Click on a subject in the table below, or browse the whole whole document (35 records). The dates in the content table refer to the publication dates of the featured books and articles.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| 1. | History of Mining in the Yukon, 1996-2002 (6 records) |
| 2. | Ontario Mining History, 1946-1999 (3 records) |
| 3. | Diamonds, 1995-2002 (3 records) |
| 4. | Gold, 1999-2001 (2 records) |
| 5. | Great Mining Scandals, 1972-1998 (5 records) |
| 6. | Mining and the Human Environment, 1993-2002 (3 records) |
| 7. | Archaeology, 1996-2002 (3 records) |
| 8. | Biography, 1993-2002 (3 records) |
| 9. | Geopolitics I, Development Issues, 1998-2002 (4 records) |
| 10. | Geopolitics II, Politics of Power, 1992-1997 (3 records) |
It is important to note that a keyword summary should in no way be considered a substitute for the original work. This basic caveat is explored in more detail in the introduction to the MINLIB technical library, which offers an extra selection of records on ten themes.
MINLIB now (January 2012) contains circa 82,000 records on non-confidential material, and WORLD about 17,600 records, with minimal overlap to MINLIB. A brief note on MINLIB and its contents can be found in the Introduction to Turnstone .
LUNDBERG,M (2002) Secrets and subterfuge. Up Here 18 no.5, 48-51, July.
The Silver Trail of the south-central Yukon, Canada - popular note on local history - history of mining - the Stewart River region - Mayo, Elsa and Keno City - museum in Keno City - silver discoveries at Mayo in 1918 - by 1930, 14% of Canadian Ag production was sent downriver from Mayo on the shallow-draught sternwheeler Keno - low Ag prices and high transport costs ended operations in 1932, but later mining continued until the closure of the last operation, United Keno Hill, in 1989 - hiking and exploring the region.
*****
GREGORY,A (2000) Joseph Keele, explorer buried in Little Lake Cemetery. Peterborough Examiner, A6, 17 March.
History of science - popular, well-written note on the life of Joseph Keele, explorer and geologist - biography - Keele (1863-1923) was born in Ireland and moved to Peterborough at the age of 15 to live with his uncle - work on the Grenville province with the GSC in 1897-1899 - Ontario, Canada - in 1900-1908 most of his energies were spent in mapping the Au fields of the Yukon - a major expedition, June 1907-August 1908, travelled east from Dawson to explore the valleys of the Ross, Pelly and Gravel rivers which cut across the divide between the Yukon and Mackenzie rivers - Keele Peak and Keele River are named after him - he died in 1923, the year after he visited Egypt to see the newly-opened tomb of Tutankhamen.
*****
PRINGLE,H and TRATTLES,D (1996) Forgotten claims. Canadian Geographic 116 no.6, 36-48, November.
Yukon, Canada - history of mining - the Klondike Au rush - popular article addresses the role and fate of native peoples - the Han people - the Dawson City area - Robert Henderson, George Carmack and other prospectors - ill effects of the 30,000 migrants to the area between 1896 and the summer of 1898 - maps and place names (see also book critiques, ibid., pp.83-84).
*****
FREEMAN,R (2001) Mystery man. Up Here 17 no.2, 42-45, March.
Yukon, northern Canada - biography - mysterious traveller, Count Edouard V. de Sainville - Au rushes of the late 19th century - scientific travels in Yukon and NWT.
*****
FREEMAN,R (1999) A stitch in time. Up Here 15 no.6, 44-47, August.
Yukon, Canada - George Mitchell's cross-Canada route to the Klondike gold fields - Au mining - gold rush of 1898-1899 - Wind City - an injured Mitchell was rescued by the skill of local women of the Gwich'in native people.
*****
BACKHOUSE,F (1998) To do and dare: women on the Chilkoot Trail. Beautiful British Columbia 40 no.1, 18-24, Spring.
Yukon, Canada - history - women in the Klondike gold rush - the Chilkoot Trail, from Haines (Alaska, USA) across the northwest tip of BC to the Au fields.
*****
MacDOUGALL,JB (1946) Two Thousand Miles of Gold. McClelland & Stewart Limited, Toronto, 234pp.
