Introduction: Mineral Resources and Exploration

Abstract

Mining is one of man’s oldest activities and may even be considered older than agriculture, since Stone Age hunters, who worked flints into arrowheads and other tools and weapons, often obtained suitable material from carefully selected sites which were worked by pits and small underground workings. With the advent of the ancient civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, China and elsewhere metals were widely worked to produce tools, weapons and ornaments. The earliest metals used by man were gold, copper, bronze (copper + tin), silver and lead. The use of iron was discovered later and from it far superior tools and weapons could be manufactured. During the time of the Roman Empire, mining for gold, silver, copper, tin, lead and iron was well established in various parts of Europe and many of these ancient mining centres in Israel, Cyprus, Spain and Britain are still producing today. After the fall of the Roman Empire, mining in Europe went into decline, but by the Middle Ages it was flourishing again in areas such as the Harz Mountains and the Erzgebirge in Germany and Cornwall in England. Agricola’s famous treatise De Re Metallica is a fascinating account, beautifully illustrated with woodcuts, of mining practices in the 1500’s. In Book One he gives an eloquent defence of mining as an honourable and essential occupation, carefully and systematically refuting the various arguments of critics.