Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian multinational and the world's second largest metals and mining corporations, behind BHP Billiton, producing iron ore, copper, diamonds, gold and uranium. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto, in Huelva, Spain, from the Spanish government. Since then, the company has grown through a long series of mergers and acquisitions to place itself among the world leaders in the production of many commodities, including aluminium, iron ore, copper, uranium, and diamonds. Although primarily focused on extraction of minerals, Rio Tinto also has significant operations in refining, particularly for refining bauxite and iron ore. Rio Tinto has joint head offices in London and Melbourne.
Echo Bay Mines Limited was a Canadian company which was organized in 1964 by Northwest Explorers Limited to develop a silver deposit at Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada, which had been staked in 1930 by The Canadian Mining and Smelting Company. The company leased the old Port Radium settlement from Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited and used the old camp and mill to recover silver and copper values from what became known as the Echo Bay Mine. Production in the Echo Bay workings ceased in 1975. The company then reopened the old Eldorado Mine workings and produced more silver and copper until 1981 when low silver prices closed the mine for good.
Teck Resources Limited, known as Teck Cominco until late 2008, is a diversified natural resources company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, that is engaged in mining and mineral development, including steelmaking coal, copper, zinc and energy. Secondary products include lead, silver, gold, molybdenum, germanium, indium and cadmium. Teck Resources was formed from the amalgamation of Teck and Cominco in 2001.
The townsite of Tungsten is located at Cantung Mine in the Northwest Territories. It is accessible from Watson Lake, Yukon. Tungsten was built in 1961 and the tungsten mine went into operation in 1962 as a large open pit mine in the Mackenzie Mountains. It originally consisted of several small bungalow houses. Total population of Tungsten during the 1960s was approximately 120 persons, including about 27 families. In 1968 families were housed in 28 units.
Cameco Corporation is the world's largest publicly traded uranium company, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In 2015, it was the world's second largest uranium producer, accounting for 18% of world production.
Tumbler Ridge is a district municipality in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Peace River Regional District. It has a area of 1,558 km2 (602 sq mi), with a population of 1,987 (2016). The municipality incorporates a townsite and a large area of mostly Crown Land. The housing and municipal infrastructure, along with regional infrastructure connecting the new town to other municipalities, were built simultaneously in 1981 by the provincial government to service the coal industry as part of the British Columbia Resources Investment Corporation's Northeast Coal Development.
The Nahanni Range Road was completed in the early 1960s from Watson Lake, Yukon along the present alignment of the Robert Campbell Highway to Miner Junction, thence along the Highway 10 route, across the border into the Northwest Territories to the privately owned mining town known, confusingly, as either Cantung or Tungsten. The portion between Cantung Junction and Watson Lake has, since 1971, been part of the Robert Campbell Highway.
Silver mining in the United States began on a major scale with the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1858. The industry suffered greatly from the demonetization of silver in 1873 by the Coinage Act of 1873, known pejoratively as the "Crime of 73", but silver mining continues today.
South Crofty is a metalliferous tin and copper mine located in the village of Pool, Cornwall, United Kingdom. An ancient mine, it has seen production for over 400 years, and extends almost two and a half miles across and 3,000 feet (910 m) down and has mined over 40 lodes. Evidence of mining activity in South Crofty has been dated back to 1592, with full-scale mining beginning in the mid-17th century. The mine went into serious decline after 1985 and eventually closed in 1998. An effort to reopen the mine under new management is still underway as of October 2017.
Gold mining in the People's Republic of China has made that country the world's largest gold producer by far with 463.7 tonnes in 2016. For the year 2007, gold output rose 12% from 2006 to 276 tonnes to become the world's largest for the first time—overtaking South Africa, which produced 272 tonnes. South Africa had until then been the largest for 101 years straight since 1905. The major reasons for this change in position had been due to South African production falling by 50% in the past decade as production costs there have risen, more stringent safety regulations have been implemented, and existing mines have become depleted.