1. A popular history of mining camps of the Canadian shield - Ontario receives the most attention, but mines in Quebec, Manitoba and the NWT are also mentioned - the title is a slight misnomer, as Ag mining and exploration dominate the first 120 pages - history of mining - biographical notes - prospectors and miners - with 67 small monochrome photographs and a basic location map of the Canadian shield - discovery of Silver Islet, a Ag deposit off Sibley peninsula in Lake Superior, in 1868 - the Sudbury Cu Ni deposits, discovered in 1883 (pp.9-10) - the fur trade, and later logging, dominated the early pioneering days of northern Ontario - late 19th century settlements - the Ottawa valley - transport by rivers and railways - the old Wright mine (pp.27-28) - the Cobalt Ag discovery of 1903 - Temagami district - Willet G. Miller and his recognition of native Ag - Miller secured the distinctive name of Cobalt for the new town - rapid growth of the town of Cobalt to its peak in 1909-1919 (Cobalt is covered in more depth than any other topic or locality) - development of the giant air compressor system at Ragged Rapids, which provided air to the drills in the mines - the Montreal river - by 1910 Cobalt had matured as a mining town, and had entered its heyday, 1909-1919 - in these boom years 15 mines paid back their full capital investment in net profits: `Nipissing 130 times, Kerr Lake 260 times, and Timiskiming and Hudson Bay, 300 times' (p.53) - banks and lawyers appeared at Cobalt, a sure sign of wealth and progress - `the legal fraternity was fully represented, as shingles indicated, for in the mining game stakes were high and integrity often correspondingly low' (p.54) - popular tunes of the day praised Cobalt, such as the `Cobalt song' (pp.56-58) - criminal fraud, salting and claim jumping (pp.58-61) were present, although management was good - chequered history of the ultimately- successful Keeley mine at Silver Centre, 1907-1929 (pp.63-67) - the ore from the first find of the Wood's vein was smelted at Deloro (p.65) - the discovery team was J.M. Wood, R.J. Jowsey and Charles Keeley - George T. Smith of Mattawa became the first Mining Recorder at Haileybury...
2. Not all staking rushes led to fortunes, an example being the Gillies Timber Limit rush near Cobalt (pp.76-78) - detailed description of travels to the frontiers by railway, river and bush road - Timagami (Temagami), Latchford and Gowganda - Elk Lake (also known as Elk City, Bear Creek, Smyth or Cooksville - p.111) - Latchford - Montreal river - Charlton - the Timmins (Porcupine) district Au discoveries (pp.130-133) - inadvertent draining of Frederickhouse Lake (p.137) by Father Paradis - the McIntyre, Hollinger and other Au mines in the Porcupine district - Timmins, Archean Abitibi greenstone belt - discovery of Dome mine by Jack Wilson - `Golden Stairway' at the Dome mine (pp.142-144, photo) - contrast between shorter-lived Cobalt silver boom and the longer reign of Au mining in Timmins - underground visit at the Hollinger mine - Little Clay Belt and Great Clay Belt - growth of railways and homesteading - local history - Bill Wright, Harry Oakes and Kirkland Lake - Lake Shore mine - Fe and Au in Wawa (`Wa-Wa')- Michipicoten district - Little Long Lac mine, Geraldton - Noranda, Quebec - Flin Flon, Manitoba - U find by Gilbert LaBine, Great Bear Lake, NWT (pp.172-174) - deadly forest fires (pp.176-188) of 1911 (Porcupine fire), 1916 (Matheson) and 1922 (Haileybury) - Sandy McIntyre (pp.193-194) - biography - Fe mine at Steep Rock Lake, Atikokan (pp.205-209) - forestry - pulp and paper industry - Ni mines and metal refining at Sudbury and Copper Cliff (pp.209-213) - criminal fraud: a scam involving purported telluride Au ore (based on the Colorado mines) in Porcupine (pp.149-151) - high-grading of Au - Au in world economics and Canadian unity - index (pp.231-234, including prospectors, p.233 - an easy-to-read work with some lesser-known facts and ideas, from an author who had excellent access to the region in the early 20th century due to his work as a facilitator of schooling, teacher and school supervisor in the remote north - a great admirer of the prospector and of industry, he was obviously a hardy bushman himself - GCW).
*****
CHISHOLM,B, GUTSCHE,A and FLOREN,R (1999) Superior: Under the Shadow of the Gods. Lynx Images Inc., Toronto, 2nd edition, 282+40pp.
