Mine tunnels 坑道
The following post in X (Twitter) came to me as a surprise:
https://x.com/hamjiro_world/status/1835488510675218529
This post tells that the total length of mine tunnels at Ashio Copper Mine (足尾銅山) located in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, exceeds 1200 Km, but at first glance, I thought there must be some mistake😮
Here is a comparison with other mines in Japan:
Iwami Silver Mine (岩見銀山) in Shimane Prefecture : Supposed to be 90 ~ 150 Km
Sado Gold Mine (佐渡金山) in Niigata Prefecture : ~ 400 Km
Akenobe Mine (明延鉱山) in Hyōgo Prefecture : ~ 550 Km
Ikuno Silver Mine (生野銀山) in Hyōgo Prefecture : ~ 350Km
Wikipedia's description (abridged) of Ashio Copper Mine is attached for reference.
The Ashio Copper Mine (足尾銅山, Ashio Dōzan) was a copper mine located in the town of Ashio, Tochigi (now part of the city of Nikkō, Tochigi), in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It was the site of Japan's first major pollution disaster in the 1880s and the scene of the 1907 miners' riots. The pollution disaster led to the birth of the Japanese environmental movement...
The Ashio mine's Excavation Department was closed in 1973, after centuries of mining and the introduction of foreign copper ore into the Japanese market. By this time, the total length of its tunnels and shaft had reached 1234 kilometers.
It is quite natural, then, to ask the question, where is the mine with the largest total length of mine tunnels in the world?
Although I haven't done an exhaustive investigation, El Teniente in Chile is definitely at the top level in terms of the total length of the mine tunnels:
This article says:
Over 3,000 km of underground tunnels — about the distance from Las Vegas to New York — and close to 1,500km of underground roads have been developed in the mine since it began operations.
Photographs in the article on El Teniente are very impressive:
A month ago, there was an article in El País (in Spanish) relative to this copper mine:
On Environmental Pollutions
Ashio Copper Mine is associated with the gloomy image of the Mine Mineral Pollution Incident 足尾鉱毒事件 in 19th century (early in Meiji era).
In May 1974, Furukawa Mining was finally identified as the perpetrator of the “100-year pollution” case, and the company was found to be responsible for the pollution, and a conciliation agreement (on heavy metal pollution such as copper, land improvement projects, compensation for damages, and pollution prevention agreements with local governments) was reached.
Relative to the Ashio Copper Mine Mineral Pollution Incident, Minamata disease (水俣病) is also noteworthy:
Minamata disease is a disease of the central nervous system, a poisoning caused by long-term consumption, in large amounts, of fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay. The causative agent is methylmercury. Methylmercury produced in the acetaldehyde acetic acid facility of Shin Nihon Chisso's Minamata factory (新日本窒素肥料水俣工場) was discharged in factory wastewater... Minamata disease patients last appeared in 1960, and the outbreak has ended. This is presumed to be because consumption of fish and shellfish from Minamata Bay was banned in the fall of 1957, and the fact that the factory had waste-treatment facilities in place from January 1960.
There is a superb article on Minamata disease by ISSA:
Back to Ashio Copper Mine…
Looking at the location in Google map:
Here is an official guide of Ashio Copper Mine by Nikkō City:
Header image credit : Pinterest