United States Mining History – Page 9

THE STRANGE SECRET HISTORY OF OPERATION GOLDFINGER – by James Ledbetter (New Yorker Magazine – June 10, 2017)

June 12, 2017

http://www.newyorker.com/

In September of 1965, Joe Barr, a Treasury Department official with a long history in government, agreed to meet with a group of members of Congress from Western states. He knew what to expect. Earlier that year, he had met with the same group, and endured its ire over the Treasury’s reluctance to help the American gold industry.

After the Second World War, world leaders had met at Bretton Woods, in New Hampshire, and, as part of an agreement on an international monetary system, had fixed the price of gold at thirty-five dollars an ounce. This had, predictably, depressed the U.S. mining industry, even as the demand for private gold shot up. The more easily obtained sources of gold had been depleted over the years, while harder-to-reach sources became more difficult to mine profitably, given the static price.

Foreign competition—chiefly from Canada and South Africa, where mines were less depleted and labor costs were lower—was far more intense by 1960 than it had been after the war, when the price of gold was set. The United States was a distant third in gold production. Rather than attempt to compete, many mines simply shut down.

How four Irishmen found the largest pot of silver ever known in Nevada – by Peter Garland M. A. (IrishCentral.com – June 12, 2017)

June 12, 2017

https://www.irishcentral.com/

Perhaps it was those millennia of experience that, in 1873, led four Irishmen – Mackay, Fair, Flood and O’Brien – to the Comstock Lode, the greatest pot of gold and silver the world has ever known. They located an enormous silver heart within Mount Davidson in Nevada.

The first to putter around above the great trove were a couple of surface gold miners named Peter O’Riley and Patrick McLaughlin. These men did not know about nor have the resources to mine down thousands of feet to the silver; they panned for gold and moved on, not realizing that a blue sand that clogged their simple wooden machinery, was in fact silver mixed with gold. Assayed later in 1859 by other men, this sand proved to be “almost a solid mass of silver,” and the silver rush was on.

Eventually it took stockholders, powerful machinery, new mining techniques, and millions of dollars to penetrate the pile and extract billions in silver and gold. Chief among those who pioneered and benefited from the lode were the four Irishmen.

Mohave County asks feds to review ban on mining uranium near the Grand Canyon – by Ron Dungan (The Arizona Republic – June 7, 2017)

June 8, 2017

http://www.azcentral.com/

The Mojave County Board of Supervisors asked Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke this week to consider lifting a 20-year uranium mining ban on public lands in northern Arizona.

The supervisors said in letters to Zinke that mining would restore jobs and pump money into the local economy, and asked the Interior Department to consider the status of the ban while he reviews 27 national monuments, including Grand Canyon-Parashant.

“This ban took away much needed growth and jobs from our area,” one of the letters said. “We are requesting that your office look into this ban and if necessary start a process with public comments to withdraw the ban.” The board endorsed the letter Monday on a unanimous vote. The final version of the letter was mailed Wednesday.

Alaska’s Quiet Gold Rush – by Mike Coppock (True West Magazine – March 1, 2009)

June 6, 2017

A history of Alaska’s gold rushes reveals riches found in historic mines today.

He said his name was Tommy. In his 60s, he had driven his compact pickup truck from Mississippi all the way to Alaska. Arriving in Homer, he spent nearly $1,000 having the vehicle transported by the ocean ferry Tustumena for Popof Island, nearly 300 miles west of Kodiak.

Popof can be one of Alaska’s most stunning vistas with its emerald grasslands and powerful mountain backdrops. But, not today. Aleutian-style weather had set it. It was late May, and I was amused that I could see my breath as horizontal rain dug deep into my face and clothes. Only my long johns kept me dry.

Tommy was oblivious to the weather or anything else. With the musical draw that defines a Southern accent, he showed me his equipment he had just lugged down from the cliff above. He had set up a sluice operation along a lonely beach just a few hundred feet from the edge of a runway serving as the town of Sand Point’s airport.

Trump ‘Has a Point’ on China’s Cheap Aluminum, Glencore CEO Says – by Jack Farchy, Erik Schatzker and Mark Burton (Bloomberg News – June 1, 2017)

June 2, 2017

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Donald Trump “has a point” in criticizing China’s trade in aluminum and steel as cheap power has effectively been a subsidy to Chinese producers, said Glencore Plc chief Ivan Glasenberg.

Trump should be pragmatic in dealing with China, given that it imports a lot of U.S. goods, said Glasenberg during a Bloomberg Television panel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“China was producing coal and selling it to the power stations at a loss,” he said. “Aluminum companies were getting subsidized power.”

