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United States Mining History

Even Under Trump, a U.S. Coal Giant Plots Cautious Comeback Plan – by Tim Loh (Bloomberg News – April 4, 2017)

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/

President Donald Trump has been offering coal companies everything under the sun –- fewer regulations, more land to mine, a freer pass from concerns about climate change. The combination, he says, will put coal miners back to work.

But the nation’s biggest coal miner, Peabody Energy Corp., is touting a less grandiose strategy. It’s no longer looking — or expecting — to boost coal output significantly, said Chief Executive Officer Glenn Kellow Tuesday, after his company emerged from yearlong bankruptcy. Instead, he’s focused on a narrower objective: simply making money.

“We’re much more interested in growing shareholder returns, shareholder value, than we are on growing tons of volume,” Kellow said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York.

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After Cyclone Debbie, China replaces Australian coal with US cargoes – by Henning Gloystein and Timothy Gardner (Reuters U.S. – April 5, 2017)

http://www.reuters.com/

China, the world’s biggest coking coal importer, is scrambling to cover Australian supply disruptions after Cyclone Debbie knocked out mines and rails by turning to an unusual source: the United States.

Debbie, which hit Australia’s Queensland state last week, caused the evacuation of several mines and damaged coal trains supplying export terminals, triggering two miners – Yancoal Australia and QCoal – to declare force majeure on its deliveries. With other miners like BHP Billiton and Glencore also affected by the storm’s fallout, more disruptions may follow.

Force majeure is a commercial term that means a buyer or seller cannot fulfill their obligations because of outside forces. It is typically invoked after natural disasters or accidents. The outages caused Australian coking coal futures on the Singapore Exchange on Monday to spike by over 43 percent to a last settlement of $225 per tonne, the highest since the beginning of the year.

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Indonesia Allows Exports From Freeport Mine in Stop-Gap Deal – by Yoga Rusmana and Eko Listiyorini (Bloomberg News – April 4, 2017)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Indonesia has issued a temporary mining license to Freeport-McMoRan Inc.’s local unit that will allow the company to resume concentrate exports from the world’s second-largest copper mine after a gap of about 12 weeks.

The permit for Grasberg is valid for eight months from the time that the producer was first offered a special mining license or IUPK in February, Teguh Pamudji, secretary-general at Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday. The government will continue talks with Freeport on a long-term financial stability pact, he said.

A Phoenix-based Freeport spokesman, Eric Kinneberg, reiterated Tuesday that talks to resume exports are continuing. “We are progressing constructive discussions with the government that would enable PT-FI to resume concentrate exports while retaining our contract until a mutually satisfactory replacement agreement is completed,” he said in an email, referring to the Indonesian unit by its initials.

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Lessons learned from demise of Northwest Washington State aluminum industry – by Don Brunell (The Courier-Herald – April 3, 2017)

http://www.courierherald.com/

Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He retired as president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s oldest and largest business organization, and now lives in Vancouver. He can be contacted at theBrunells@msn.com

Driving east along SR 14 these days, you see water pouring out of Columbia River dams. It is already a high water year with much of the runoff from our heavy mountain snowpack yet to come.

It is part of our “feast or famine” weather cycle. As you pop over the hilltop near the historic Maryhill Museum, you look down to see John Day Dam with its floodgates open spilling massive amounts of water.

Then you see remains of the razed Goldendale Aluminum Co. smelter next to the dam. That plant once accounted for 1,300 jobs, $40 million in personal income and $2 million in Klickitat County taxes. Now, you just see concrete pads, a water tower and a small office.

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[Aluminum Related Manufacturing] Boeing and Washington’s Aerospace Industry, 1934-2015 – by Jim Kershner (September 8, 2015)

http://www.historylink.org/

For instance, aluminum, produced with cheap hydroelectric power in Spokane,
Longview, and other cities, almost immediately became the state’s second-
biggest wartime industry. Much of that aluminum was bound for Boeing, where
it was fashioned into wings and fuselages.

The Boeing Company, founded in 1916, hit a low point in 1934 when it was forced out of the airline business and was forced to concentrate on its original airplane-manufacturing business. The company’s fortunes revived in the buildup to World War II. Thousands of workers swarmed over Boeing’s plant on Seattle’s Duwamish River, making the bombers and fighters that helped win the war. Employment topped 50,000 by 1944.

After the war Boeing entered the newly lucrative commercial-airliner market, and the Cold War revived its military contracts. In the 1950s and 1960s it diversified into an aerospace company and built missiles and rockets. The demise of the SuperSonic Transport (SST) program in 1971 resulted in the infamous Boeing Bust, a statewide economic downturn caused by the loss of 86,000 jobs. Boeing recovered over the ensuing decades, despite increasing competition from Europe’s Airbus. Meanwhile, hundreds of other aerospace companies sprang up in Washington to supply parts.