A guidebook to the Canadian shore of Lake Superior, first published in 1998 and reissued the year after in second edition - Ontario, Canada - the popular guide treats the region in six sections, moving northwest from Sault St. Marie to the Thunder Bay region - local history - well-illustrated with monochrome photographs and simple, clear sketch maps - with detailed introduction (pp.xii-xxxix) - geology and archaeology - native peoples - history of mining - the copper deposits of the region - Silver Islet - Cu and Ag mines - the railway era - fishing and logging - forestry - shipping on Lake Superior - regional descriptions - 1) Sault Ste. Marie to Theano Point - Algoma - Bawating - canal system - transport - shipwrecks on the Canadian shore (pp.18-19, with map) - the Edmund Fitzgerald - Batchawana Bay, Pancake Bay, Coppermine Point and the Mamainse Cu mine - Theano Point and the U mining boom - 2) from the Montreal River to Brule Harbour - Lake Superior provincial park - Agawa Bay - Agawa Canyon - pictographs at Agawa Rock - the Lizard Islands - Gargantua Harbour - Gargantua Island, Devil's Warehouse Island, Warp Bay, Pantagruel Bay - 3) the area near Wawa - Michipicoten river - the Helen Fe mine - Cu mining on Michipicoten Island - Agate Island - 4) the area between Wawa and Marathon - Obatanga and White Lake provincial parks - White River, and the origins of Winnie the Pooh - Pukaskwa national park - Hattie Cove - the Pic river - Heron Bay - 5) the north shore of Superior - Port Coldwell - Neys provincial park - World War II prisoner of war camps - the Steel River - Jackfish and Noslo - the impact structure of the Slate Islands (pp.178-181) - Terrace Bay, the Aguasabon River and Schreiber - Rossport and the Rossport Islands - pictographs - the Nipigon region - Red Rock - 6) Nipigon Strait to the Pigeon River - many islands, the Black Bay peninsula, Porphyry Island, Ouimet Canyon, the Sleeping Giant - Silver Islet - Thunder Cape - Port Arthur and Fort William, components of modern Thunder Bay - Kakabeka Falls - the mistaken 1918 `discovery' of `dinosaur' bones along the Kaministiquia River (p.248) - Angus Island, Pie Island - references, index and chronology.
*****
PIOVESANA,RH (editor) (1980) Papers and Records, Volume 8, 1980. Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society Papers and Records 8, 43pp.
History - northwest Ontario, Canada - early sports in Thunder Bay - 1934 gold rush - Au mining - weather and the fur trade routes to the northwest - schooling in Thunder Bay - the W.J. Copp foundry.
*****
COCKBURN,A and WOLINSKY,C (2002) Diamonds: the real story. National Geographic 201 no.3, 2-35, March.
Popular account of the diamond trade, worldwide - maps - conflict diamonds, so-called because they have fuelled wars and violence around the globe, notably in Africa in recent decades - a 265.82-carat stone, cut to 102.23 carats, is traced to its origins at Mbuji Mayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) - Sierra Leone - the historic role of De Beers - mineral economics - history of mining - abandoned mining town at Elizabeth Bay, and modern operations along the coast of Namibia, S.W. Africa - the Orapa mine in Botswana - diamond cutting in India and elsewhere - useful summary map of the diamond trade (p.21) - trading centres, headed by Antwerp (Belgium, Europe, p.20), plus Tel Aviv (Israel, Middle East), New York (USA), London (UK) and Bombay (Mumbai, Maharashtra) - the Mir diamond mine in Siberia (Russia, former USSR) - fabled Golconda, India (near Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, south India, p.29) - cutting and polishing of small diamonds in Surat (Gujarat, west India) - gemstone enhancement (p.35).
*****
HART,M (1999) How to steal a diamond. Atlantic 283 no.3, 28-34, March.
Popular account of the diamond business in western ** S.Africa and southwest Namibia, S.W. Africa, with emphasis on security issues - diamond theft and diamond smuggling - the delicate issue of diamond pricing, especially for fancy diamonds - Namaqualand - Port Nolloth - Alexkor and Namdeb - political linkage to diamond smuggling - use of random x-ray spot checks in security - worker hostels - estimates of percentage loss of recovered diamonds (15-30%) - Namdeb's Diamond Area 1 matches the outlines of the Sperrgebiet, declared by the German colonial masters of the region in 1908 - diamonds in Angola - diamonds as the ultimate portable commodity.
*****
ALLERSTON,R (editor) (1995) Spotlight on mining. Up Here 11 no.3, 56-63, May.
NWT, Canada - notes on diamond exploration, prospects for a diamond mine, and an overview of the land claims of native peoples in the territory - DIAND - territorial and federal governments.
*****
HERRINGTON,R, STANLEY,C and SYMES,R (1999) Gold. Natural History Museum, 64pp.