EPA uranium hearings: A tale of two cities – by John D. Taylor (Rapid City Journal – May 16, 2017)

May 17, 2017

http://rapidcityjournal.com/

HOT SPRINGS – On a gray Wednesday when a little mni wichoni (Lakota for life-giving water) was falling from the skies, a group of about 40 protesters marched from Centennial Park to the Mueller Center shouting “Mni Wichoni, water is life,” and “No uranium mining in the Black Hills,” along the way.

The protesters – including Sarah Peterson and Mary Helen Pederson, from the local group, It’s All About the Water, as well as a contingent of Oglala Lakota elders, children and adults from Pine Ridge, Rapid City and other locations, along with a veterans group, all part of the Clean Water Alliance of the Black Hills – were concerned about the threats they believe AzaragaUranium/Powertech’s plans for the Dewey Burdock in situ leaching uranium mining project will bring to the area, particularly the dry region’s water resources.

After praying, the contingent descended on the Mueller Center to share their concerns about the project with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), at the fourth of five scheduled public hearings EPA would hold on the company’s plans and the two draft permits the agency has issued to Azarga/Powertech, along with the Clean Water Act exemption the one permit will require.

OLD WEST LEGENDS: George Hearst – Father of a Mining & Publishing Empire (Legends of America – March 2014)

May 8, 2017

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/

Born near Sullivan, Missouri on September 3, 1820, to William and Elizabeth Collins Hearst, George was the oldest of three children. Two years later, his sister Martha (nicknamed Patsy,) was born and later a younger brother Philip arrived, who was unfortunately crippled from birth. From a young age, George worked on the family farm and received very little formal schooling.

Though Hearst was said to have had a lifelong interest in books, he had only rudimentary reading abilities. However, even without a formal education, Hearst was no dummy, as the world would soon see. When George was 26, his father William Hearst died owing some $10,000 to his creditors. George immediately took on the responsibility for caring for his mother, younger sister, and crippled brother.

Before long, George had improved on the farm’s profitability, opened a small store and leased a couple of prospective lead mines. The oldest economic endeavor in Missouri, lead had been mined in the area since 1715. Hearst had been interested in the mines since he was a child and once he bought the lead mines, he began to studying the mining business in earnest. His mines prospered, producing both lead and copper and within two years he was able to pay off his father’s debt.

MISSOURI LEGENDS: Joplin – A Lead Mining Maven (Legends of America – August 2015)

May 8, 2017

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/

When traveling Route 66, the path from Webb City to Joplin is seamless, as Webb City has virtually become a suburb of its larger sister city.

Joplin, Missouri, the self-touted lead mining capital of the world, was first settled by the Reverend Harris G. Joplin in 1839. The minister held church services in his home for other area pioneers long before the city of Joplin was ever formed. Before the Civil War, lead was discovered in the Joplin Creek Valley; but, mining operations were interrupted by the war.

In 1870, a large lead strike occurred which brought many miners to the area and numerous mining camps sprang up. Soon, a man named John C. Cox filed a town site plan on the east side of the valley which was quickly populated by a number of new businesses. The town was named for Joplin Creek, which was called such, after the Reverend Harris G. Joplin.

The Trump riddle: Did the president’s grandfather — or another Fred Trumpf — flip klondike claims? – by Maura Forrest (National Post – May 6, 2017)

May 8, 2017

http://news.nationalpost.com/

It was the summer of 1897, and word was beginning to filter south that there was gold up in the Klondike. Fred Trumpf got his foot in the door early. By the time the first prospectors landed in Seattle carrying the gold that launched the stampede, he’d already applied for a mining claim near Dawson City, in today’s Yukon Territory. His signature, “Fred Trumpf,” is still clearly visible on the original application, 120 years later.

By the looks of things, Trumpf wasn’t all that interested in digging for gold. On July 8, he split up his claim, which had cost him $15, and sold one half for $400. A few months later, he sold the other half for $2,000, equal to more than $50,000 today.

That September, he did it again — applied for a claim, split it up, and sold for a tidy profit. There’s no evidence he ever did any work on either claim. It’s widely known that Donald Trump’s grandfather — born Friedrich in Germany in 1869 — got his start by opening a gold rush hotel in the Yukon in 1898 and “mining the miners,” as Trump biographer Gwenda Blair put it.

Christy Clark’s proposed tax on thermal coal would hurt Alberta, U.S. – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – May 3, 2017)

May 3, 2017

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

VANCOUVER — BC Liberal Leader Christy Clark wants to slap a hefty $70-a-tonne carbon levy on exports of thermal coal from British Columbian ports, a move that would devastate producers in both the United States and Alberta while sparking a rift over interprovincial trade.

“I think in the fight against climate change, we all have a responsibility,” Ms. Clark said Tuesday during campaigning for the May 9 provincial election.