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Museum of Moab releases DVD featuring Steen interview and uranium films (The Times-Independent – March 30, 2017)

http://www.moabtimes.com/

The Museum of Moab has released a new compilation of documentaries that will take viewers back to Moab’s uranium fever days. “Uranium Craze — Moab and Mining in the 1950s” was produced by Omni Productions and the Museum of Moab and contains never-before-seen footage of a 1992 interview with Charlie Steen by Jim Mattingly in which the “Uranium King” discusses Moab and southeast Utah during the peak of the uranium boom 40 years earlier.

In addition to the Steen interview, two movies made by Steen’s companies in about 1954 are also included. “This is Mi Vida” tells the story of Steen’s flagship mine, while “Million Dollar Drill Holes” is a promotional film produced to showcase Steen’s Moab Drilling Company.

The films include original footage of uranium mining on the Colorado Plateau in the mid-1950s. The films have been shown at Star Hall in Moab several times in the past, as part of Museum of Moab events.

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Coal miner stereotypes shattered in humanizing ‘Black Rock Blues’ documentary – by Christina Gregg (AOL.com – March 23, 2017)

https://www.aol.com/

In President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech this past January, the newly-elected commander in chief shared a message aimed at America’s defeated and downtrodden, saying, “From mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words: You will never be ignored again.”

Trump made this promise to many Americans while on the 2016 campaign trail, but he perhaps courted none with the vow of overdue consideration more so than coal miners working in one of the country’s most fragile industries.

A new Rated Red production, “Black Rock Blues,” features one such coal miner and father of three, who — despite being laid off twice in one year — says things have been “more hopeful” since Trump won the presidency.

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[Deadwood, South Dakota] Back to the wild, wild west – by Wayne Newton (Brantford Expositor – April 15, 2012)

http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/

There’s no sugar-coating history at the Adams Museum. Violence, gambling, prostitution, stuffed pet cocker spaniels left by a rich pillar of the community, a two-headed calf and a children’s play area. It’s all there for visitors to absorb at the too-often-overlooked Deadwood, South Dakota, institution.

While Eastern-style honesty might not have been a hallmark of Deadwood when it was set up as a rogue mining camp in the Dakota territory during the 1800s, integrity and frankness have become hallmarks at a museum, which should be the starting point for tourists who truly want to appreciate Deadwood and its colourful, controversial history.

First-time tourists arrive for the main street stroll, where historical re-enactors stage gunfights with quick storylines, check out where legendary Wild Bill Hickok held his dead man’s poker hand of black aces and eights, and maybe make the arduous trek to Mount Moriah Cemetery to view the graves of Wild Bill, his adoring Calamity Jane and sheriff Seth Bullock. Those without children in tow will find scores of casinos, where poker remains the big draw amid the enticing din of modern slot machines.

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SOUTH DAKOTA LEGENDS: The Painted Ladies of Deadwood Gulch

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/

“Working girls” in Deadwood were as prominent a fixture as that of the many miners in the bustling boom camp. Though these “ladies”most likely arrived almost as soon as the first man, the first record of prostitutes coming to Deadwood was in July, 1876.

Arriving with Charlie Utter’s wagon train, along with Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, were several “professional” women, including two madams who went by the names of Dirty Em and Madam Mustachio. The two seasoned veterans had previously worked in many of the California and Nevada mining camps. The miners were so pleased to see the women that they lined up along the street and cheered.

A thriving industry in the camp dominated almost entirely by men, in 1876, it was estimated that approximately 90% of women of the camp were “painted ladies.” Difficult for a woman to make a living in the American West during these times, many single women or those who had lost husbands or fathers to provide for them were almost forced into prostitution in order to support themselves.

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Donald Trump’s Grandpa Made Fortune Selling Sex, Booze In B.C.’s North – by Jesse Ferreras (Huffington Post Canada – October 26, 2016)

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Donald Trump would have you believe he’s a savvy businessman who has made sacrifices and seen “tremendous success.” But it was his grandfather Friedrich Trump who set the family on a course for business success, which he enjoyed early on by selling booze and sex to gold miners in northern Canada.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday on the Arctic Restaurant and Hotel, an establishment that offered food, alcohol and sex workers to miners seeking riches amid the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19th century.

But Trump, who left Germany at the age of 16 before making his way to New York and eventually B.C., didn’t go looking for gold in any mountain. He was more focused on “mining the miners,” biographer Gwenda Blair told the news agency. Trump and partner Ernest Levin initially established the Arctic Hotel in Bennett, B.C. in 1899, in a place that was once a thriving hub for prospectors.

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Activists: Old uranium mines polluting Angostura – by Staff (Rapid City Journal – September 22, 2016)

http://rapidcityjournal.com/

Members of three activist groups say recent research shows that abandoned uranium mines are contributing to elevated uranium levels in Angostura Reservoir in the southern Black Hills.

The research was recently published in the journal Environmental Earth Sciences by authors that included two South Dakota School of Mines & Technology scientists, Rohit Sharma and James Stone. The article is titled “Stream sediment geochemistry of the upper Cheyenne River watershed within the abandoned uranium mining region of the southern Black Hills.”