Popular, well-illustrated book on the history and geology of gold - Au mines - history of mining - native Au - the carat unit of purity for gold - crystal habit of gold - the Latrobe gold nugget from Victoria, Australia - fine dendritic gold from Hopes Nose, Devon, S.W.England, UK, Europe - mineralogy of Au (pp.6-7, with colour photomicrographs, ore textures, list of Au minerals) - tellurides and selenides - ore from Hemlo (Ontario, Canada: aurostibite and criddleite from the Golden Giant mine), Buckhorn mine (Boulder county, Colorado, USA) and Bisbee (Arizona) - metallogeny - worldwide distribution of Au deposits - Busang Au fraud - hydrothermal and placer Au deposits - remarkable example of a Au nugget with an embedded diamond from Brazil, S.America (p.13) - Au in veins and shear zones - the Muruntau mine in Uzbekistan, former USSR, a deposit with some 4,500 tonnes of gold in reserves - conglomerates of the Witwatersrand paleoplacers, ** S.Africa - BIF - Carlin-type deposits - Carlin mine, Nevada, USA - epithermal deposits - detailed coloured cartoon (pp.22-23) shows the wider picture of mineralization and plate tectonics - geochemical exploration - Au mining in ancient times and today (with world production figures for 1998, p.29) - metal refining - bioleaching - environmental implications - gold rushes worldwide (pp.36-42) - Au in the UK (Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England) - archaeology - Au artifacts - Au coin - Au as a commodity and financial instrument - the Bre-X gold scandal - fraud at Busang in Kalimantan, Indonesia (pp.50-51) - Borneo - uses of gold - jewellery - medicine and technology - legend of El Dorado (Colombia, S.America) - glossary and index - remarkable modern account of Au deposits and mining for a general audience.
*****
BOWN,SR (2001) The historic adventures of Milton and Cheadle, part two. Beautiful British Columbia 43 no.2, 30-37.
BC, Canada - history of exploration - a trip to the Cariboo gold fields - the Cariboo Au fields in 1863 - line drawings - more a travelogue than a description of Au mining - Williams Creek.
*****
HUTCHINSON,B (1998) Fools' Gold: The Making of a Global Market Fraud. Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 267pp.
The Bre-X Au fraud, a scandal based on a vastly over-represented Au deposit (an earlier, modest find) at Busang in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo - salting and fraud - the mineral exploration and mining business, and stock market manipulation - the role of stock promoters, mining analysts and stock exchanges - popular book, portraying many firms and institutions in an unholy light - corruption and violence in Suharto's Indonesia - crime - a voyage up the Mahakam river drainage and a visit to the near-deserted Busang camp after the scandal broke - the investment houses of Bay Street (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - four reasons for suspicion: 1) lack of information on Busang: Bre-X released remarkably little data on its `find' (p.26) - 2) the firm invited gold analysts (in their role as stock promotion tools) but not independent geologists to its site - 3) dubious core sampling practices (pp.24-25,144) - 4) segregated, essentially unknown on-site management, in this case Filipino geologists managing largely Australian drill crews (p.31) - past delusions in mining, such as the Frobisher expeditions to Baffin Island (Nunavut, NWT, Arctic Canada, pp.38-39) - biographical notes on key figures - David Walsh (pp.50-70), Bre-X founder and president - Canadian mining companies (p.42) - the nature of mining scams (pp.42-45, et seq.) - the Windfall scandal (area of the major Kidd Creek base-metal find, Timmins, Ontario, pp.45-46) - Applegath and White's New Cinch Uranium Ltd (pp.46-49), and its supposed Au find in the New Mexico (USA) desert in 1979 - common lack of accountability, and of thorough investigation and punishment in the wake of such scandals - Calgary, Alberta - Walsh's incorporation of oil junior Bresea in Alberta, October 1980 (p.55) - the petroleum business - the Calgary oil rush of 1913 and Edward Buck's fraudulent 1914 promotion, the Black Diamond well (pp.56-57) - energy resources - the founding of Bre-X in 1989 (p.67) and Walsh's bankrupt personal finances soon after - a brief history of Indonesia (p.71 et seq.) - Sukarno and Suharto - Freeport McMoRan, the Grasberg- Ertsberg mining complex in Irian Jaya, and social problems around the mine... (first part of detailed MINLIB entry - and one of at least five books on the Bre-X affair).
*****
THOMPSON,JV and HERKENHOFF,EC (1995a) Scams and phonies in the mining business. Skillings Mining Review 84 no.32, 4-11, 12 August.