China Minmetals Corporation is a Chinese metals and mineral trading company headquartered in Beijing. It is a state-owned corporation under direct supervision of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). China Minmetals is engaged in the production and trading of metals and minerals, including copper, aluminum, tungsten, tin, antimony, lead, zinc, and nickel.
Drakelands Mine, formerly known as Hemerdon Mine or the Hemerdon Ball or Hemerdon Bal Mine, is a tungsten and tin mine. It is located 11 km northeast of Plymouth, near Plympton, in Devon, England. It lies to the north of the villages of Sparkwell and Hemerdon and adjacent to the large china clay pits near Lee Moor. The mine was out of operation since 1944, except for the brief operation of a trial mine in the 1980s. Work started to re-open it in 2014, but it ceased activities in 2018. It hosts the fourth largest tin-tungsten deposit in the world.
Adex Mining Inc. is a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based mining exploration company engaged in the development of its wholly owned Mount Pleasant Mine property in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada. According to a Government of Canada report, Mount Pleasant is "North America's largest tin deposit and the world's largest reserve of indium." The company's stock trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol ADE.
Mining in Bolivia has been a dominant feature of the Bolivian economy as well as Bolivian politics since 1557. Colonial era silver mining in Bolivia, particularly in Potosí, played a critical role in the Spanish Empire and the global economy. Tin mining supplanted silver by the twentieth century and the central element of Bolivian mining, and wealthy tin barons played an important role in national politics until they were marginalized by the industry's nationalization into the Bolivian Mining Corporation that followed the 1952 revolution. Bolivian miners played a critical part to the country's organized labor movement from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Red Back Mining Inc. is an unhedged Vancouver based mineral resource company. Its focus is West Africa where it operates the Chirano Gold Project in Ghana and the Tasiast Gold Mine in Mauritania. It has one division, Red Back Mining NL, based in Perth, Australia. While independent it was considered one of Canada's Largest gold companies with a market capitalization of $ 5.8 billion or 3/4 as much as the 10th largest gold mining company in the world however at the time its key mines hadn't yet reached full potential or critical mass.
Molycorp Inc. was an American mining corporation headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado. The corporation, which was formerly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, owned the Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California. It filed for bankruptcy in June 2015 after changing competitive circumstances, declining prices on output and a 2014 restructuring. It was purchased by its largest creditor Oaktree Capital Management and was reorganized as Neo Performance Materials.
Mining in North Korea is important to the country's economy. North Korea is naturally abundant in metals such as magnesite, zinc, tungsten, and iron; with magnesite resources of 6 billion tonnes, particularly in the Hamgyeong-do and Jagang-do provinces. However, often these cannot be mined due to the acute shortage of electricity in the country, as well as the lack of proper tools to mine these materials and an antiquated industrial base. Coal, iron ore, limestone, and magnesite deposits are larger than other mineral commodities. Mining joint ventures with other countries include China, Canada, Egypt, and South Korea.
The Mactung Project is a planned open pit tungsten mine located in the Selwyn Mountains of eastern Yukon, Canada, on its border with the Northwest Territories. Mactung represents one of the largest tungsten resources in Canada having estimated reserves of 33 million tonnes of ore grading 0.88% WO3. The Mactung Project completed the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment process in July 2014, and the Yukon government approved construction of the mine (pending mining and water licence applications, and subject to a number of conditions) in September 2014. North American Tungsten Corporation estimated the capital cost of the mine's construction to be approximately CA$400 million. In November 2015, the Government of the Northwest Territories purchased the mineral deposit.
The Sangdong mine located in South Korea is one of the largest tungsten mines in the world. The mine is located 187 km southeast of Seoul, approximately three hours’ drive via expressways and local sealed high ways. Temperatures rise to a maximum of about 30℃ during the wet summer months of June to August. The winter period is relatively dry and extends from October to March, with freezing temperatures occurring during the period December to March.
Almonty Industries is a global mining company focused on tungsten mining and exploration. Its primary operations are in Spain, Portugal, and South Korea. The company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
