Mine Yes, Slavery No

Or you could title this post:  “Mine or be a Slave.” The images in this post are disturbing.  That is intentional.  I seek to be as provocative as ever I have been.  So read on and let us fight over this idea.  The idea that if you do not mine, you become somebody else’s slave. I am prompted to write this by some reports today.  The first is this from the National Mining Association:

NMA has just released a new survey of more than 400 senior level executives in the manufacturing industry. The survey revealed significant concern among business leaders that current mining policy presents a challenge to their supply chain and that reform is necessary. Last week’s midterm elections provide the opportunity to reevaluate issues crucial to the U.S. economy. Over the past few months, President Obama has underscored the importance of the manufacturing industry to continued job growth, and it is now time that Congress make this industry—and the mining industry on which it relies—a legislative priority. I want to share with you our infographic that provides an in-depth look into this survey. Additionally, I want to highlight some of the notable findings below:

•  80 percent of senior executives surveyed underscored the importance of sourcing minerals and metals from the United States.

• In 2013 alone, industries utilized minerals to add more than $2.4 trillion to the U.S. GDP. 84 percent of business leaders said they believe a strong domestic supply of critical minerals and metals will ensure job and economic growth in the United States.

• 95 percent of executives said they are concerned about the lag in U.S. permitting for new minerals mines compared to Canada, Australia and other similarly developed countries and noted that delays in the permitting process have a serious impact on U.S. competitiveness.

• 90 percent of business leaders in the manufacturing industry say they support streamlining the permitting process to less than three years and 89 percent say this can be done without sacrificing necessary environmental reviews.

Second this from the Heartland Institute whose writing I normally find sad & funny:

“President Obama demonstrated once again how over his head he is when dealing with foreign leaders. It is not fair for the American people to suffer the economic consequences of major restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions while at the same time giving China a blank check to rapidly increase emissions. Fortunately, President Obama cannot unilaterally bind the United States to international treaties, and Congress can respond to global warming concerns in a more rational, reasonable manner. “Under President Obama’s proposal, China’s emissions ‒ which already are substantially higher than any other nation in the world ‒ will more than double between now and 2030. In exchange for China agreeing to eventually plateau its emissions at more than double their current levels, Obama believes America should immediately restrict emissions, hike energy prices, and drive businesses and jobs overseas. Worse, when businesses relocate overseas in response to such oppressive conditions, Obama and his political allies will blame the businesses themselves for the consequences and call them un-American. Americans can, should, and will choose a better course of action than President Obama’s ill-advised proposal.”

And this very brief note that landed in my in-box:

Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change is adding required tailings inspection by geotechnical engineer at trigger of “extreme event” of 15mm of rain in 24hrs. Inspection to be completed within three days of event. This criterion is being applied sweepingly and design of facilities not considered.

I can find only information on their site on the tails of white deer, so I cannot confirm this.  I know many of the blog readers are far more skilled than I am in these searches.  Let us know if you find confirmation of this.

Finally, I repeat what I wrote a long time ago on mining and slavery—note the Athenians mined, the rest were slaves—and yet we all admire their culture based entirely on the benefits of slave-based mining.  The lesson is obvious.  Let us bring crashing down another of those myths: the ancient Greeks were nice folk.  Seems they got most of the money to support their poetry, philosophy, development of “democracy,” and sundry other habits from mining.   It appears that ancient Greece was a society founded on mining, and the money from mining supported a small upper class that had time and slaves to sit around thinking, talking, writing, and leaving a legacy to impress future generations.   Certainly, I like many others, was taught of the glories of the Greeks in literature, theater, and  learning.  Nobody ever told me this was made possible by large-scale mining. This link in a learned fashions discusses the mines of ancient Greece.   Roger Backnell writes:

Modern discussions of the ancient world tend to emphasize the many advances the Greeks contributed to civilization. These were indeed impressive, but it must not be forgotten that these advances rested on wealth and on economic development. All wealth comes at a cost to people and environment; it is not free. The Greeks knew this, at least to some degree. But the upper-class gentlemen who wrote the classics of Greek literature considered the details of moneymaking beneath them and outside of their concept of history.

