Copper mining and atmospheric pollution. Business strategies in the Swansea, Huelva and Montana basins

Abstract

Mining basins have constituted an active source of atmospheric pollution since the times of the Industrial Revolution. Smoke, gasses, and particles have their origin in the ores transformation methods, especially in the calcination and smelting of copper pyrites. I discuss in this article the strategies of severa1 companies in three of the most important copper basins in the world (Swansea Valley, Montana, and Huelva), from the Industrial Revolution unti1 the end of the first half of the 20th c. The technical and financial initiatives of the companies, and how they dealt with public opinion, in the period before the development of environmental policies, are of great interest nowadays, when collaboration between enterprise and administration in this field seems essential.