Mining in the United Kingdom Castle in Cheshire is evidence of bronze production during the Bronze Age. Later, lead and copper attracted the Romans to Britain. The Romans introduced iron tools and used local slaves to mine galena, an important lead ore mineral, from which they refined lead, tin and silver. These metals were used locally and also transported by ship throughout the Roman Empire. Galena was mined from deep mines located in Scotland and Wales. The widespread availability of coal and iron was a significant factor in Europe's Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Although less coal and iron ore
Iron oxide copper gold ore deposits named as IOCG, by discovery and study of the supergiant Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium deposit, and South American examples. IOCG deposits are classified as separate to other large intrusive related copper deposits such as porphyry copper deposits and other porphyry metal deposits primarily by their substantial accumulations of iron oxide minerals, association with felsic-intermediate type intrusives (Na-Ca rich granitoids), and lack of the complex zonation in alteration mineral assemblies commonly associated with porphyry deposits. The relatively simple copper-gold +/- uranium ore assemblage is also distinct from the wide spectrum of Cu-Au-Ag-Mo-W-Bi porphyry deposits, and there is often no metal zonation within