Mining

Mining is the process of extracting precious or valuable substances from the earth, including building materials such as slate, metal ores such as copper, or precious stones such as diamonds. Basic mining practises such as simply digging for things in the ground would have taken place ever since humans first thought they had something to dig for, and a mine in Swaziland has been dated as being over 43,000 years old. Sites have also been found in Hungary where Neanderthals may have mined flint for tools and weapons.

These early mines relied on the brute force action of smashing rock and stone out of the way using tools or other rocks. It wasn’t until the time of the Ancient Egyptians where people are first recorded as using fire to crack the harder rocks apart. These methods allowed the Egyptians to mine a huge variety of materials, and they sent their surveyors far and wide to source new sites in the surrounding areas rich in gold and precious stones.

The Romans took these fire setting methods to a new level by introducing the use of water to wash away any loose rocks and debris to expose the stone and any seams of precious metals in the rock. They would use fire setting to heat the rock before using their water supplies to cool it again quickly, leading to the rock to split apart due to the thermal shock this would induce.

Modern mining techniques rely heavily on technology and our improved scientific understanding of the physical world.