Just found and joined this site. I notice that there has been a forum on the graphite mine. In 2006 I was involved (safety) in a project with the B.G.S. and the University of Madrid. The team from Madrid were experts in the study of graphite deposits, especially Fluid Deposited Graphite which is what the Seathwaite deposit is. A complete investigation and sampling of the mine was carried out over two days. The main aims were to try and establish once and for all using the latest scientific methods: where the source carbon originated, how it was mobilized and how it was deposited. A lot of the early papers on this mine (Strens etc) did not have the latest techniques available to them including Ramon Spectroscopy and Carbon Isotope Data. The results are now coming through.
I'm afraid that at this moment I cannot go into detail about the findings. In the next few months I will be putting together (with a friend also involved) an article on the visit and report in laypersons language for a newsletter and will try at some point to have it available here as a PDF file if that is possible.
I can say that the deposit is related to the Borrowdale Volcanic Group so generally would place it around 450/460 million years. There is only one other recorded occurrence of a graphite deposit within volcanic rocks and that is in Spain.
Jeff

Hi Jeff, excellent news on your work with the graphite "Wad" from Borrowdale. I have been looking into the age question of that deposit for many years now and have come to the conclusion it is of middle to late Ordovician associated with the dolerite intrusion in the BVG.

I have read and researched every scrap of paper evidence that is available and welcome new research using modern methods. You must let me know when you publish your finding as I would be very interested in seeing a copy of the full report including all the technical data.

Let's hope you can approach the problem from a different angle and maybe come up with some long overdue new ideas and theories as to its age.

Have you any links to, or data with reference the Spanish deposit?

Good luck, and here's looking forward to reading your finished report. :thumbsup:

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Thanks for that. Interest in the graphite deposit is a terrible affliction! The Spanish mine is reported in the paper: Vein-Type Graphite in Jurassic Volcanic Rocks of the External Zone of the Betic Cordillera, Southern Spain
Jose F. Barrenechea, Francisco Javier Luque and Magdalena Rodas. Canadian Mineralogist 1997. Unfortunately they can be expensive to obtain. The three authors were on the visit to Seathwaite. Very nice people indeed.
The reason that it appears (if I have decoded it correctly) to be linked to the B.V.G is that the high temperatures of the andesitic magma chamber (not the deeper batholith) was responsible for the "maturation" and release of carbon atoms, ergo B.V.G related.
I should have the visit part of the article (with pictures PDF) finished in a few weeks; the summery of the findings will take longer! We will probable do it as 2 parts.
Cheers
Jeff

Sorry to contact you but I was wondering if you could provide me with some information if possible or if not if you had any idea where I could find out.

I am PhD student at the University of Bristol looking at characterising graphite and since there is a graphite mine at Borrowdale I was seeing whether I could explore the mines. I am in contact with all the relevant authorities to get permission but to do this I need full plans of what
i'm going to be doing. For this I would need a map/plan of the mines so I could plan where we could enter and where we could go.

Having been looking online I have struggled to find anything and I realised that the cumberland geological society have had an excursion to the mine before, so I was wondering if there were plans of where they went or if you had contact details for someone who would know

Many Thanks for any help
Liam Payne

since there is a graphite mine at Borrowdale I was seeing whether I could explore the mines

I'm sure there will be someone on here who can pencil you in for a visit.

Seathwaite Wad And The Mines Of The Borrowdale Valley by Ian Tyler would be a good place to start.

There are some plans and sections in there, but I don't think you'll find an accurate plan of the workings as they exist today anywhere, its a three dimension maze of pipes and stages worked and reworked over hundreds of years.

This simple plan and description got me though most of if, but what you see on the ground is tricky to relate to it at times.

If you've not got much underground and SRT experience it would be ever harder.

http://www.rrcpc.org.uk/newsletters/NL_V38_N2_A7.htm 

Thanks for the quick responses. I dont have much experience however in the department are two very experienced cavers who will be leading the exploration so just need to find as much information as I can so we can sit down and plan

I would say you probably want to read this and speak to Jeff Wilkinson too, you could try sending him a PM as he's the "Jeff" earlier in this thread.

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Borrowdale-Graphite-Mine/Graphite-at-Seathwaite-Feb-2011.pdf 

Why not have a chat with Ian Tyler at the Keswick Mining Museum and pick his brains on the subject.

I'm sure there will be someone on here who can pencil you in for a visit.

Remind me to whack you round the back of the head at Watergrove on Saturday for gratuitious use of a bad pun....

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