Vanning is a type of ore dressing by which ores are washed on a shovel. [1] Typically, a powdered sample of orestuff is swirled with water on the blade of a shovel and then given a series of upward flicking motions. The heavier ore is tossed up through the water and appears as a crescent shaped patch at the top of the charge with the lighter gangue below. Developed in western England, this process was still in use at a major tin mine and a mine waste collection firm in Cornwall until 1985. [2]
In the 19th century the process was automated and used for the separation of ore on an industrial scale. The Frue vanner was one such machine that was widely adopted. It was invented in 1874, [3] by W. B. Frue, Superintendent of the Silver Islet Mine, Ontario, Canada, who spent two years developing the system. [4]
In the Frue vanner a continuous rubber belt 4 feet wide and 27½ feet long passed over rollers to form the surface of an inclined plane on which the orestuff was concentrated. The belt travelled up hill at from 3 to 12 feet per minute while being laterally shaken about 180 to 200 times. The inclination of the belt was from 4 to 12 in. per 12 feet. The belt received crushed orestuff from the stamps via a distributor about 4 feet from its upper end. As it travelled upwards, it met with small jets of water which gradually washed the gangue off the bottom of the belt. As the belt travelled over the top roller with the heavier ore adhering to it, it passed into a box containing water where the ore was deposited. From 3 to 6 gallons per minute of water was required. One machine could treat 6 tons per 24 hours of stuff passing a 40 mesh screen, or 2 vanners to 5 stamps. [5] The Embrey Concentrator and the Triumph Concentrator were similar to the Frue vanner except that the shaking was longitudinal instead of lateral. [5]
King Edward Mine in Cornwall claims to have the only working Frue vanner in the world, restored in 2008. [6]
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.
In mining, gangue is the commercially worthless material that surrounds, or is closely mixed with, a wanted mineral in an ore deposit. It is thus distinct from overburden, which is the waste rock or materials overlying an ore or mineral body that are displaced during mining without being processed, and from tailings, which is rock already stripped of valuable minerals.
Mineral processing is the process of separating commercially valuable minerals from their ores in the field of extractive metallurgy. Depending on the processes used in each instance, it is often referred to as ore dressing or ore milling.
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.
A stamp mill is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operation.
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.
Poldark Mine is a tourist attraction near the town of Helston in Cornwall, England, UK. It lies within the Wendron Mining District of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site. Its features include underground guided tours through ancient tin mine workings; a museum of industrial heritage, mining equipment and Cornish social history; and a scheduled ancient monument and riverside gardens.
Drakelands Mine, also known as Hemerdon Mine or Hemerdon Ball Mine, is a tungsten and tin mine. It is located 11 km northeast of Plymouth, near Plympton, in Devon, England. It lies to the north of the villages of Sparkwell and Hemerdon, and adjacent to the large china clay pits near Lee Moor. The mine had been out of operation since 1944, except for the brief operation of a trial mine in the 1980s. Work started to re-open it in 2014, but it ceased activities in 2018. It hosts the fourth largest tin-tungsten deposit in the world.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to mining:
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.
East Pool mine, was a metalliferous mine in the Camborne and Redruth mining area, just east of the village of Pool in Cornwall. Worked from the early 18th century until 1945, first for copper and later tin, it was very profitable for much of its life. Today the site has two preserved beam engines and is part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site. It is owned by the National Trust.
Wheal Coates is a former tin mine situated on the north coast of Cornwall, UK, on the cliff tops between Porthtowan and St Agnes. It is preserved and maintained by the National Trust.
Mining in the Upper Harz region of central Germany was a major industry for several centuries, especially for the production of silver, lead, copper, and, latterly, zinc as well. Great wealth was accumulated from the mining of silver from the 16th to the 19th centuries, as well as from important technical inventions. The centre of the mining industry was the group of seven Upper Harz mining towns of Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Sankt Andreasberg, Wildemann, Grund, Lautenthal und Altenau.
Mitchells Creek is a creek in central New South Wales, Australia. Rising north-east of Wellington, New South Wales, Mitchells Creek flows generally northward and joins the Talbragar River about 5 km south-west of Ballimore. The direct distance from its source to its outlet is 31 kilometres, longer via the twists and turns of the watercourse.
Relubbus is a hamlet in the parish of St Hilary, west Cornwall, England. It is on the B3280 road between Townshend and Goldsithney; the River Hayle runs through Relubbus.
A buddle pit or buddle pond is a pit, often circular when specifically constructed, the purpose of which was to separate by sedimentation minerals from lighter rock dust in crushed ore, and used in the mineral mining industry. Many of the relics seen today date from Victorian times.
The Sumdum mine is one of the largest lead and zinc mines in United States. The mine is located in north-western United States in Alaska. The mine has reserves amounting to 24 million tonnes of ore grading 0.37% zinc and 79.1 million oz of silver.
Irvinebank State Treatment Works is a heritage-listed refinery off Jessie Street, Irvinebank, Shire of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1883 to c. 1908. It is also known as Loudoun Mill. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
Champion-Providence Mine was a consolidation of two adjoining gold mines in Nevada City, California subsequent to the California Gold Rush. After it became the Champion Group following annexation of additional adjacent mining concerns, it became one of the two most productive mining groups in the Nevada City Mining District, alongside the North Star Mine, which purchased it in 1911. The Champion-Providence Mine closed in 1920.
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.