{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.030139935414424113, 'fraction_numerical': 0.001076426264800861, 'mean_word_length': 5.155629139072848, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Either Ore, Neither More: Gold and Iron in Boom and Decline

Underlying most histories of mining are the physical properties of the Earth. The material circumstances under which desirable minerals are found posed challenging preconditions to those historical actors who wanted to extract them. The Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms calls “ore” the “naturally occurring material from which a mineral or minerals of economic value can be extracted profitably.”1 A mine’s “ore,” then, can be gained or lost without putting a shovel in the ground. A technological breakthrough might make extraction of particular minerals from certain earthy material economically viable, expanding reserves of now-profitable “ore.” Global markets or government policy might raise or lower commodity prices, enlarging or shrinking quantities of ore proportionately. Authors Clark C. Spence and Jeffrey T. Manuel tell histories of mining people and mined places that both acknowledge, sometimes implicitly, this fundamental equation. The gold, or the iron, was almost always there (in a geological sense), but could miners gather it cost effectively? Was there a market for the product? Could capital return investment? Would jobs be created? What would remain once the “ore” was gone? Was it worthwhile to try to mine. Spence, Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois, has made the history of mining one of the major research concentrations of his lengthy and distinguished career.2 Here, he recounts the history of gold-dredging operations in Idaho, with a level of detail unlikely to ever be surpassed. Dredging operations focused on placer claims: deposits where particles of valuable material, especially gold, were mixed with sand or gravel instead of being trapped in a rock matrix, as in hard-rock mining. In principle, to operate any kind of placer