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The Copper Mine on Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands, is a national park containing the ruins of an abandoned 19th-century copper mine.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2024) |
The Copper Mine on Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands, is a national park containing the ruins of an abandoned 19th-century copper mine.
According to local lore, copper ore was first extracted by Spanish adventurers in the 1600s. There is no documentary evidence for this theory. However, in 1725, remnants of a ruined mine tunnel were discovered in Mine Hill. [1]
After the islands came under British control, the Copper Mine was constructed in 1837 and its first shaft was sunk in 1838. In two separate periods over the next 24 years, 36 Cornish miners extracted ore from this site with the aid of some 140 British Virgin Islands workmen. The ore which was extracted was sent by road to Spanish Town (the largest settlement and harbour on Virgin Gorda) along coppermine road (originally built by the miners), and then by ship to Wales and; on the return trip the ships would carry provisions, wood for construction, wages for the workers, and coal with which to power their steam engine.
The mine was abandoned in 1862 and was never reopened. Parts of the original stack, the engine house, and the main building are all that remain. Several of the Cornish miners started families with native women and there are descendants living in the Virgin Islands to this day.
No plans are known to exist of the workings, however, it was recorded that by 1869 they were at a depth of 40 fathoms (240 ft) and that the levels extended under the sea.
The beam engine at the Virgin Gorda copper mine is the oldest surviving Cornish beam engine in the world. The engine and beam were manufactured by the Perran Foundry, Cornwall, in 1836 and brought to the site in 1840 having previously worked at a mine in Cornwall. The beam is now located on the beach in Handsome Bay, Virgin Gorda.
The engine was of typical Cornish construction with a cylinder of 40 inches. It was the workhorse of the mine, being used to pump water from the mine, raise the copper ore up the shafts and to power the ore-dressing machinery. A Cornish boiler produced steam to drive the engine. These boilers were the first to use high-pressure steam and were invented in 1815 by the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick (who also invented the first steam road locomotive).
The Copper Mine is a protected site and tourist attraction. However, it is in a perilous state, and sits in a position which is particularly exposed to hurricanes.
The Copper Mine Committee, in cooperation with the National Parks Trust of the British Virgin Islands, has undertaken to reconstruct the site using the footprint of the buildings and plans developed by archaeologists familiar with the work of these Cornish miners and their engineers. However, such plans have not been implemented.
Notwithstanding the abandoning of the mine, rich veins of copper are still visible on the point today, although not remotely in the quantities which would make modern commercial mining economic. Also, lying loosely around the site are various other rock specimens, including malachite, carbonate of copper; quartz containing copper-iron sulfide; and molybdenite. It has been suggested that a local cottage industry could have started making semiprecious jewellery.
Richard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
An adit or stulm is a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage to an underground mine. Miners can use adits for access, drainage, ventilation, and extracting minerals at the lowest convenient level. Adits are also used to explore for mineral veins. Although most strongly associated with mining, the term adit is sometimes also used in the context of underground excavation for non-mining purposes; for example, to refer to smaller underground passageways excavated for underground metro systems, to provide pedestrian access to stations, and for access required during construction.
Levant Mine and Beam Engine is a National Trust property at Trewellard, Pendeen, near St Just, Cornwall, England, UK. Its main attraction is that it has the world's only Cornish beam engine still operated by steam on its original site. There is also a visitor centre, a short underground tour, and the South West Coast Path leads to Botallack Mine, via a cliff-top footpath.
Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of Britain, is thought to have begun in the early-middle Bronze Age with the exploitation of cassiterite. 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.
A Cornish engine is a type of steam engine developed in Cornwall, England, mainly for pumping water from a mine. It is a form of beam engine that uses steam at a higher pressure than the earlier engines designed by James Watt. The engines were also used for powering man engines to assist the underground miners' journeys to and from their working levels, for winching materials into and out of the mine, and for powering on-site ore stamping machinery.
The Redruth and Chasewater Railway was an early mineral railway line in Cornwall, England, UK. It opened in 1825 and was built to convey the output from copper mines in the Gwennap area to wharves on Restronguet Creek around Devoran, and to bring in coal to fuel mine engines; later it carried timber for pit props and also house coal.
A man engine is a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in mines to assist the miners' journeys to and from the working levels. It was invented in Germany in the 19th century and was a prominent feature of tin and copper mines in Cornwall until the beginning of the twentieth century.
Dolcoath mine was a copper and tin mine in Camborne, Cornwall, United Kingdom. Its name derives from the Cornish for 'Old Ground', and it was also affectionately known as The Queen of Cornish Mines. The site is north-west of Carn Brea. Dolcoath Road runs between the A3047 road and Chapel Hill. The site is south of this road.
Spanish Town on southern Virgin Gorda is the second largest town on the British Virgin Islands. Also known as Valley, Spanish Town offers numerous shopping possibilities. The heart of the town is its Yacht Harbor marina, with many bareboat sailing activities every day. It has its own airport and a ferry service is in operation from here to Road Town on Tortola and Trellis Bay on Beef Island. Overall, though, Spanish Town is small, with few bars and a relaxed atmosphere. The national park "The Baths" is located south of Spanish Town.
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Consolidated Mines, also known as Great Consolidated mine, but most commonly called Consols or Great Consols was a metalliferous mine about a mile ESE of the village of St Day, Cornwall, England. Mainly active during the first half of the 19th century, its mining sett was about 600 yards north–south; and 2,700 yards east–west, to the east of Carharrack. Although always much troubled by underground water, the mine was at times highly profitable, and it was the largest single producer of copper ore in Cornwall. Today the mine is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.
The Ding Dong mines lie in an old and extensive mining area in the parish of Madron, in Penwith, Cornwall, England. They are about two miles north east of the St Just to Penzance road and look over Mount's Bay and St Michael's Mount to the south west. Since 2006 the site has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, part of Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.
Holmbush is a village in Cornwall, England that is situated in the suburban area of St Austell. It was a centre for tin and copper mining in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with a few houses to the south of the A390 road. It was developed in the 1970s, with the construction of housing and an industrial estate to the north of the road. Since 1974, the site of Cuddra mine has been developed as Pinetum Gardens, an attraction holding over 6,000 varieties of plants, many collected by the owner on plant hunting expeditions.
The Cobre mine was a copper mine in Cuba, the oldest in the new world. The open pit mine was operated from 1544 to 1998. The Spanish used slave labour and free coloured labour to work the mine. After it had been abandoned, in the 19th century a British company acquired the mine and reopened it, again using slaves and free coloured labourers, but also using skilled Cornish miners and steam engines from Cornwall to operate pumps. The mine was abandoned again, then reopened by an American company at the start of the 20th century. After the Cuban Revolution it was taken over by the state. After being finally abandoned the pit is now filled with a mineral-rich lake.
Basset Mines was a mining company formed in Cornwall, England, by the amalgamation of six copper and tin mining setts. It operated from 1896 until 1918, when it was closed due to a fall in the price of tin.
The Great Laxey Mine was a silver, lead ore and zinc mine located in Laxey, in the parish of Lonan, Isle of Man. The mine reached a depth in excess of 2,200 ft (670 m) and consisted primarily of three shafts: the Welsh Shaft, the Dumbell's Shaft and the Engine Shaft; each of these shafts was connected by a series of levels.
The Australian Cornish Mining Sites are historic sites in South Australia listed jointly on the Australian National Heritage List. There are two distinct sites – Burra in the mid-north of the state and Moonta Mines in the northern Yorke Peninsula region. The heritage value of both sites relates to their history as mines worked by migrant miners from Cornwall. The sites were inscribed on the Australian National Heritage List on 9 May 2017.
