Mine World Map
Travel guides & inspiration
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Graphite Mining and Its Modern Uses
From the pencil quarries of Cumbria to the anodes of lithium-ion batteries, follow the quiet rise of graphite from a curiosity to a strategic mineral.
Borax and the Twenty-Mule Team
How a humble desert mineral and the mule-team wagons that hauled it out of Death Valley became one of the most enduring icons of the American West.
Potosí and Cerro Rico: A Deep Dive into the Mountain That Built an Empire
Cerro Rico de Potosí, the conical mountain above the Bolivian altiplano, was the single richest silver source in human history. From 1545 to 1825 perhaps 50 000 tonnes of silver we
Sulfur Mining and Volcanic Extraction
From the sweltering mines of Sicily to the glowing crater of Kawah Ijen, the strange and dangerous story of how humans have mined sulfur.
Read more →Phosphate Mining and the Fertiliser Industry
The mined rock that feeds modern agriculture, why its geography is dangerously concentrated, and why phosphorus is a finite nutrient with no substitute.
Read more →Coltan and Conflict Minerals, Explained
How an obscure ore behind the capacitors in your phone became a byword for conflict minerals and supply-chain ethics.
Read more →Asbestos Mining and Its Tragic Legacy
Once marketed as a miracle mineral, asbestos left behind a legacy of fatal disease and contaminated towns that the world is still reckoning with.
Read more →Rammelsberg and Goslar: A Deep Dive into a Thousand-Year German Ore Mine
The Rammelsberg, a 635-m hill at the foot of the Harz mountains, was mined for copper, lead, silver and zinc for 1000 years until 1988. Together with the medieval town of Goslar it
Read more →Geevor Tin Mine: A Deep Dive
A preserved Cornish tin mine on the Penwith cliffs, where the last chapter of an ancient industry is kept open for visitors.
Read more →Boulby Mine: A Deep Dive
Britain's deepest mine, on the North Yorkshire coast, where fertiliser minerals and dark-matter detectors share the same salt tunnels.
Read more →Cripple Creek: A Deep Dive into Colorado's Last Great Gold Rush
How a buried volcano on the flank of Pikes Peak became Cripple Creek, Colorado's last great gold rush, its labour wars, its modern open pit and its heritage towns.
Read more →Falun Copper Mine: A Deep Dive into Sweden's Industrial Cradle
The Great Copper Mountain at Falun produced two-thirds of Europe's copper at its 17th-century peak, financed Sweden's brief age of military greatness, and gave its name to a paint
Read more →Morenci: A Deep Dive into North America's Largest Copper Operation
In the hills above the Clifton canyons, Morenci works copper on a scale that is hard to picture until you stand at the edge of the terraced pits and watch the haul trucks crawl like beetles far below.
Read more →Oyu Tolgoi: A Deep Dive into the Turquoise Hill of the Gobi
Beneath a low rise of turquoise-stained rock in the empty South Gobi lies one of the richest copper-gold deposits ever found.
Read more →Homestake: A Deep Dive from Gold Rush to Physics Lab
The Homestake Mine at Lead began as a Black Hills gold strike and ended as one of the world's great underground science labs.
Read more →