Let me quote this link:

Athens was the only Greek polis (city-state) with the ability to dig its own wealth straight from the ground. Laurion was an area near the east coast of Attica rich in silver-bearing ores which had been exploited since the Bronze Age. In 482 BC a new vein was discovered which led to a massive increase in activity. Themistocles persuaded the Athenians to spend this new revenue on building a fleet of triremes which were used to defeat the Persians at Salamis in 480 BC.    There were about 350 mines producing 1000 talents a year, worked by 10-20,000 slaves. Mining rights were owned by polis, but leased to individuals by 10 annually elected poletai.

Another insight into the reality ( nastiness) of the times, more or less, comes from the book Sailing the Wine Dark Sea by Thomas Cahill.  In this he writes about mining in ancient Greece:

Worse than torture or death was to find yourself a slave in the privately administered silver mines of Laurion southeast of Athens, source of much of Athens’ prosperity, where miners were routinely starved, savagely beaten, and, seldom seeing daylight, worked to death.

    The first link quoted above says:

All the miners were slaves. Numbers were large: Thucydides mentions 20,000 deserting to Decelea (encouraged by the Spartans to put economic pressure on Athens).  Factories were designed to minimise risks of slaves getting hold of silver. “Trusty” slaves were given incentives (own houses). Slaves would be owned by wealthy Athenians (like Nicias) and hired out to the lessees of the mines. They were usually prisoners-of-war, not criminals. Their life expectancy was short and they lived and worked in conditions of indescribable squalor.

This link provides the most intelligent analysis I found.  Of environmental impacts the writer notes:

Mining and refining had environmental consequences. The Athenians were perfectly well aware of them. In Xenophon’s memoir of Socrates, the philosopher says to Glaukon, “I know that you have not gone to the silver mines so as to be able to say why the amount from them now is less than formerly.” Glaukon admits that this is true. “The place,” says Socrates, “is said to be ‘heavy.’” “Heavy” in this context (the Greek word is baru) means unpleasant, distasteful, distressing. Gentlemen of means would avoid such a place, leaving it to managers and slaves. The environmental costs were numerous. The dumping alone was considerable: mine tailings, the dross removed from the ore, and the litharge (lead oxide) cast off in smelting. In addition, we must reckon with deforestation, noxious fumes from the smelting, and smoke from the combustion. In modern times, this region has not seen much farming, and there is little evidence that things were any better in antiquity. This wasn’t great farmland anyway, but the results of silver production must have finished it off

    This from our trusty friend Wikipedia:

Deposits of metal ore are common in Greece. Of these, the best known are the silver mines of Laurium. These mines contributed to the development of Athens in the 5th century BC, when the Athenians learned to prospect, treat, and refine the ore. Fortuitously, the composition of the earth below the mines rendered drainage unnecessary, an important provision given that ancient mine drainage techniques did not allow for excavation below the level of subsoil waters. The passageways and steps of Greek mines were dug out with the same concern for proportion and harmony found in their temples. The work was extremely difficult, due to the tunnels’ depth—they were sometimes more than Template:Convert100. The miner, armed with his pick and iron hammer and hunched over in two, labored to extractlead ore. The Laurium mines were worked by a large slave population, originating for the most part from Black Sea regions such as Thrace andPaphlagonia. With these metals, Weapons, armor tools and a variety of other goods were created.

Thus we can cogitate on the biases of history and a classical education.  Or take a cruise and imbibe the bullshit fed to you as a tourist to the crumbling buildings.   Rather go out of town and see the mines where it all was made possible. And recall that my own paternal grandmother was thrown into the concentration camp at Thaba ‘Nchu when the British invaded the Transvaal to take possession of the mines that the Boers failed to control!  See this link.  There are many more.