One of the most popular alternative theories suggests that mining was first undertaken some 400 000 years ago by the Anunnaki, a race of alien miners who hailed from the planet Nibiru and who, incidentally, are also credited with the creation of the human species on earth.
This theory has largely been expounded by Azerbaijani-born American author and self-proclaimed scholar of ancient languages Zecharia Sitchin, who wrote a number of controversial books proposing an explanation for human origins involving ancient astronauts.

The most popular of these books, which deals extensively with the subject of the origins of mining and the creation of mankind, is The 12th Planet, first published in 1976. Sitchin’s theory on the origins of mining and of mankind itself, which he states is based on ancient Sumerian texts, largely goes as follows:
according to the ancient Sumerian texts, a twelfth member of our solar system (if one is to include the sun, the moon and the dwarf planet Pluto, as well as the eight planets) exists – a planet called Nibiru, or ‘Planet of the Crossing’. This planet has an independent elongated elliptical orbit which passes through the planets Mars and Jupiter every 3 600 years.
It was from this planet that the advanced civilisation of the Anunnaki, a term that literally means ‘those who from heaven to earth came’, came to earth some 445 000 years ago.