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Writing a story about mining between WWI and WWII

Hello all,

Here's what I'm doing:

I'm doing research on mining in the 20's for a story I'm writing. The story is about a fictional remote island in the south pacific. This island will be rich in a certain natural resource... I'm thinking about copper. The idea is that the resource needs to be something that wasn't economical to mine and distribute from such a remote location before this time. I'm guessing that improvements in cargo transportation and increased demand for copper make this the ideal natural resource. I don't really want to use gold or petroleum, as they are too cliche.

So here's my questions:

  1. What metals or other natural resources became cost effective to mine on remote islands during this time period?

  1. Where can I learn more about the process of extracting and refining these materials? Web sources would be ideal, but books are good too.

  2. What historical examples come to mind?

  1. Do you have any other suggestions or ideas I should consider?

Thanks for your help,

Dub

Reply to
Dubs
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Think about guano

Reply to
Toolie002

Particularly because of the time period you're writing about, I think you'd find a more plausible and more interesting story in one of the more obscure metals used to alloy modern steels. They became much more important between the wars and some of them were rare and seldom mined before them. By WWII, they were vital to everyone's defense and to the war effort. They tend to have high value per pound, which would solve the shipping-cost issue by itself.

Some possibilities are manganese, vanadium, cobalt, chromium, tantulum, and tungsten.

You can look up the way they're mined and other basic facts in an encyclopedia.

Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

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Reply to
Brian Lawson

If the plot requires that the ore be shipped from some remote island, however, it will be hard to do much with aluminum ores in the plot. Aluminum in its various ores makes up 8% of the Earth's crust. You probably can get it in every direction on Earth from where you're sitting right now.

Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Good thought. Best bet is manganese. It precipitates out of sea water and amalgamates naturally on the sea floor, sometimes into great honkin' boulders of the stuff. It's not a stretch to imagine an island of manganese-rich sediments pushed up to the ocean surface by plate tectonics or volcanic action, waiting there for millions of years until we needed it.

-chib

Reply to
chibiabos

Oh, yeah. Manganese nodules. That would be a natural for a story.

Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Guano was already used in one of Ian Fleming's Bond books. It was changed to some other substance in the movie cuz bird shit wasn't sexy enough. I believe that in the book here Dubs should use unobtanium as the material of choice. It has such an interesting history in the development of what we do here. lg no neat sig line

Reply to
larry g

My understanding it - Bauxite - is in the temperate zones of the earth. Cuba has some.

In 1963 - Bulletin 630 Bureau of Mines, Mineral facts and problems by Staff, Bureau of Mines US Dept. Interior 1965 edition

US 2.3 million short tons Al produced USSR 1.0 Canada 0.7 France 0.3

Here are the ore countries :

Jamaica 6.9 Million long tons USSR 4.3 Surinam 3.1 Brit. Guiana 2.2 France 1.9 U.S.A. 1.5 Guinea 1.4 Hungry 1.3 Greece 1.2 Yugoslavia 1.2 Dominican Rep. 0.7

Martin

Reply to
Eastburn

guano?

Reply to
Jordan

I suggest researching the Michigan UP. I heard that area provided all the copper for WWII; Maybe other things too. It was a huge mining area before imports killed mining in the USA. They named it Copper Harbor for some reason...

chuck

Reply to
Charles A. Sherwood

Copper Harbor is a very small town, now a resort area on a harbor in that area. Much if not most of the copper was transshipped via rail, if I remember correctly

Gunner

"No man shall be debarred the use of arms. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants. They ought to be designated as laws not preventative but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree." - Thomas Jefferson

Reply to
Gunner

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