All
I keep a glossary of mining terms, and update it as best I can, as and
when the opportunity comes along. You may or may not agree with me - but
I have decided on a dual listing - for the moment anyways.....

Gangue (1)	Residue / waste material left after flotation method of
ore processing

Gangue (2)	General term for non mineral bearing element of an ore

-----Original Message-----
From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Mike Gill
Sent: 14 September 2010 12:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Gangue

Tony, there's no need to seek atonement, this is something which will be

nigh impossible to resolve with absolute certainty -- we are never going

to find a diary in which the writer records 'today I introduced the word

gangue (fill space as appropriate) into the English language'. I was 
simply proposing an alternative model to the long established one that 
you were using and pointing out some of the latter's weaknesses.

With a name like Gill, I'm not going to disagree that the Norsemen might

be a source -- they certainly left their mark in northern place names. 
Thanks to Wallander (aka Inspector Morose), I see that the Swedish word 
for lead is bly, as opposed to the German blei. Their word gaten for a 
road is also familiar as gate (maingate or tailgate) to coal miners and 
visitors to York/Jorvik or Leeds (Eastgate, Westgate and Briggate = 
Bridge Road).

As Ian Spensley wrote, the term used in most of Yorkshire is rider (in 
various spellings e.g. ryther) with qualifications that the vein is 
quick (= alive, carries ore), kindly or dead. I suspect that gangue 
became more common as geologists sought to regularise the many local 
terms as the C19th progressed. They are still doing it!

Part of our problem when looking backwards is the precise/scientific way

in which we are encouraged to think. We are not necessarily seeing 
things in ways which our forebears saw them. After all, they believed 
that minerals regrew in the vein when a mine was closed up. Minerals 
like gypsum probably encouraged such a belief.

Again, as Ian wrote, "I had the Old Gang down as meaning the old 'road'
or 'way'" -- the ribbon of a road is probably the best analogy there was
for a strong vein in the days before the hills had enclosure walls on
them.   It still fits with the Old Gang being a vein and suggests that
it had already been worked when given that name -- which appears in the
late C17th when it was being worked by some Derbyshire adventurers.
BUT, before people say -- so_they_  brought Gang to the north -- there
was a White Gang Mine in Arkengarthdale by 1657.   As so it goes on.

  

Regards,

Mike

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