According to the Clean Water Alliance, Dakota Rural Action and It’s All About the Water, the research shows that elevated uranium levels at Angostura are partly caused by human activity, including abandoned uranium mines and a former mill at Edgemont. Elevated uranium levels at Angostura Reservoir are comparable to the elevated uranium levels upstream in the Cheyenne River watershed at abandoned mines, the groups said.

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Mining City History: Germania Mine was prolific source of silver and zinc – by Dick Gibson (Montana Standard – June 26, 2016)

http://mtstandard.com/

The mines west and north of Butte were some of the earliest to develop because the Butte mineral district is zoned like an onion, with the outer rings richer in silver than the central, more copper-rich sections. While the Orphan Girl was probably the most prolific producer at more than seven million ounces of silver, other mines were important during Butte’s silver era, 1875-1893.

The Germania mine was about a half mile almost due south of the Orphan Girl. It was established by a German immigrant about 1881. He promptly died, and his nephew Louis “Lee” Freudenstein inherited the claim when he came to Butte in 1882.

Butte’s silver boom really began in 1884-85, and by November 1885, the Germania was “being worked night and day… looks very well,” according to the Butte Miner. Freudenstein and his wife Christina were living at 211 W. Galena, a tiny frame house long gone, on the site of today’s Headframe Spirits building.

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Installment #4 – “My Old Man:” The Uranium King – The Final Chapter (for now) in the colorful history of Charlie Steen – by Mark Steen (Canyon Country Zephyr – August/September 2002)

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/

In order to follow the history of the exploration and development of the Big Indian mining district it is necessary to understand a few things about the geology of the uranium ore deposits that were found after Charlie Steen discovered the Mi Vida mine. The most important thing to remember is that none of the ore deposits discovered during the next four years were exposed on the surface.

Although the ore bearing host rocks in the Moss Back member of the Chinle formation did outcrop in a few places along the face of the escarpment overlooking the Big Indian Wash, all of the uranium that was found after 1952 was discovered by exploration drilling. My father’s discovery proved that someone could walk over $100 million worth of uranium ore without knowing what lay beneath their feet unless they were willing to risk money on wildcat drilling in the search for totally hidden ore deposits.

Although the Big Indian mining district was developed from the single drill hole Charlie Steen had drilled through 14 feet of high-grade uranium ore on July 6, 1952, none of the other mines in the district were brought into production on the basis of one drill hole. After the Mi Vida mine proved the existence of uranium ore in the Chinle formation, drilling became the chief guide to finding more ore in the district.

Any drill hole that encountered good mineralization of minable thickness required additional drilling to block out the ore body.

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Installment #3 – “My Old Man:” The Uranium King – Charlie Steen strikes it rich and fight his partners to han on to the Mi Vida Mine – by Mark Steen (Canyon Country Zephyr – June/July 2002)

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/

A few days after the Denver Post published its closely worded story about my father’s Big Indian uranium discovery, Moab’s Times-Independent ran an article based on the same announcement that Dad had given to the Denver newspaper. Although the Times-Independent article actually contained more details about the high-grade nature of the uranium mineralization contained in the discovery drill core, not a single person among the newspaper’s readership expressed any interest in helping Dad develop his prospect.

None of the area’s long-time uranium prospectors and miners were convinced that Charlie Steen had really found a uranium bonanza. Folks laughed when they heard that someone from Texas was claiming to have discovered a million dollars worth of uranium in a mining district that everyone knew the experts had already examined and written off as a loser.

In early September, Dad received a letter postmarked Casper, Wyoming from William T. Hudson, his former boss at the Chicago Bridge and Iron Company’s Houston, Texas office. Bill Hudson had overseen the college loans that my father worked off during the summers and had written to congratulate him after reading the Denver Post article.

AT LONG LAST! Charlie tries on a new pair of boots.

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Mark Steen remembers… “My Old Man:” The Uranium King…Part 2 – The author debunks a few tall tales and tells what really happened in 1952 – by Mark Steen (Canyon Country Zephyr – April/May 2002)

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/

At the beginning of my first article in The Zephyr about my father, Charlie Steen, and his discovery of the Mi Vida mine and its consequences, I wrote that people couldn’t seem to resist the impulse to distort and rewrite the history of Moab’s most famous prospector. I pointed out that falsehoods about my father’s uranium discovery and his role in the Uranium Boom were now finding their way into print in historical publications.

Potato Chips & Bananas

Two good bad examples of people distorting the truth or concocting half-truths about my father’s role in changing the course of the uranium industry clearly illustrate this point. In Utah’s official centennial history, Utah: The Right Placeby Dr. Thomas G. Alexander, the author has my Dad feeding his family on “potato chips and bananas” while he searched for uranium “with a Geiger counter under one arm and a bundle of Geological Surveys under the other.”

Aside from the well-known fact that my father couldn’t afford a Geiger counter and the lack of printed geological information about the Big Indian area prior to the Uranium Boom, Dr. Alexander, who has three university degrees in history, actually seems to think that six people could live for more than two years on potato chips and bananas! I wonder what level of sobriety the old timer who spun that yarn was in when that tale was told?

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