The tin mining industry on Dartmoor, Devon, England, is thought to have originated in pre-Roman times, and continued right through to the 20th century, when the last commercially worked mine closed in November 1930. From the 12th century onwards tin mining was regulated by a stannary parliament which had its own laws.
Gweek is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately three miles (5 km) east of Helston. The civil parish was created from part of the parish of Constantine by boundary revision in 1986. The name Gweek is first recorded as Gwyk in 1358 and is derived from the Cornish word gwig, meaning "forest village", cognate with the Welsh gwig and Old Breton guic. Gweek village has a pub, the Black Swan, and a combined shop and post office. The village is also home to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary.
A stannary was an administrative division established under stannary law in the English counties of Cornwall and Devon to manage the collection of tin coinage, which was the duty payable on the metal tin smelted from the ore cassiterite mined in the region. In Cornwall, the duty was passed to the Duchy of Cornwall; in Devon to the Crown.
White tin is refined metallic tin.
Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of Britain, began in the early Bronze Age, around 2150 BC. Tin, and later copper, were the most commonly extracted metals. Some tin mining continued long after the mining of other metals had become unprofitable, but ended in the late 20th century. In 2021, it was announced that a new mine was extracting battery-grade lithium carbonate, more than 20 years after the closure of the last South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall in 1998.
Gwennap is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is about five miles (8 km) southeast of Redruth. Hamlets of Burncoose, Comford, Coombe, Crofthandy, Cusgarne, Fernsplatt, Frogpool, Hick's Mill, Tresamble and United Downs lie in the parish, as does Little Beside country house.
South Crofty is a metalliferous tin and copper mine located in the village of Pool, Cornwall, England. An ancient mine, it has seen production for over 400 years, and extends almost two and a half miles across and 3,000 feet (910 m) down and has mined over 40 lodes. Evidence of mining activity in South Crofty has been dated back to 1592, with full-scale mining beginning in the mid-17th century. The mine went into serious decline after 1985 and eventually closed in 1998. After several changes of ownership, South Crofty is owned by Cornish Metals Inc, which is working to re-open the mine, as of November 2022, having receive a permit for dewatering the mine.
Tin mining in Britain took place from prehistoric times, during Bronze Age Britain, until the 20th century. Mention of tin mining in Britain was made by many Classical writers. Tin is necessary to smelt bronze, an alloy that played a vital cultural role during the Bronze Age. As South-West Britain was one of the few parts of Anglian stage England to escape glaciation, tin ore was readily available on the surface. Originally it is likely that cassiterite alluvial deposits in the gravels of streams were exploited but later underground working took place. Shallow cuttings were then used to extract ore. In the 19th century advances in mining engineering enabled the exploitation of much deeper mines. In a few cases these mines even extended both to multiple levels and workings below the seabed.
A bal maiden, from the Cornish language bal, a mine, and the English "maiden", a young or unmarried woman, was a female manual labourer working in the mining industries of Cornwall and western Devon, at the south-western extremity of Great Britain. The term has been in use since at least the early 18th century. At least 55,000 women and girls worked as bal maidens, and the actual number is likely to have been much higher.
Eylesbarrow mine was a tin mine on Dartmoor, Devon, England that was active during the first half of the 19th century. In its early years it was one of the largest and most prosperous of the Dartmoor tin mines, along with Whiteworks and the Birch Tor and Vitifer mines. Its name has several variant spellings, such as Eylesburrow, Ailsborough, Ellisborough, Hillsborough etc. It was also known as Wheal Ruth for a short period around 1850. The extensive remains lie to the north of the River Plym, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) north-east of Drizzlecombe, on the southern shoulder of the hill called Eylesbarrow on top of which are two prominent Bronze Age barrows.
Birch Tor and Vitifer mine was a tin mine on Dartmoor, Devon, England. Located in the valley of the Redwater Brook, to the east of the B3212 Moretonhampstead to Princetown road, below the Warren House Inn, the mine was worked between the mid–18th century and 1925.
Wheal Vor was a metalliferous mine about 2 miles (3.2 km) north west of Helston and 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Breage in the west of Cornwall, England, UK. It is considered to be part of the Mount's Bay mining district. Until the mid-19th century the mine was known for its willingness to try out new innovations. Although very rich in copper and tin ores, the mine never lived up to its expectations. During the later part of the 19th century it had several periods of closure, with an attempt to reopen it in the 1960s which was not successful mainly because of bureaucracy. Today the site is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.
Wheal Busy, sometimes called Great Wheal Busy and in its early years known as Chacewater Mine, was a metalliferous mine halfway between Redruth and Truro in the Gwennap mining area of Cornwall, England. During the 18th century the mine produced enormous amounts of copper ore and was very wealthy, but from the later 19th century onwards was not profitable. Today the site of the mine is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.
Tolgus Mount is a village, valley, and district in the parish of Redruth in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is located to the northwest of town of Redruth across the A30 road and falls within the Redruth North ward on Cornwall Council. Historically there were several mines in the area, mining tin and copper.
Wheal Baddon is a hamlet south of Baldhu in the county of Cornwall in the United Kingdom.
Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm, compared to iron with 50,000 ppm.
Burchard Kranich was a mining engineer and physician who came to England from Germany. He was involved in mining ventures in Derbyshire and Cornwall, and in assaying the black ore, thought to be gold-bearing, brought back to England from Baffin Island by Martin Frobisher. He later practised as a physician in London, where he enjoyed a mixed reputation, and is said to have attended Elizabeth I when she contracted smallpox. He is alluded to in several literary works published during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I.
Wheal Metal is a tin-mining sett in west Cornwall, England, UK. Whilst not as famous as neighbouring Wheal Vor, it was thus described by the Mining Journal in July 1885: " Truly this is a wonderful mine—probably the richest tin mine in the world." It also hosts a very remarkable engine house of the mid-19th century that once stood over Trelawney's shaft on Wheal Vor, and since the Wheal Vor area itself has no visible remains, this is the only large surviving engine house of this group of mines which accounted for over a quarter of Cornish tin production in the mid-19th century.
Cape Cornwall Mine was a tin mine on Cape Cornwall, a cape at the western tip of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It operated intermittently between 1838 and 1883, after which time it closed permanently and the engine house was demolished. The mine's 1864 chimney near the peak of the cape was retained as an aid to navigation, and in the early 20th century the former ore dressing floors were for a time converted into greenhouses and wineries. In 1987 the site was donated to the nation by the H. J. Heinz Company. The remains of Cape Cornwall Mine now form part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Etta, also known as Etta Camp and Etta Mine, is a ghost town in Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. It was a successful mining town, known for its discovery of the largest spodumene crystal ever found.