She is linking her coal-levy proposal to the Trump administration’s decision last week to collect countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports south of the border. British Columbia is Canada’s largest lumber exporter into the United States.

Washington takes note of Clark’s targeting coal exports – by Nelson Bennett (Business Vancouver – May 2, 2017)

May 2, 2017

https://www.biv.com/

American coal expert says Christy Clark’s posturing on thermal coal exports having intended effect

Christy Clark’s vow to ban or tax thermal coal exports moving through B.C. ports may be nothing more than election brinkmanship, but it seems to be having its intended effect in the U.S. According to Joe Aldina, a New York based energy analyst specializing in coal for S&P Global Platts, Clark’s recent targeting of thermal coal exports moving through B.C. ports has generated a bit of a buzz in the corridors of Washington.

“I know from my contacts that I was just talking to, already they’re lobbying and having conversations behind the scenes in Washington,” Aldina told Business in Vancouver. “It’s certainly got people’s attention.”

Last week, in response to new countervailing duties of 20% or more slapped on Canadian softwood lumber, Clark wrote the prime minister asking for a federal ban on thermal coal exports passing through B.C. ports, and then added that, if exports aren’t banned, a B.C. Liberal government would apply a levy “so onerous that there’s no percentage in shipping thermal coal through British Columbia.”

Mining expansion leaves Florence community uneasy – by Kaly Nasiff (Cronkite News – April 28, 2017)

May 1, 2017

https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/

FLORENCE – Arizona’s economy has been built historically on the 5 c’s: cotton, citrus, cattle, climate and copper.The state’s mining industry – Arizona makes up 65 percent of copper production in the United States – employs about 11,000 people and generates thousands of jobs in connected industries.

But the industry has been battling permitting issues and environmental concerns, especially in Florence, where residents have been working for eight years to block a copper mine.

The Florence Copper Project is an underground copper recovery site that is in development in Florence. The in-situ copper recovery (ISCR) process occurs between 400 to 1,200 feet underground, where a mixture of 99.5 percent water and 0.5 percent sulfuric acid dissolves copper into the bedrock. Then the copper solution is pumped to the surface and processed into copper cathode sheets.

A 1917 coal mine explosion in southern Colorado killed 121. But it’s just a faint memory in the state’s history. – by Jesse Paul (Denver Post – April 27, 2017)

April 27, 2017

http://www.denverpost.com/

A strike of a match probably led to Colorado’s deadliest disaster. In an instant, the Hastings Mine, outside Trinidad, became a mass grave, leaving 121 men — most of them immigrants from Europe — entombed by an explosion and collapse triggered by a well-respected safety inspector.

Just outside the mine’s entrance, groups of children and weeping women crowded around and waited for news of the men. Those tasked with searching for survivors quickly came to the grim realization that there were none. “I won’t say we found three men,” a rescuer told a reporter, according to historical records, “but we did (find) parts of them.”

It was April 27, 1917, just a few weeks after the U.S. joined World War I. The explosion was the blackest mark among a series of mining disasters that over decades had killed hundreds of men who were working risky jobs to provide for their families. And yet, it’s not been a major narrative in Colorado’s economic history.

The Coal Mining Massacre America Forgot – by Lorraine Boissoneault (Smithsonian Magazine – April 25, 2017)

April 25, 2017

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/

The mountains of southern West Virginia are riddled with coal—and bullets

The gunfight in downtown Matewan on May 19, 1920, had all the elements of a high-noon showdown: on one side, the heroes, a pro-union sheriff and mayor; on the other, the dastardly henchmen of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. Within 15 minutes, ten people were dead—seven detectives, two miners and the mayor.

Three months later, the conflict in the West Virginia coal town had escalated to the point where martial law was declared and federal troops had to intervene. The showdown may sound almost cinematic, but the reality of the coal miners’ armed standoffs throughout the early 20th century was much darker and more complicated.

Then, as now, West Virginia was coal country. The coal industry was essentially the state’s sole source of work, and massive corporations built homes, general stores, schools, churches and recreational facilities in the remote towns near the mines. For miners, the system resembled something like feudalism.

“You don’t go start a war to give them jobs” – by Staff (Mining Journal – April 25, 2017)

April 25, 2017

http://www.mining-journal.com/

Former New York mayor and billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg has gone after US coal mining with both barrels this week, and said miners of the black gold need the same support as military veterans.

This week Bloomberg launched a book on the Paris climate agreement, a coal documentary and revealed a US$3 million donation to a programme that supports and retrains miners. In interviews, he said more support was needed for the workers hit by mine closures.

“No matter what [the Trump government] does, we are going toward a world where coal is going to be less-used, where fewer people are going to be working in the industry, and we’ve got to find ways to get jobs for people not just in this industry but in lots of industries around the world being pushed out by technology,” he told the Associated Press.