Surviving the Resource Boom: Historic Minesite Conservation in the 1980s (original) (raw)
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The importance and future of mining history: An Australian perspective
Earth sciences history: journal of the History of the Earth Sciences Society
Readers of Earth Sciences History will surely agree that mining has an integral place in the history of the geosciences, even though mining history is today a distinct academic specialization. Following some decades of relative neglect among professional historians, it is now regaining some degree of prominence. Part of the reason for the earlier fallow years was the turn from a more strictly economic and industrial history of technology-and with it modernization theory-to the more interdisciplinary approaches (and cultural and post-colonial theories) that have informed history of technology and Science and Technology Studies (STS) since the 1970s or thereabouts. To those of us working on mining history today, this fact may seem paradoxical: mining is an ideal subject for anybody interested in cutting-edge social and cultural analysis, environmental history, and STS. Any number of excellent works attest to this claim. Nevertheless, mining history has not recovered the level of exposure that it formerly enjoyed, and is decidedly 'Balkanized' at present, dispersed according to national and even intra-national or regional lines. To pioneering scholars like Lewis Mumford, Geoffrey Blainey, Modesto Bargalló, Rodman Paul, Ronald F. Tylecote or Helmut Wilsdorf, mining and metallurgy was 'big history'. Large societies for mining history certainly abound, filled with enthusiasts, preservationists, local historians, and scientists alike. But suggest a topic in mining history to most graduate students of history in search of a 'marketable' dissertation project today, and you may have to spend some time convincing.
The Landscapes, Cultures and Heritage Values of Abandoned Mining Sites
Landscape Architecture, 2022
Mining is one of the oldest human activities and, together with the associated production of metals, it has often been considered a major agent of civilisation and national development. As a global activity, the footprints of the extractive industry are to be found everywhere in the world, especially as abandoned mining sites. In this article, we understand the mining landscape in a double sense. On one hand, as a material document that can inform us about the mining culture and its evolution. On the other hand, as a complex multi-temporal site shaped jointly by nature and humans. Based on this double perception, this paper has two aims. 1) To read the landscape as a palimpsest that can show how mining activities and the remains of the mining past shape human groups and cultures. 2) To critically discuss the features and values of these landscapes as heritage in service of the contemporary society. In doing so, we combine perspectives of archaeology, ethnography and industrial heritage studies to consider several examples from different types (metallic and non-metallic mining, underground and open-pit mining), chronologies (ancient, modern and contemporary) and geographies (almost every continent in the globe). Our main conclusion is that, despite the singularities of each case, it is possible to define the landscapes of abandoned mining operations and its specific cultures as territories of globalisation that embody a series of heritage values, such as ecological, theoretical, technological, economic, historical, pedagogical, aesthetic, social and human ones
'All That Glisters...': Assessing the Heritage Significance of Mining Places
Australasian Historical Archaeology , 1997
The paper is concerned with the way in which mining places are assessed for their heritage values in Australia. The recent shift to legislated and administratively adopted assessment criteria by the States and Territories, echoing those used for the Register of the National Estate, is outlined, and the criteria are described using recent examples ofassessments.
It is recommended that the site of Moonta and the Copper Triangle be considered for National Heritage listing under the criteria: A, C, E, F, and G. The place and the structures within its parameters exhibit outstanding heritage value to the nation because of: a. the unparalleled contributions of the Copper Triangle’s miners, mining companies and mining communities to the course of Australia’s cultural history that established Australia in the industrial world economy; c. the place’s potential to yield phenomenal amounts of archaeological and historical information that will contribute to a greater understanding of Australia’s 19th-century free settler communities and Australia’s early 20th-century cultural development; e. the place’s importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic qualities of 19th-century Cornish mining settlements, architecture and landscapes; f. the place’s importance in demonstrating the high degree of creative and technical achievement of the Cornish mine engineers, the innovative new ore extraction methods and smelting processes pioneered in Australia; g. the place’s strong and special association with Cornish-Australian ethnic identity as the spiritual homeland with an unbroken tradition of celebrating cultural distinctiveness. The loss of these places would significantly impoverish Australia’s National Heritage. Consequently, Moonta Mines & the Copper Triangle as defined within this report should be included within the National Heritage List.
