Tribute mining

Last updated

Tribute mining is an arrangement by which a person, partnership or company works a mine or part of a mine, under a tribute agreement with the titleholder of that mine, and either pays to or receives from the titleholder a proportion of the production of the mine or of the value of the production. Miners working in this way are known as tribute miners or tributers, and the mine is said to be worked 'on tribute'. The arrangement differs from conventional contracting and employment, both in its nature and its origins. [1]

A tributer is distinguished, from both an independent contractor and employee, in that the tributer takes over the running of the mine, or an agreed part of it, and is remunerated in a specific manner. The origins of tribute mining lie in the Stannaries of Cornwall and Devon, and the Stannary laws. [1] Subsequently, the practice spread to other countries that inherited the common law system. In English-speaking settler colonial societies, the spread of the practice was enhanced by the widespread emigration of Cornish miners and mine managers. [2] [3]

Advantages of tribute mining are that it is a form of profit sharing, encouraging productivity, and that the rights and obligations of the parties are subject to a specific written agreement that is enforceable. A potential disadvantage is that the tribute miners share the risk of the mining venture, such as downside variability of ore grade. A tributer needed skills, other than purely mining skills, to assess the likely value of production in the ground to be worked, under the tribute agreement, and to strike an appropriate deal on the share of production that is appropriate to the costs and effort of the mining work. [4] [5] [6] Mining trade unions generally opposed tribute mining, preferring payments to miners to be in the form of hourly wages. [7] [8]

In Australia, tribute agreements fall within the jurisdiction of Warden's courts, [9] which date from the period of the Australian gold rushes. Tribute agreements were defined and regulated under mining legislation. [10] The arrangement commonly arose when the titleholder (in Australia, almost always a lessee) of a mine ceased working the mine, but agreed to let another party work the mine, usually on a smaller scale than previously. [11] Usually, tribute miners would be former employees of a hitherto closed or partially-closed mine, with some existing knowledge of its ore body and its likely extent and strike and dip. However, sometimes specific areas of a working mine were given over to particular miners, who had been selected by management, to work on tribute in a mutually-beneficial arrangement. Tribute mining may be applied to any kind of mine but, in Australia, is especially pertinent to hard-rock mining, particularly gold mines but also mines for non-ferrous metallic minerals such copper [11] [4] and silver-lead-zinc ores. In Western Australia, Tributers had an industry organisation to represent their interests, the Prospectors and Tributers Association. [12]

In Zimbabwe, tribute agreements became a mechanism for involving local artisanal miners in the production of chromite from mines owned by transnational companies. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">General Mining Act of 1872</span>

The General Mining Act of 1872 is a United States federal law that authorizes and governs prospecting and mining for economic minerals, such as gold, platinum, and silver, on federal public lands. This law, approved on May 10, 1872, codified the informal system of acquiring and protecting mining claims on public land, formed by prospectors in California and Nevada from the late 1840s through the 1860s, such as during the California Gold Rush. All citizens of the United States of America 18 years or older have the right under the 1872 mining law to locate a lode or placer (gravel) mining claim on federal lands open to mineral entry. These claims may be located once a discovery of a locatable mineral is made. Locatable minerals include but are not limited to platinum, gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, uranium and tungsten.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stannary law</span> Tin mining law in Cornwall and Devon, England

Stannary law is the body of English law that governs tin mining in Cornwall and Devon; although no longer of much practical relevance, the stannary law remains part of the law of the United Kingdom and is arguably the oldest law incorporated into the English legal system.

Koolyanobbing is located 54 km (34 mi) north-northeast of the town of Southern Cross, Western Australia. Iron ore has been mined here since 1948 by a series of companies, with a break between 1983 and 1993. The ore is currently railed to the port at Esperance for export. The current owner and operator of the lease is Mineral Resources Limited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moonta, South Australia</span> Town in South Australia

Moonta is a town on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia, 165 km (103 mi) north-northwest of the state capital of Adelaide. It is one of three towns known as the Copper Coast or "Little Cornwall" for their shared copper mining history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mining in Cornwall and Devon</span> Mining in the English counties of Cornwall and Devon

Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of Britain, is thought to have begun in the early-middle Bronze Age with the exploitation of cassiterite. Tin, and later copper, were the most commonly extracted metals. Some tin mining continued long after the mining of other metals had become unprofitable, but ended in the late 20th century. In 2021, it was announced that a new mine was extracting battery-grade lithium carbonate, more than 20 years after the closure of the last South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornish diaspora</span> Ethnic diaspora

The Cornish diaspora consists of Cornish people and their descendants who emigrated from Cornwall, United Kingdom. The diaspora is found within the United Kingdom, and in countries such as the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Samoas.

The Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament, was a pressure group which claimed to be a revival of the historic Cornish Stannary Parliament last held in 1753. It was established in 1974 and campaigned, up until 2008, against the government of the United Kingdom's position on the constitutional status of Cornwall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copper Coast</span> Region of South Australia

Copper Coast is a region of South Australia situated in Northern Yorke Peninsula and comprising the towns of Wallaroo, Kadina, Moonta, Paskeville and Port Hughes. The area approximately bounded by Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta is also known as the Copper Triangle. The area is so named because copper was mined from there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a significant source of economic prosperity for South Australia at the time. These three towns are known for their large Cornish ethnicity, often called "Little Cornwall". Kernewek Lowender is the world's largest Cornish Festival, held biennially in the Cornish Triangle. The area continues to make a significant contribution to the economy of South Australia, as a major producer of grain, particularly barley and wheat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bal maiden</span> Female manual labourer

A bal maiden, from the Cornish language bal, a mine, and the English "maiden", a young or unmarried woman, was a female manual labourer working in the mining industries of Cornwall and western Devon, at the south-western extremity of Great Britain. The term has been in use since at least the early 18th century. At least 55,000 women and girls worked as bal maidens, and the actual number is likely to have been much higher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornish Australians</span> Australians of Cornish heritage

Cornish Australians are citizens of Australia who are fully or partially of Cornish heritage or descent, an ethnic group native to Cornwall in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gold mining in Western Australia</span>

Gold mining in Western Australia is the third largest commodity sector in Western Australia (WA), behind iron ore and LNG, with a value of A$17 billion in 2021–22. The 6.9 million troy ounces sold during this time period was the highest amount in 20 years and accounted for almost 70 percent of all gold sold in Australia.

Mining is an important industry in Pakistan. Pakistan has deposits of several minerals including coal, copper, gold, chromite, mineral salt, bauxite and several other minerals. There are also a variety of precious and semi-precious minerals that are also mined. These include peridot, aquamarine, topaz, ruby, emerald, rare-earth minerals bastnaesite and xenotime, sphene, tourmaline, and many varieties and types of quartz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron ore mining in Western Australia</span> Mining in Western Australia

Iron ore mining in Western Australia, in the 2018–19 financial year, accounted for 54 percent of the total value of the state's resource production, with a value of A$78.2 billion. The overall value of the minerals and petroleum industry in Western Australia was A$145 billion in 2018–19, a 26 percent increase on the previous financial year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beria, Western Australia</span> Abandoned town in Western Australia

Beria is an abandoned town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located 8 kilometres (5 mi) north of Laverton on the Laverton-Leonora Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wallaroo Mines, South Australia</span> Suburb of Kadina, South Australia

Wallaroo Mines is a suburb of the inland town of Kadina on the Yorke Peninsula in the Copper Coast Council area. It was named for the land division in which it was established in 1860, the Hundred of Wallaroo, as was the nearby coastal town of Wallaroo. The boundaries were formally gazetted in January 1999 for "the long established name".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irvinebank State Treatment Works</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

Irvinebank State Treatment Works is a heritage-listed refinery off Jessie Street, Irvinebank, Shire of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1883 to c. 1908. It is also known as Loudoun Mill. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

The Australian Cornish Mining Sites are historic sites in South Australia listed jointly on the Australian National Heritage List. There are two distinct sites – Burra in the mid-north of the state and Moonta Mines in the northern Yorke Peninsula region. The heritage value of both sites relates to their history as mines worked by migrant miners from Cornwall. The sites were inscribed on the Australian National Heritage List on 9 May 2017.

Henry Richard Hancock, almost invariably referred to as "Captain Hancock", was a mine superintendent in Moonta and Wallaroo, South Australia. He was noted for his business acumen and the respect with which he was held by both workers and mine owners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Warren (mining)</span> Mining engineer and manager in Australia

John Warren, frequently styled "Captain Warren" or "Captain Jack" after the traditional mining practice, was a mining engineer and mine manager in Australia.

Charles George Elliott was an Australian politician. He was a Nationalist Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 1934 until his death, representing North-East Province.

References

  1. 1 2 Leslie, W. D.; Holland, A. J. Holland. "Tribute Agreements" (PDF). AMPLA Bulletin. 1 (1): 10, 11 – via austlii.edu.au.
  2. ↑ "CORNISH SETTLEMENT". Sydney Morning Herald . 1850-12-21. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  3. ↑ "MINING ON TRIBUTE". Kadina and Wallaroo Times . 1909-07-10. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  4. 1 2 "Moonta Mines History | Discover Moonta". 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  5. ↑ "THE TRIBUTE SYSTEM". Tarrangower Times and Maldon District Advertiser. 1862-07-15. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  6. ↑ "LABOR IN CORNISH MINES". Barrier Miner . 1909-05-17. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  7. ↑ "TRIBUTE MINING". Worker. 1904-04-23. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  8. ↑ "Story: McLagan, Angus". Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
  9. ↑ "Were Tributers Out Of Bounds?". Daily News. 1937-09-15. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
  10. ↑ Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of Western Australia (31 December 1920). "No. 50 of 1920. An ACT to amend the Mining Act, 1904" (PDF). legislation.wa.gov.au.
  11. 1 2 Bertola, Patrick (1993). "Tributers and Gold Mining in Boulder,1918-1934". Labour History (65): 54–74. doi:10.2307/27509197. ISSN   0023-6942.
  12. ↑ "PROSPECTORS AND TRIBUTERS". Western Argus . 1920-08-17. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  13. ↑ Mujere, Joseph (2023-04-01). "Chromite Mining Cooperatives, Tribute Mining Contracts, and Rural Livelihoods in Zimbabwe, 1985–2021". International Development Policy | Revue internationale de politique de développement (15). doi:10.4000/poldev.5246. ISSN   1663-9375.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.