Some major site upgrades have taken place tonight that require some explanation.
Update 2 of 3 : International LocationsThis forms perhaps the largest site upgrade since the current version of the site was launched.The site now caters for mines, quarries, collieries and surface mining related facilities and features on a
worldwide basis.
Whilst the main focus is
still UK based mines and quarries, and the mining heritage and history of the UK, the facility now exists to add locations from any country of the world.
When you add a new mine/location (as per the list in the previous update post) you will be asked for a country. This is a standard ISO country list of the correct country names of the world.
Some of these countries will have sub-zones, these have been picked as logical geographic breakdowns of the individual countries. For example, the
existing OS Landranger sheets are used as the sub-zones of the UK; the
Irish Grid zones for Ireland; and the
States for the USA.
The sub-zone list will be pre-populated according to the country you have selected.
Sub-zones are stored as 'lookup' values, so as and when additional information is gathered as to the most logical zoning of other countries, these zones can be added quickly and easily to the database.
When adding
UK mines/locations you will still be asked for an OS Landranger sheet and a 6 figure grid reference. I did not want to change that since people are used to it.
When adding
non-UK mines/locations you will be asked for a latitude and longitude. I did not want to get into individual mapping systems for individual countries, instead deciding that a standard approach for all non-UK mines/locations was required.
All latitude/longitude values must be entered in decimal format, i.e. degrees.decimal, this is the most common format used by handheld GPS units. Over time this may well (and a grateful thank you to DaveL for his offer of assistance with this) be enhanced to a system where either decimal or degrees minutes seconds can be entered.
The main site navigation system has been modified to cater for these changes, and the changes to allow for additional mine/location classifications:
You will find that 'Find a Mine' has changed to 'Find a Mine/Location' to reflect the facility to classify as other than Mine/Quarry.
Since the focus remains on UK mines and quarries the first option is 'UK Mines/Locations' and
all the existing systems for locating mines and quarries remain:
By Major Mining Region
By Mineral Type
By OS Landranger
By UK Region
Show all mines A-ZIn addition to this you wil find 'International' listed under 'Find a Mine/Location' and this currently includes:
Show all mines A-ZThis provides the facility to browse by country, then by sub-zone (if applicable).
Over time the methods of locating international mines/locations will be enhanced; for example a simple country navigator and a facility to browse by mineral/product type and/or mineral/product type and country.
The 'Mine Search' facility (see under 'Find a Mine Location' then 'Mine Search' or the dedicated block beneath the main navigation on each page) has been enhanced to allow the country to be specified.
The 'Mine Name Search' operates irrespective of country, so any name entered will search all mines/locations for all countries.
All settings default to the UK. So nothing is any more complex to use than before. If you don't want to search internationally you don't have to.
As stated above the main focus is
still UK based mines and quarries, however it would be tremendous to see international mines and other mining locations being added to the database.
Similarly if the site can hear from international mine explorers and historians / researchers; and information be shared and exchanged internationally then I can only see this as a worthwhile improvement to the site.
I am quite sure that the number of international mines and quarries will always be outweighed by the number of UK ones, however given this new flexibility I am sure that most members would welcome the opportunity to see something of mining, past and present, on an international scale.
However as stated, if you wish to continue to use the site purely for UK mines/locations then due to the way the site defaults to the UK these updates are pretty much transparent.
my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by