Mine Remediation and Historical Archaeology: A Gold Mine's Tale
2011
Empire Mine State Historic Park contains the Empire Mine Historic District, a sprawling landscape encompassing remains of numerous gold mining ventures. As DPR pursues remediation activities to reduce human exposure to contamination associated with past mining activity, Sonoma State University has conducted investigations to reduce potential effects on cultural resources. Presently, the Empire Mine serves as the anchor of the park, placed on the National Register as a historic district in 1977 for its distinguished gold mining history. Studies involved a survey of the entire 850-acre park, resulting in the discovery of 500 distinct historic-era resources, mostly archaeological in nature. Many of the historic-era operations, from early Gold Rush placer mining to large, turn-of-the-century incorporated hard-rock extraction and milling ventures have been long forgotten, as have their contributions to the gold mining history of the West. All of these resources were evaluated as potentia...
Museums and mining technologies
Cultural Studies, 2019
This article has a twofold purpose, first to explore how the founding of museums helps the mining industry to create a new way to look at what becomes natural in landscapes that are intervened by mining operations, and second to analyze how this new way of looking at the landscape ignites a process of recontextualization having a material impact on the territories. As part of this discussion, this article reveals how the technologies of mining production have evolved, facilitating the companies’ material production, and how the mining museum becomes a fundamental part of this technological development. This article looks at two mining museums owned or funded by the Chilean copper mine Los Pelambres, the ‘Museum of Copper and Sustainable Development’, located in Los Vilos next to Los Chungungos dock, and the ‘Andróniko Luksic Mining Center’, located in the engineering department at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago. These museums are funded by the mining company Los Pelambres and one of them is currently managed by the company.
Mining Legacies – Understanding Life-of-Mine Across Time and Space
2014
The Australian mining industries approach to life-of-mine planning has improved considerably in recent decades. It now needs to be matched by, and embedded in, mining governance systems that utilise a comprehensive whole-of-mine-life approach within a jurisdictional, industry and regional regime rather than just focusing on specific impacts in isolation. The need for a more comprehensive approach is supported by the many mining legacies, from historic, recent and some operating mine sites around Australia. Sites that are leaving enduring environmental, community and public health impacts that are yet to be accurately assessed. While number of these sites in Australia is estimated to be more than 50,000, this is probably an underestimation, with a lack of data and different state based approaches complicating attempts to quantify mining legacies as a national issue. Qualitative assessments about the extent and nature of mining legacy impacts on nature and communities across Australia are also required if we are to understand and avoid ongoing and future mining legacies. The paper commences with an exploration of mining legacies as an umbrella term for previously mined, abandoned, orphan, derelict or neglected sites. This is followed by a discussion of the current status of mining legacies as an Australia wide issue, contrasting the Australian response with overseas examples. Common themes from past workshops are explored recognising that mining legacies are a growing public policy issue and identifying key ingredients for a successful response. Supporting this, and based on national data which re-enforces the need for action, is the changing scale and intensity of mining in Australia that, while lowering costs for mine operators, increases the liability that may eventually fall to the state if mine-sites are not rehabilitated effectively. Though a national issue, mining is a state and territory responsibility, so the current approach to mining legacies is then examined state-by-state. Given the widespread application and recent changes to bonds and levies in Western Australia (WA) and the Northern territory (NT) the merits of both are examined with reference to specific case studies. Despite the current division of responsibility and diversity of approaches, however, mining legacies remain a significant and growing problem with a recognised need and repeated call for cooperation and coordination at a national and international level. Future action is addressed in the final section with reference to liability, responsibility, industry reputation, regulation and leadership.