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mininghistory.bsky.social
Duncan Money
@mininghistory.bsky.social
7.2K followers 600 following 1.6K posts
Historian and consultant. I work on mining, labour, migration and Southern Africa.
More on https://duncan.money
Contact: [email protected]
Posts Replies Media Videos
mininghistory.bsky.social
I spoke to @bloomberg.com for this great article about the grim consequences of South Africa's abandoned mines at a time when gold prices are soaring:

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
The Deadly Scrabble for Gold in Johannesburg’s Abandoned Mines
The soaring price of gold is fueling illegal mining that’s shredding parts of the landscape close to South Africa’s biggest city.
www.bloomberg.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Duncan Money
scarcerc.bsky.social
✨For our second talk in this semester’s colloquium series, @mininghistory.bsky.social will present “Mining the Past: What is the role of historians in the mining industry?”⛏️📜

📅 Date: November 24, 2025

⏰ Time: 3:00–4:30 PM CET

Learn more and register: bit.ly/MiningThePast

#histSci
Mining the Past: What is the role of historians in the mining industry?
SCARCE Colloquium Speaker: Duncan Money (Independent scholar) University of Vienna Hybrid Event
bit.ly
November 17, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Duncan Money
notalegalrecord.net
“To preserve the values of the civilized world, it is necessary to set fire to a library.”
To preserve the values of the civilized world, it is necessary to set fire to a library. To blow up a mosque. To incinerate olive trees. To dress up in the lingerie of women who fled and then take pictures. To level universities. To loot jewelry, art, banks, food. To arrest children for picking vegetables. To shoot children for throwing stones. To parade the captured in their underwear. To break a man's teeth and shove a toilet brush in his mouth. To let combat dogs loose on a man with Down syndrome and then leave him to die. Otherwise, the uncivilized world might win.
November 15, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Duncan Money
kruelladechill.bsky.social
Would love a 007 style movie about Darrell Blocker.
Wikipedia entry for Darrell Blocker
November 16, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by Duncan Money
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
Do I have any followers who research the Post-WWII decolonization of Africa? I've got a few questions for an episode and I'd love to connect!
November 15, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Duncan Money
africasacountry.bsky.social
Africa’s first G20 presidency could mark a turning point for the continent—or simply another performance of green-washed extraction led by mining elites. africasacountry.com/2025/11/whos...
Whose transition is it anyway?
Africa’s first G20 presidency could mark a turning point for the continent—or simply another performance of green-washed extraction led by mining elites.
africasacountry.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Duncan Money
drolibetts.bsky.social
Does anyone have any recent reading recommendations on how people (particularly working-class people) adjusted to technological change in the long c19th?

By reading list feels a little dated...

Thanks!
November 14, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Duncan Money
maartenkossmann.bsky.social
@ grok is it true that historians should get 3% of the profits made by mining companies?
November 14, 2025 at 9:30 AM
mininghistory.bsky.social
The talk description has already been absorbed by an AI model and so what I claim is now being described as reality. AI is weird.
AI pop-up from a search engine titled "Search Assist" Text in the pop-up: "Historians play a crucial role in the mining industry by researching and documenting the history of mining practices, environmental impacts, and the socio-economic effects on communities. Their work helps to preserve institutional memory and informs current practices and policies in the industry."
November 14, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Duncan Money
zimboguide.bsky.social
Went to visit eGodade battlefield of the Anglo-Ndebele War of 1893. Horrified & devastated to see how it has been thoroughly destroyed thanks to the activities of illegal miners & those quarrying for gravel. Over 2000 people died here & were buried on site so their last resting place is desecrated!
November 13, 2025 at 4:39 PM
mininghistory.bsky.social
I'm giving a talk online on Monday 24 November about "Mining the Past: What is the role of historians in the mining industry?"

You can sign up here:

