ABSTRACT
This chapter examines mining and its associated work processes during a significant period of transition, from the late nineteenth through to the early twentieth century. The nature of this transition in three mining camps – Butte, Montana; Johannesburg, South Africa; Broken Hill, New South Wales – is briefly described, to illustrate how in each place, science and technology came to enable a new reliance on economies of scale and the successful treatment of low-grade ores. American mining engineers played a role with this process in all three communities. Contested new labour regimes and a dramatic increase in mining’s ecological footprint accompanied the new forms of mining and the associated work processes. Increasingly generic mining methods facilitated the spread of a global industry whose landscapes were indistinguishable.
