ABSTRACT
Mining, alongside agriculture, represents one of man’s earliest activities, the two being fundamental to the development and continuation of civilization. In fact, the oldest known mine in the archaeological record is the Lion Cave in Swaziland, which has a radio carbon age of 43 000 years. There Palaeolithic humans mined hematite, which they presumably ground to produce the red pigment ochre. Moreover, the dependence of primitive societies on mined products is illustrated by the terms Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, a sequence of ages that indicate the increasing complexity of the relationship between mining and society. In order to produce a flint axe meant that a suitable deposit of flint had to be located, that a method of mining be developed that would allow the flint to be worked, and that a means of processing be evolved to fashion the flint into a finished product. These requirements are more or less the same for mineral production at the present time. This general sequence applied in the Bronze and Iron Ages but the processing in particular became more sophisticated. With time, the use of minerals has increased in both volume and variety in order to meet a greater range of purposes and demand by society, and the means of locating, working and processing minerals has increased in complexity. Today, society is even more dependent on the minerals industry than in the past. In fact, it can be claimed that every material thing in society is either directly derived from a mineral product or is produced with the aid of mineral derivatives such as steel, energy or fertilizers. The importance of the minerals industry therefore cannot be overstressed.
