Being new to this list and the "journalist" who wrote asking the above
questions of Peter Claughton, perhaps I should introduce myself.
   I am Tony Brewis, qualified in 1952 as a mining engineer from the Royal
School of Mines, part of Imperial College, London. I first tunnelled in
Gibraltar, then in various coal mines in the U.K. (Madeley Wood, Point of
Ayr, Florence/Hem Heath, Park Hall). I next mined copper underground in
Bihar, India, after which I returned to Imperial College for a
post-graduate qualification in mineral processing. I next worked in a U.K.
ore testing laboratory, then went to Sierra Leone, West Africa, as mill
superintendent and later mine planning officer for an open-pit iron ore
mine producing 2.3 million tons a year of concentrates.
    After that I worked twelve years for a leading U.K. consulting firm,
carrying out economic feasibility studies of potential mining operations in
countries such as Zambia, Australia and Norway, and also spent four years
in Mexico as technical advisor for the construction of a mineral dressing
plant handling the iron ore going to a new steelworks designed to produce
one million tonnes of steel per annum.
   I next spent eighteen years as editor of Mining Magazine, the technical
monthly which is a sister publication to the weekly Mining Journal. In the
course of my work with the Magazine, I visited over one hundred mines, in
countries such as Finland, France, South Africa, India, Australia, Japan,
the U.S.A., Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru, Chile and the U.K.  My mine
visits have taken me underground in Andina, 8000 feet up in the Andes, and
down an 8000 foot deep shaft at Buffelsfontein gold mine in South Africa. 
Regarding the U.K. I have written technical articles describing the
operations at Geevor, South Crofty, Wheal Jane and Cleveland Potash, when
all of these were in operation
   In addition to my academic qualifications I am a Chartered Engineer, a
Fellow of the Intitution of Mining and Metallurgy, a fellow of the
Institute of Quarrying, a Fellow of the Minerals Engineering Society, and a
Member of the Instituto de Ingenieros de Minas de Chile. So strictly, I am
an engineer who writes, not a journalist.
   While with Mining Journal Ltd I was elected to the Council of the
Institution of Mining and Metallurgy for seven successive years, following
which I was a vice-president for three years, later again being elected to
Council.
   I myself am interested in Mining History, albeit in an amateurish sort
of way. While editor of Mining Magazine I welcomed articles of a historical
nature, such as one or two by George Hall on old lead mines in Wales, a
description by Paul Craddock of ancient zinc smelting in India (something
of which I had seen for myself when I went to Zawar in 1983). However,
management did not consider these articles commercial, and I had to slip
them in under their noses. 
   One correspondent recommends that I read Arthur Wilson's "The Living
Rock". I have that book on my bookshelf, having been to the publisher's
launching thereof. I knew Arthur Wilson and have many of his other books,
which he gave me. I recommended him to the Institution of Mining and
Metallurgy as the author of the book celebrating that institution's
centenary, as a result of which he wrote  "The Professionals". Also on my
bookshelf I have the two-volume "Man and Metals" by T.A. Rickard, Mining
Magazine's first editor in 1909. The copy I have is one Rickard inscribed
for his sister. Reading Rickard's book, I can see that Arthur Wilson drew
upon it heavily for "The Living Rock".
   In an attempt to encourage the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy to
take more interest in archaeometallurgy, I proposed the award of its
Honorary Fellowship to Beno Rothenberg  . Hi Beno!   Did you find that the
Honorary Fellowship opened doors? Did the money to support your work come
flooding in? Maybe it did, but I suspect not
   I know RTZ supported some work at Rio Tinto, and I know it has donated
money to help revamp the Geological Museum in London, and there must be
other such instances where today's mining industry has supported work in
the field of mining history. But most of the readers of Mining Journal, who
will be the readers of any article I write, are battling to keep today's
mining operations solvent in the face of low metal prices -- a recurrent
theme throughout miing history. They are harrassed by today's situation and
looking to tomorrow's technological advances for help. Why should they be
concerned with what happened long ago. Why should they bother or care?
   Hence my questions to Peter Claughton -- who does bother, and why should
people care?
   There is clearly considerable interest of a kind. As I reported in the
November 1984 Mining Magazine, the defunct Ashio copper mine in Japan, now
a mining museum, has half a million visitors a year. As I learned recently,
the Deutches Bergbau Museum in Bochum receives 400,000 visitors a year.  I
guess not many mining museums can claim those  figures, and many who do go
must be schoolchildren -- voters and fundraisers of the future, but not
able to help just yet.
   So how can this interest be converted into (financial) support for
mining historians?
   As Beno Rothenberg says, Arthur Wilson was a mining journalist. But,
sadly, Arthur Wilson died the week before "The Living Rock" was published.
This being so, Mining Journal's editor cannot ask Arthur to write the
article. Instead, as we worked alongside each other for eighteen years, he
asked me.
   Has anyone any constructive comments on points which they think I should
make?
  Regards to all,
  Tony Brewis


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