Valuable 2-part overview of fraud and honest (but poor) prospects in the mineral business in the USA - numerous examples - a classification of `phony' people, from the deluded to those with criminal intent, both lesser- and better-educated - anecdotal stories of the authors, spanning long careers - 1) a phony oil well - 2) a visit to the `Red Elephant' mines near Lawson, Colorado in 1939 - promotions and divining rods - 3) `arthritis mines': a radioactive `cure', a medical scam more than a mining scam - 4) a purportedly Au -bearing non-magnetic fraction in a magnetite waste pile from a Cu mining operation in the Southwest: role of the phony research lab - 5) supposed Au in the Eagle Mountain Fe mine jig tailings, a former mine in the eastern desert of California, USA - no appreciable Au had been found by a very professional staff when the mine was in operation - 6) Klamath (`Kalamath') Mountains of northern California - Redding area - barely scams, just pitiful grassroots Au claim offerings - 7) a failed heap leach Au project, Nevada, USA - failure to crush ore to sufficiently fine fractions - 8) supposed W in metamorphic terrain near Gunnison, Colorado - again, failure to appreciate need for comminution as a prerequisite for liberation of (potential) metal content - mineral processing - 9) a U deposit in Utah - the `deal' was actually a worked-out former mine - 10) the Old Plot mine in southwest Colorado - old workings are not always evidence of significant past production - 11) `gold in everything' mining claims, Nevada - no significant assays - 12) `Crazy Swede' and purported Au and Ag values in Cretaceous Mancos shale in eastern Utah - black shale and alluvium, no Au - 13) Tucson black sands, Arizona - between Tucson and Phoenix there are numerous arroyos with black magnetite sands, prominent after heavy rain - heavy minerals are genuine, derived from weathering of volcanic rocks east of Tucson - possible Fe resource, but associated Ti is a `poison' for blast furnaces - 14) ferromanganese project using Fe- Mn ore from New Brunswick, Canada - good metal refining practice of little use if grades too low - 15) `gold' in western dry lake sediments.
*****
THOMPSON,JV and HERKENHOFF,EC (1995b) Scams and phonies in the mining business - part 2. Skillings Mining Review 84 no.33, 4-11, 19 August.
A valuable overview of fraud and plain bad deals in the mineral business, mostly in the USA - more examples, again largely from Thompson - as in part I, some names are changed or omitted to protect innocent and guilty alike - 16) Middle March mine, southeast Arizona - purported Zn values in old mine waters - 17) a long-lasting phony, the `Zeeberg' plays in south-central Colorado - repetitive staking of lode over placer claims, and vice versa - also, on carbonatites, mica is not vermiculite! - industrial minerals - 18) small mine in southwest Arizona, south of the town called Quartzsite (sic) - Au play with genuine tailings from old cyanide leach operation - real Au here, but sulphide-locked despite fine grind - pyrite-hosted Au in relatively small tonnage - (19) dubious `engineer's reports' - 20) phony resumes from phony engineers - 21) - dubious assays (phony assayers and phony labs) - fire assay, AAS and other procedures - 22) the phony mining district: the Iron Hill carbonatite near Powderhorn, Gunnison county, Colorado - there is potential for production of Nb and other elements, but early claims were doubtless all based on hopes of more- familiar commodities, precious or base metals - 23) the Chuckwalla district with the Red Cloud mine, California - considerable old workings, but no evidence of past production - 24) Red Cloud district, north of Yuma, Arizona - new play on old ground, but little Ag - 25) Constellation district, 10 miles northeast of Wickenberg, Arizona - Monte Cristo mine - no obvious mineralization - 26) Twin Rivers, Philippines (1940) - mine tailings scam in Mountain province - metal refining - 27) a Tertiary gravels `mine' - bad case of the `gold bug' - history of mining - former hydraulic mining of coarse, faintly auriferous gravels in the Sierra Nevada: the `Sawyer decision' of 1885 ended hydraulic mining in California - basic minerals economics: too-low grades - 28) mine tailings on the Mother Lode - area of the old Kennedy and Argonaut mines - there will be some Au in the tailings, but also arsenic - not a scam (yet), but imagine the legal hassles of actually trying to revive mining in a prosperous post-mining community.
*****
LAPHAM,LH (1987) Looking for El Dorado. Saturday Night 102 no.12, 44-51, December.
Popular notes on the Windfall Mines scandal - prospecting - stock market scandals - mining in northern Ontario, Canada - the Kidd Creek (Texas Gulf Sulphur) VMS discovery, December 1963 - Timmins area of the Archean Abitibi greenstone belt - mining promoters - Viola MacMillan - the geophysical anomaly in the Windfall case was due not to sulphide ore but to a graphitic rock unit of no economic worth - history of exploration.
