Dear all,

I am currently a Sustainable Engineering student at Lancaster University, in the middle of my 3rd year project. In this project I am hoping to simulate the possibilities of power generation underground, and for this I was hoping to find information about the volumes of any cavities underground, the lengths of any shafts/drifts and any other such information, possibly from maps or plans of the mine or quarry. However, I have found this pretty tough going and so I have been advised to post in this forum to find what advice I may be able to get.

The location of the mine or quarry is irrelevant as this is only a model and simulation, and therefore is irrelevant of location or any other possible issues. I have found various bits of information about different mines when looking through this site but no definite plans. I have been in touch with a few records office's and the likes but they can't really tell me what is available.

Does anyone know of a mine or quarry that I am missing on this website with relevant plans? Or know who I should be getting in contact with to try and find them?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

There are a lot of mine plans and sections knocking around, but it would help if you could give us some idea of how you're considering generating power underground. Off the top of my head, for volume of workings the Combe Down stone mines might be worth a look at as I'm guessing the volume was calculated when they filled most of it with foamed concrete. Alternatively, if you're looking at hydro driven by outflow from mine drainage, some feasibility work has been done here in the Peak District.

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There was a plan (suggestion ?) at one time that the water impounded in the flooded workings of Maenofferen/Votty/Llechwedd at Blaenau could be used as a hydro or pumped storage scheme. However as I imagine that any significant flow would so muddy the waters (literally) with slate dust and debris that any pumps/turbines would be rather unhappy beasts nothing further has been heard of this.

I guess this would apply to any slate mine. Croesor, as an isolated mine with a valley below it might be a small scale possibility....

Grahami

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I am mainly looking into pumped storage, and so would require two volumes with some distance between. Only one of these volumes has to be underground, however the preference is that both are.

This is only a model though and so environmental impacts and the likes are not necessarily an issue, it is simply using the data I can find to base my simulation around, which obviously I have found very hard.

I will have a look into the two places you have suggested.

Croesor might actually be quite a workable proposal, because all it would need would be an adit in at the lowest level to drain the workings - something quite possible given that ground level falls away so outside.

Might require a dam in the valley below for the lower reservoir though.

I wouldn't be convinced about the sense of blocking the adit to increase storage capacity above adit level, not least because it would result in water over-topping into Rhosydd after about 10ft of water level rise.

Presumably the workings are not connected to Rhosydd under the current water level?

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There are, of course, the proposals for a pumped storage scheme at Glynrhonwy (Llanberis) although that involves open pits. There's a thread on here somewhere with links to the proposals.


On another note, I can see it being difficult to find somewhere that both reservoirs are underground: somewhere below ground level is relatively easy to seal up as the lower reservoir, but having another (underground) reservoir above is going to be the problem, as it will almost certainly have a lot of openings that vent to the outside world - mines tend to have all sorts of adits and ventilation holes.

Whilst thinking of it, presumably there has to be some consideration of openings for allowing air in and out, ie to fill the space that the water leaves when it flows out / air that comes out as the space is taken up by refilling the water?

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Yes.. there will still have to be access to the base of the system in order to monitor and maintain and turbines and generators. And, as you said, more ventilation to allow air to replace the water lost.

I have got a few plans of Coniston mine from it's page on this website which I am trying to understand at the moment. I understand that most of it is flooded but obviously that won't be a problem. Looking on google maps it seems there is a lake close by as well?

There is plus a second smaller one close at hand. You could likely dam the valley below the mines too if you happened to be feeling particularly keen...

I presume you're looking at the section plan of Coniston - what this shows is the areas of the vein which have been mined out, and given the main vein is 1-2m wide it is possible to make a rough estimate of the total mine void. However, many areas will have been backfilled with waste so you can reduce that by at least 50%, but since this is just a theoretical exercise on your part I wouldn't worry too much.

On my part, the thought of a deep adit draining the stopes to the level of Coniston Water is wonderful, it would give use explorers the mother of all SRT through trips.....

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Don't start me on deep level darinage adits - if only the Ffestiniog mines drainage tunnels had been driven to either Rhyd y Sarn or the other (memory faills me at the moment) Oh what wonders we could have had access to! 😉

Grahami

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I have looked at the 3 documents posted on the Coniston page, about the rediscovery of the mine. I am also using John Postlethwaite's 'Mines and Mining in the English Lake District' as this has a couple of plans in as well. Hopefully, with a lot more hard work I may be able to make sense of the plans, but for now I'm just going to see if I can find the ready made plans I was hoping for!

RJV - There is a smaller lake close by? Do you know what its called?

I have also picked up some info on Force Crag mine that looks like it could lead somewhere.

I have looked at the 3 documents posted on the Coniston page, about the rediscovery of the mine. I am also using John Postlethwaite's 'Mines and Mining in the English Lake District' as this has a couple of plans in as well. Hopefully, with a lot more hard work I may be able to make sense of the plans, but for now I'm just going to see if I can find the ready made plans I was hoping for!

What is the section through the Coniston workings given in Postlethwaite if not a ready-made plan? I've already explained how to make a rough guess at the volume of void based on a section, so what more do you think you need?

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What is the section through the Coniston workings given in Postlethwaite if not a ready-made plan? I've already explained how to make a rough guess at the volume of void based on a section, so what more do you think you need?

It doesn't show the full mine workings, there are 3 different drawings in the book which show different sections and i'm not sure how these fit together. I can estimate the total volume of the veins with the information you have provided but there is no guidance as to the perpendicular direction of the veins/cavities and so it is hard to know how the mine is arranged in that sense. However, if this information is not available then I will just make do with what I have.

Regards.

This may be a long shot but the mining disaster at Lofthouse in 1973 was caused by huge volumes of water entering the current workings from existing, but 'unknown' 19th Century workings. An extensive enquiry ensued; maybe contained within are details of volumes of water, force produced and dimensions of tunnels involved.