It’s safe to say that short of killing other humans few things have driven as much of our technical evolution than the extraction of rare minerals. For that reason alone you’ll find an endless list of interesting reading on both subjects.

The coal book is what got me started down that rabbit hole. From there you can choose your own adventure. My recommendations are: For engineers- Energy and Civilization by Smil

For normal people- Energy for future presidents (and it’s predecessor Physics for Future presidents) by Muller.

There are some great books on this and the ancient side of the development is a good start but things got really cool when industrial extraction got started properly.

The ventilation shafts of old stayed but then extensive systems of flaps operated by actual children took hold. Still, that was not what limited depth of mines. The desire to get clean burning coal eventually forced people to deal with large amounts of water that would seep down. The first steam engines were primarily designed not to move the coal, but for the more challenging subject of removing water from mines.

Also the canari was for finding noxious gases. The presence of flammable gasses was detected by having people walk into a mine with a long pole sporting a candle at the front. These goal was to burn the so called fire-damp before the rest of the workers were at risk.

All in all mining has always been a crazy world, Coal by Barbara Freese is a wild book to read if you’re interested in this world at all.