*****
EBERHART,P (1972) Treasure Tales of the Rockies. Sage Books, Chicago, IL, 3rd revised edition, 315pp.
A book on the history of mining - Rocky Mountains - Colorado, USA - tales of lost mines and other purported treasures - popular style - 43 maps and 48 photographs - background reading for treasure hunters, rockhounds and prospectors - the book is divided into 19 sections with 126 notes on various `treasures' - the Spanish - Quivira - the French - Spanish Peaks - the legend of Huajatolla - biographical notes ... the Crazy Swede's lost mine - Oak Creek - the Lost Trail mine - Mount Wilson - the Four Corners area - Bull Canyon - the Lost Josephine mine and the Golden Jesus ... diamond frauds (pp.148-153), particularly the enterprise of Arnold and Slack, who in 1872 began a rumour of a rich diamond field, probably in northeast Arizona - the location of the `diamond field' was kept secret, and soon rumours sent prospectors to Arizona, to Colorado and New Mexico - the stock exchanges ran amuck buying stock in new mining ventures - it took the experienced eye of eminent geologist Clarence King to expose the fraud, which was eventually correlated with purchases of both cheap and good gems in jewellery stores in London, England ...
*****
RENNER,M (2002) Breaking the link between resources and repression. In `State of the World 2002' (Starke,L editor), Worldwatch Institute, 266pp., 149-173.
Modern regional wars and rebellions and the role of forestry products, minerals and energy resources in causing or sustaining war - petroleum in Colombia (S.America), Sudan, Chad and Cameroon (Africa) - gemstones in Afghanistan and Cambodia - oil and diamonds in Angola - history of conflict in Sierra Leone, west Africa - blood diamonds (conflict diamonds) - the combatants, the few who grow rich on the trade, and the markets for the products, mostly in rich first-world countries - deforestation in Borneo - unrest in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (pp.164-167) - ExxonMobil in Aceh province - Bougainville and the Panguna Cu mine - deforestation in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) - the giant Grasberg Cu Au mine in Irian Jaya (Freeport's mining operation is the single largest source of tax revenue for the Indonesian government) - Nigeria - redress for the problem - role of the UN - arms embargoes and other sanctions - corporate responsibility for some of the troubles (p.170) - political accountability: `so far, western governments have been all too ready to turn a blind eye in order to protect the interests of their own corporations' (p.170) - proliferation of small arms and other symptoms of the global arms trade.
*****
GARDNER,G and SAMPAT,P (1999) Forging a sustainable materials economy. In `State of the World 1999' (Starke,L editor). Worldwatch Institute / W.W.Norton & Company, 261pp., 41-59.
Sustainable development - acceleration in raw materials production and consumption - natural resources - metal mining and the quantity of mine waste from Fe Cu Au Pb Al mining - efficiency of use and recycling.
*****
CANBY,TY and O'REAR,C (1993) Bacteria: teaching old bugs new tricks. National Geographic 184 no.2, 36-61, August.
A review of microbiology and the applications of bacteria - genetics - treatment of mine wastes and tailings runoff - Homestake Au mine, S.Dakota, USA - cyanide and oil slick pollution control - safe pesticides - agriculture.
*****
ROBERTS,D (1996) Egypt Yesterday and Today: Lithographs by David Roberts. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York, 272pp.
Large-format, lavishly illustrated colour volume of notes and illustrations by David Roberts (born in Scotland, 1796) - archaeology - Egypt, north Africa - Roberts' travels in the Middle East, 1838-1839 - the monuments of Pharaonic Egypt - maps and introductory notes, a preface to 120 plates, arranged in order from 24 September 1838 to 06 February 1839 - brief biography of Roberts (1796-1864) - colour photographs of the sites in modern times - Alexandria - Cleopatra's Needle - Pompey's Column - obelisks - Cairo - Siout - the Temple of Dendera - the Temple of Luxor - the Nile valley - Aswan - numerous temples - Abu Simbel - the Fortress of Ibrim - Hassaya - the Temple of Dakke - the rock temple of Gyrshe - Kalabsha - Tafa - Wadi Kardassy - the Island of Philae - the Temple of Isis on Philae - the Temple of Kom Ombo - Gebel Silsila - the Temple of Edfu - the Temple of Esna - the Temple of Hermonthis - Karnak - the Great Temple of Amun at Luxor - Luxor and Thebes - the Valley of the Kings - Deir el-Medina - the Colossi of Memnon in the Plain of Thebes - the Ramesseum - mosques of the Islamic period - the pyramids and the Sphinx - Heliopolis - stunning book with extracts from Roberts' diaries, photography by Antonio Attini, and text by Fabio Bourbon.
