical minerals.^388,389,390

It led to tighter position limits and a CFTC report to Congress in 1981.^396,397

The Botswana diamond mine is dated to 1982 in Wikidata.⁴⁰⁰

ZCCM was the vehicle for state ownership and later for the privatisation of the Copperbelt.^366,367

Greenbushes is still a major lithium mine in the WA profile for 2023, with 51 per cent of State lithium output.^{164,165,166,401}

It ended a long-running producer and consumer agreement.^249,403,404

Placer Dome founded.⁴⁰⁵

The closure became tied to the Bougainville conflict.^406,407

More copper then went by road along southern routes and the Tanzam highway.^283,339

The structure still joins Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited.^249,420

The stored arsenic dust is the reason for the long-running remediation project.^411,412,424

MINFILE records Sullivan as a continuous producer from 1900 to its closure.^433,434

The pause left China with over 90 percent of world rare earth production in the years that followed.^439,440

The line, handed over in May 1913, stopped running after 92 years.^49,227

It is the main case study of an Australian town closed because of mining waste.^343,344

The listing turned a private trader into a public group.^249,379

Mount Weld was the main new rare earth source outside China after the 2010 export quota cuts.^439,454

From 2012 to 2015 the US was a leading producer of rare earths outside China.^439,440

The merger joined a large trading house with a large mining group.^379,380

It ended the main source of rare pink diamonds.^392,394

The Lobito Atlantic Railway consortium took over the Angolan line (some sources date the award to 2023).^382,484

USGS records 746 Mt of iron ore including pellets exported to China in 2022.⁴⁸⁵

USGS records 125 Mt of Chinese bauxite imports in 2022 with Guinea the leading source.⁴⁸⁶

USGS records about 19 Mt of Indonesian bauxite exports in 2022, all to China.⁴⁷⁷

USGS records ferronickel exports of USD 14 billion in 2022, up from USD 5 billion in 2020.⁴⁷⁷

One dated example of capital raised in the boom.^487,488

The two USGS figures show how price series differ between sources.^473,474,489

Part of the 2022 restart wave.^401,490

USGS records 92,000 t of lithium content in Australian mine output in 2025.⁴⁹⁵

USGS estimates 980 million tonnes of crude iron ore from Australian mines in 2025.⁴⁹⁶

USGS estimates 5.3 million tonnes of copper content from Chilean mines in 2025.⁴⁹⁷

USGS records 230,000 t of cobalt mined in Congo (Kinshasa) in 2025.⁴⁹⁸

USGS estimates 150 million tonnes of Guinean bauxite output in 2025.⁴⁹⁹

USGS estimates Indonesian mine output at 2.6 million tonnes of contained nickel in 2025.⁵⁰⁰

WA iron ore exports: Port Hedland 546 Mt, Cape Lambert 159 Mt, Dampier 138 Mt in 2024-25.⁵⁰¹