univienna.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: SCARCE Colloquium: Duncan Money . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Duncan Money (Independent scholar) "Mining the Past: What is the role of historians in the mining industry?" Mining is an unusual industry. It is site-specific and has a fixed nature, you cannot jus...
univienna.zoom.us
November 13, 2025 at 12:35 PM
mininghistory.bsky.social
This is unexpected as it doesn't match my experience working on cruise ships where there usually appear to be more passengers over 80 than under 30.
hetanshah.bsky.social Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 4d
I know nothing about cruises but found this interesting. TL:DR the industry was forced to change its model by the pandemic and now half of passengers are under 50. They find a cruise is often well priced in comparison to an all inclusive resort
on.ft.com/4nQVdik
Gen Z is saving the cruise industry
Bookings from younger passengers have allowed operators to defy the gloom in the rest of the travel sector
on.ft.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:34 AM
Reposted by Duncan Money
willpooley.bsky.social
every other email at work now is ‘delighted to announce rollout of new RoboPay system for internal finances, with easy to use requisitioning protocol. pls note that you must NOT click big button labeled ‘OK’ after posting order as this will cause entire institution to default on its debt. thanks.’
November 13, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Reposted by Duncan Money
alexchurchill.bsky.social
This January I’m launching an online course for people passionate about History. This isn’t a historian telling you things, it’s designed to turn you from a vociferous reader into someone who is starting to think like a historian themselves… Sign up details: introtohistory.eventbrite.com
November 12, 2025 at 5:07 PM
mininghistory.bsky.social
I want to emphasis the conclusion to our article:
Paragraph of text reading: "We want to encourage more historical research into mining disasters in Southern Africa. There are under-utilised sources on the Hwange Colliery Disaster (and other disasters) that we have not yet been able to access. There is a much richer history of the disaster and its aftermath waiting to be written. Time is running out for this research. Many people in Hwange who experienced the disaster and its aftermath first-hand are still alive today. This will not be the case in ten years. Their lives and experiences are worth remembering and recording."
November 12, 2025 at 1:11 PM
mininghistory.bsky.social
Me and @masak003.bsky.social have a new article about the 1972 Hwange Colliery disaster in colonial Zimbabwe, one of the world's worst mining disasters.

You can download and read it for free here:

duncanmoney.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
duncanmoney.wordpress.com
November 12, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Duncan Money
dailymaverick.co.za
In the final part of this series, we look at how the mining sector’s past could undermine its efforts to save the planet.
Part 3 — The headwinds that beset mining’s bid to save the planet
www.dailymaverick.co.za
November 11, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Duncan Money
andrewperchard.bsky.social
An excellent read; Keith Gildart’s review essay in The English Historical Review focusing on a collection of recent historical works on aspects of the 1984/5 British Miners Strike and remembering that 40years on. Incl.
@nataliethomlinson.bsky.social
FYI @ewangibbs.bsky.social @sslh.bsky.social
Which Side Are You On Boys? Revisiting the History of British Coal Miners and the Strike of 1984/5
The year 2025 marks the fortieth anniversary of the end of the bitter twelve-month miners’ strike of 1984/5. The dominance of coal in British energy produc
academic.oup.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Duncan Money
jonhistorian61.bsky.social
If you use digital newspaper collections this new OA paper is for you - it’s full of great insights into how to understand what’s in them and the many hidden perils of digital search (like the systemically poorer OCR for cheaper and more left-leaning newspapers - who knew?). Please share
November 11, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Duncan Money
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
mininghistory.bsky.social
Fascinating article by Claire Sabel (@scarcerc.bsky.social) on the early modern gemstones trade, pointing out how gemstones differed from other rare goods:

"Unlike exotic plants or animals, minerals could not be transplanted to be studied or cultivated in situ."

www.iias.asia/the-newslett...
Trading Gems and Knowing the Earth in Early Modern Eurasia | IIAS
www.iias.asia
November 11, 2025 at 12:43 PM
mininghistory.bsky.social
Interesting detail from this thesis:

The Mineworkers Union of Namibia set up a company to reopen three closed copper mines in 1999 after Namibia's government provided loans and guarantees for the company.

I think it's the only example a trade union involved in running a mine in the region.
mininghistory.bsky.social Duncan Money @mininghistory.bsky.social · 14d
Sam Nujoma, 'Copper - its geology and economic impact on development in Namibia, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo' (2009).

You can even download it from the University of Namibia website:

repository.unam.edu.na/items/ccf663...
Copper
Copper is the oldest industrial metal known to man and has contributed to the development of many civilizations in the world, including pre-colonial African communities in southern and central Africa,...
repository.unam.edu.na
November 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Duncan Money
thecontinent.org
A court appeal with 140,000 claimants heard from people living in Kabwe -- one of the world’s most polluted towns. Mukanzi Musanga spoke to some of the mothers in that case. Their children are among the 95% of children in the area who have dangerously high levels of lead in their blood.
The sinister alchemy that puts lead into Zambian children’s veins
A court appeal with 140,000 claimants heard this week from people living in one of the world’s most polluted towns.
continent.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:19 AM
mininghistory.bsky.social
Went for a walk to take my mind off work but I can't seem to avoid it.
Rural landscape with deep green grass and trees. In the background is a mountain with a forest covering the summit. In the foreground is a small white metal sign reading "Dumico Kajwi Mine Site"
November 10, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Duncan Money
rhaplord.bsky.social
Each of these dots on the map has its own history, and I intend to cover all of them

Cities/towns may have been the first complex societies, long before kingdoms and empires.
Any discussion of African history would be incomplete without them
November 10, 2025 at 8:38 AM