A L U M N I N U M B C E L E B R A T I N G ... - Mines Magazine

Panel 2i 5This panel (Fig. 2) is devoted tothe mining and metallurgical operationsof the Egyptians. There havebeen excellent descriptions of Egyptianmining methods left to us in bas reliefsand hieroglj'pbic accounts. Men,women and children slaves performedall the labor necessary to extract, reduceand refine the ore. The fullestdescription of Egyptian mining, however,is given us by an ancient Greek,one Agatharchides, who visited Egyptin 50 B. C. He says in part:"for the Kings of Egypt collectcondemned prisoners, prisoners of warand others, who, beset by false accusations,have been . . . thrown intoprison; these sometimes with their entirefamily, they send to the goldmines. . . . Those who have been thusconsigned are many, and all are fettered; they are held constantly at workby day and the whole night long withoutany rest and they are sedulouslykept from any chance of escape. Thehardest of the earth that contains thegold is exposed to a fierce fire, so thatit cracks and then they apply handlabor to it. . . . Of those who arecondemned to this disastrous life suchas excel in strength of body pound theshining rock with iron hammers . . .and they drive galleries ... in the directiontaken naturally by the glisteningstone; these then, on account ofthe windings of these passages, live,in darkness, and carry around lampsattached to their foreheads . . . andthis they do without ceasing to complywith the cruelty and blows of tbe overseer.The young children make theirway through the galleries and throwup with great toil tbe fragments ofbroken stone and bring it to the groundoutside the entrance. . . . There is noforgiveness or relaxation at all for thesick, or the maimed, or the old, or forwomen's weakness, hut all with blowsare compelled to stick to their laboruntil worn out they die in their servitude."Thus we see in the upper left ofthe mural tbe miners crawling throughtheir galleries, pushing the ore out;the ore being passed by means of anendless human chain; the minersbeaten as they work by their guards;the treadmill, showing their onlymeans of power. In the middle backgroundis shown tbe human stampmill, men crushing the ore with ironpestles, which process is repeated bythe women and children until the oreis crushed to powder. Then it iswashed on the wash table (lower leftcorner )and brought to the smelteroperated by two slaves working footbellows (lower right). The bellowswere made of pigskin and the smelterof fashioned brick. The matte (thesmelted ore) is then put into the crucibleimmediately behind the smelter,where it is further refined by the processof tbe blow-torch. Directly behindthe crucible we see the pouring of theunrefined gold into earthenware pots.The craftsmen mix into this a proportionatelump of lead, grains of salt,and a little barley bran (forming acarbon) and then the mixture is putinto an oven. The gold emerges purified.Panel 3This panel is devoted to the miningmethods used by the ancient Creeksand Romans (Fig. 3), which werefollowed for centuries until the useof gun powder. In the right section isshown the operation of fire-setting. Afire was kindled against the face of therock until it reached a certain intensitj';then the rock was well dousedwith water by a bucket brigade, causingthe rock to contract and crack.After this it was pried loose by theminers and pounded into small enoughfragments to be carried out of themine. In tbe left section we see theuses to whicb the Greeks put theirprecious metals. A bronze statue isbeing cast (probably in the studio ofPhidias) and further back we see aperfect example of bronze casting(copper and tin). In the backgroundis the Acropolis, crowned by theParthenon. All this was made possibleby the treasure which the Athen-ians derived from their silver minesat Laurium.In his book, T. A. Rickard recountsthat during the wars whichthe Athenians fought, the enemywould attack the valuable silver minesat Laurium. The miners would invariablydesert to the enemy becauseof the excessive cruelty of their masters.Then Athens would go into asharp decline until the mines wererecaptured from the enemy and putback into working order. Thus theeconomy and social order of Greecewas directly influenced by their miningindustry.Panel 4Surface mining is here indicated(Fig. 4) in its various phases, fromthe two forty-niners panning nuggetsfrom the stream to "rocking" in thelower left hand corner, hydraulickingand finally dredging.Hydraulic mining and dredgingwhich originated in California, survivedfrom the early days of placermining with dredging rapidly replacinghydraulicking. We see a bulldozer below the dredge clearing theground of vegetation and debris preparatoryto the oncoming of thedredge. Again is illustrated the ingenuityof man.While the basic elements of placermining are retained in the dredge, tbemodern monster is capable of treatingmillions of yards of gravel of lowgrade material which in the old dayswere beyond the power or knowledgeof the pioneers to exploit.In the upper right hand corner isdepicted an open cut mine which shovelsthe ore and waste in huge quantities,the ore being conveyed by a railroad,the track being laid in a seriesof benches. No project is too large orcomplicated in its operations for themodern miner who is becoming moreand more expert in extracting thetreasure of the earth.Panel 5This is devoted to modern miningand reducing operations (Fig. 5).While the basic principles of miningand smelting of the ancients have endured,the various processes have beengreatly developed and amplified. Mininghighlights the story of man's emancipationfrom backbreaking labor byhis development of horse power. Withthe coming of power, machinery andchemicals, the old laborious handmethods have been replaced forever.We see men in the left foregrounddrilling into a rock face. Two menare loading drill holes preparatory toblasting. In the center is illustratedthe method by which broken ore isdrawn from the stopes thru ore chutesand loaded onto cars driven by motors.The ore is conveyed to the shaft ortunnel adit ready for crushing andtreatment. A conveyor belt in fheright middle foreground shows howthe ore is taken to a reducing plantor mill where it is crushed and finelyground by means of a power-drivenball mill.The next process is the extraction ofmetallics from the ore by flotation orgravity methods, cyaniding, if necessary,to remove the gold, after whichfollows the final stage of smelting andrefining concentrates in the huge furnace(shown in the upper right handcorner.)Panel 6This panel (Fig. 6) sums up thestory of man and metals. The mineris holding a piece of ore in his hand,surrounded by all that this has madepossible, such as the modern city, theocean liner, the stream-lined train, tbeautomobile, power, industry. Themovie industry depends on silver andthe radio would be impossible withoutcopper. Around the microphone arelips suggesting some of the many andvaried voices which make up the radioprograms of today. Overhead is seenan ultra-modern airplane, and ironicallyenough, in the lower left handcorner is an anti-aircraft battery mannedby a crew protected by gas masks.The panel suggests the might of(Continued on page 170)THE MINES MAGAZINE APRIL 1940THE MINES MAGAZINE ^ APRIL 1940167