Michael P. Malone

The Collapse of Western Metal Mining: An Historical Epitaph

With what seems an incredible abruptness, the last five years have witnessed the utter devastation of the Wests oldest industry, metal mining. True, this notoriously unstable and cyclical industry has fallen before, as in the 1890s or the 1930s, but this time there seems no possibility that metal mining can recover to anything like its former status in the region. When one considers how important mining has been to the evolution of the western economy, and to the regions social and political order, it seems appropriate to point out what has happened and attempt to place it in historical perspective. First, the dimensions of the crisis: they are incredible. During the 1970s, energy conglomerates began buying many of the old western metal mining firms-ARCO acquired Anaconda, Sohio purchased Kennecott, Pennzoil bought the Duval Corporation, and so forth. They seemed like good investments, and the supercorporations promised to give them badly needed transfusions of capital. But alas, for reasons to which we shall return, the investments proved to be bad; and