*****
MANN,CC (2002) 1491. Atlantic 289 no.3, 41-53, March.
Americas before contact - USA - Brazil, S.America - role of disease in the European invasion - pre-contact population size debated - agriculture of the native peoples (the role of fire - p.50) - Amazonia: natural or not (?).
*****
THEROUX,P and REZA (1997) The imperiled Nile delta. National Geographic 191 no.1, 2-35, January.
Egypt, north Africa - geology, history and life in the Nile delta - Cairo - archaeology, religion - Alexandria - agriculture.
*****
WINCHESTER,S (2001) The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology. Viking, London and HarperCollins, New York, 330pp.
The history of science - biography - William Smith (1769-1839) - development of the geological map - Smith's projects across England, UK, Europe (book critique in Science 293, 1439-1440, 24 August 2001) - Somerset, S.W.England - his epochal map of the geology of England and Wales, completed in 1801 and published in 1815 - born in Churchill, Oxfordshire, on 23 March 1769 - the Christian view of Creation, and the Book of Genesis - science and religion - fossils - Mesozoic ammonites such as Dactylioceras and Hildoceras - echinoids (`pound stones') - Clypeus - brachiopods such as terebratulids - Smith's travels, and work as a surveyor and canal builder - Smith first noticed the succession of rocks and fossils in the Carboniferous stratigraphy of the Mearns Pit in Somerset, S.W.England - High Littleton - coal mining - map of the Somerset coal field (p.73) - from Somerset to Yorkshire - VPal - fossil plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs - Bath - colour renditions of a modern map of British geology (1969) with Smith's map of England, Wales and southern Scotland - Jurassic geology - more on ammonites, including Titanites - with line drawings of ammonites and other forms - Smith's financial problems while pursuing his goal of publishing his map - subsequent plagiarism by Greenough - churlish reception of Smith's work by the Geological Society - William Smith lived long enough to be awarded the first Wollaston medal, in 1831 - a very well-crafted volume, with glossary, references and index - the book's jacket opens out into a rendition of Smith's map.
*****
BRIGGS,DEG (2002) Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002). Nature 417, 706, 13 June.
Biography - obituary - paleontologist and evolutionary theorist, Gould was born and died in New York city, USA - he obtained a degree in geology at Antioch College in 1963 and was made a professor at Harvard in 1967.
*****
ANON (1993) Anne Evelyn Wilson: a heroine to Canadian geologists. Northern Miner 79 no.12, p.4, 24 May.
Biography - Anne Evelyn Wilson, pioneer geologist and paleontologist with GSC - born in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, in 1881, Wilson became the first woman to become a staff member at GSC, a field worker for GSC, and RSC member.
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MONTAIGNE,F and ESSICK,P (2002) Water pressure. National Geographic 202 no.3, 2-33, September.
Popular article on water resources around the world (see also excellent map supplement in this issue) - Rajasthan and Gujarat in west India - local initiatives can be very successful at local water conservation - an example is the construction of johads, earthen dams holding modest reservoirs, using local labour and visiting expertise - agriculture is the major use of water worldwide, and the rapid growth in the use of motorized water pumps in India has seen declining watertables since the 1950s - with fold-out map showing water stress worldwide, as a function of water availability and population density - advantages of local-built dams over giant government and international projects - the Katuba region north of Lusaka (Zambia, Africa) - the importance of seasonal wetlands known as dambos - Mexico - Middle East - Jordan - initiative to introduce simple and inexpensive treadle pumps in Zambia - water quality - Durban in ** S.Africa - urban water supplies - Spain, Europe - apparently (p.25) the average inhabitant of the USA uses 101 gallons of water a day (101 U.S. standard gallons is equivalent to 382 litres, so this represents 11.6 m3/person/month - GCW) - in comparison, the government of S.Africa suggests a minimum daily allocation of 25 litres of clean water per person per day - the hydrological cycle (the dispersion of freshwater around the globe).
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LESLIE,J (2000) Running dry: what happens when the world no longer has enough freshwater? Harper's 301 no.1802, 37-52, July.
