Beginning with mining some 400 years ago, the author traces mining’s accelerating swing from labor intensive to capital intensive and shows the reasons for it.Illustrating the basic energy requirements, the author indicates why mechanization has now swept world mining.Critical of the exotic methods currently being extolled, the author contends that the primary gains in mining for the rest of this century will be made through improvements to and greater application of current mechanization, rather than exotics or automation.Calling for intensifying the application of scientific methodology to improve current machine‐rock interface materials and to develop new and better materials, the author expresses a real need for increasing the application of current sciences to mining needs.He concludes, however, that except for in situ mining it is unlikely that mining will ever become a science. Because of the irregular variations in the earth’s crust from whence ore comes, man’s intelligence will always be required at the working face, and thus mining as it is known today will always be an art.