At the turn of the twentieth century, the US-Mexico border was home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced industrial copper mines. Mining the Borderlands argues that this was only possible because of the emergence of mining engineers - a distinct technocratic class of professionals who connected capital, labour, and expertise.

Mining in North America has long been criticized for its impact on the natural environment. Mica Jorgenson's The Weight of Gold explores the history of Ontario, Canada's rise to prominence in the gold mining industry, while detailing a series of environmental crises related to extraction activities. In Ontario in 1909, the discovery of exceptionally rich hard rock gold deposits in the Abitibi region in the north precipitated industrial development modeled on precedents in Australia, South Africa, and the United States. By the late 1920s, Ontario's mines had reached their maturity, and in...