Popular, detailed review of water supply issues worldwide - freshwater is circa 2.5% of the world's total water, and almost two-thirds of it is locked in the polar icecaps and glaciers - human geography - as many as 20% of the world population of 6 billion lack access to clean drinking water, and almost 50% live without sanitation - requirements of agriculture, and abuses of water supply - population growth is now outstripping growth of irrigated land (p.38) - importance of aquifers - groundwater supply - the Ogallala aquifer covers 225,000 square miles (582,000 km2) under parts of eight states of the USA, from Texas to S.Dakota: it receives little recharge and is becoming progressively depleted - India has the world's largest water deficits (withdrawal is double recharge in most parts of India) causing aquifers to drop at rates of 3 to 10 feet/year (0.9-3.0 m/y - p.40) - in Tamil Nadu, south India, groundwater levels have dropped by up to 99 feet (30.2 m) since the 1970s - subsidence due to groundwater withdrawal is a problem in Gujarat and Florida, where seawater has invaded aquifers, and Beijing, China is sinking by circa 4 inches (10 cm) annually - parts of Mexico City are sinking up to 1 foot (30 cm) annually - Mexico - costly pumping may widen the gap between rich and poor (Punjab, Haryana) and groundwater depletion cannot continue forever (Saudi Arabia - Middle East) - Israel - Nile river, Egypt, north Africa - dam construction - epoch-making Hoover dam on the Colorado river (pp.41-43) - sedimentation in dams, and growing salinity in irrigated farmland - loss of native fish in the Colorado river and the shrunken Aral Sea (former USSR) - there are circa 40,000 large dams (>4 stories high) and 800,000 small dams worldwide - agricultural water needs per ton of product: 15,000-70,000 T water for 1 T beef (alfalfa-fed), almost as much for 1 T cotton, 3,500-5,700 T for 1 T chicken, 500-1,500 T for 1 T potatoes, 1,000 T for 1 T grain (3,000 T in deserts) - politics of dams - up to 30-60 million people have been displaced by dams (p.44) - climate change - snow and rainfall patterns - possible water war - problems of China - squandering water (US Southwest, e.g., Las Vegas, Nevada, USA).
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SAMPAT,P (1998) What does India want? Worldwatch 11 no.4, 30-38, July.The environmental crisis in populous India - diversity of the ancient country - development since partition in 1947 - legacy of Gandhi and Nehru - shrinking groundwater resources (pp.32-33) - the number of tubewells has grown in the past 30 years from 360,000 to 6 million - in Gujarat, farmers say they have to lower their wells by 3 m every 2 years to keep up to falling water levels - in parts of Punjab and Haryana water levels have fallen over 4 m in the last decade - inefficient use and wastage of groundwater (mostly from canals) has salinized some 10 million ha and waterlogged another 12 million ha - hydrology - at the same time, traditional techniques of water harvesting have been discarded: in real terms, water supply to Bangalore in Karnataka is the most expensive in the country - projected water shortages - disappearing forests (pp.34-35) - biodiversity - pollution from vehicles and other sources - solid waste - the real costs of pollution - poorly-executed strategies for resource extraction have exacerbated disparities in wealth and while some mining companies achieve zero-tax status, the local people in the states hosting the mines are left both income-poor and resource-poor - in the next decade it has been estimated that the share of India's poor living in the villages will rise from 75% to 95% - it is concluded that reducing inappropriate government subsidies on water, electricity and diesel fuel would help to realign priorities - Kerala is cited as an example of more successful and equitable development.
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BRAZIER,C and ALAM,S (editors) (2001) Which way now? 30 years of aid in Bangladesh. New Internationalist 332, 9-28, March.
Bangladesh - Dhaka - microcredit, women, the Grameen bank - history - wealth and poverty - international aid donors and recipients (pp.18-19) - native peoples - environmental issues.
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KAPLAN,RD (1997) Was democracy just a moment? Atlantic 280 no.6, 55-80, December.
Division between democracy and autocracy, worldwide - instability of democratic institutions in states of low literacy and small middle class - Pakistan, S.Africa, etc - rise of transnational corporations - oligarchy.
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HUNTINGTON,SP (1996) The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Touchstone / Simon & Schuster, 368pp.
12-chapter review of realpolitik - the West, Asian and Islamic civilizations - globalization, religion, capitalism, ethnic identity, warfare and nation states - Europe, USA, India, China and Russia (former USSR). A more detailed treatment is provided in MINLIB.
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CHOMSKY,N (1992) What Uncle Sam Really Wants. Odonian Press, Berkeley, CA, 111pp.
Biting critique of USA's foreign policy - politics - Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Central America - Vietnam - Middle East, Gulf War - Iraq and Iran - socialism - American media - Cold War - `war on drugs'.
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