During the last few weeks, passing by frequently, there seems to be more activity at South crofty than previously (during winter). I wonder if this means test drilling is complete and they are now continuing to sink the decline or new shaft?
Has anyone else noticed this?
Hopefully they may have some good news re test drilling soon.

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I think the reason you are seing increased movements at Tuckingmill is because they are into the good ground, they aren't having to install heavy supports or shotcrete, this is meaning they are blasting much more frequently and probably yielding more rock per blast.

I know this is a controversial subject, but good luck to 'em, sez I.

if there are miners earning miners's wages breaking rock in Camborne, and hauliers being paid to take it away, how can that be a bad thing?

If it is a monstrous fraud perpetrated on speculators who haven't done their due diligence, that would hardly be a new thing in mining, would it?



I listened to that 'Tin Men' programme with great interest. There was a good deal of what I remember down there; 'how can it be proper mining if we aren't there, my grandfather was onsetter at Old Wheal Whatsit till he was 93' etc etc.

I remember considerable efforts being made to recruit Cornish miners at the Selby developments in the late 70s and early 80s, with little success; 'Cousin Jack' seemed to have lost his taste for travel by then.

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I remember considerable efforts being made to recruit Cornish miners at the Selby developments in the late 70s and early 80s, with little success; 'Cousin Jack' seemed to have lost his taste for travel by then.

That would probably be due to the fact it was Coal mining, we all know Cornish miners want to be digging hard rock... that and they also want to be able to have a fag underground!

the recruitment was for the shaft-sinking, not the development roads - down through the Bunter and into the coal ground below. Thyssen in particular wanted to build on what they had done at Geevor, but the will seemed to be lacking.

quite a few CSM graduates went there and prospered, as they did in the North Sea, but they tended to be 'outsiders' and I thought then and now that the local men were too blinded by Cornwall's past, to see the future.

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Crofty certainly seems to be employing modern methods nowdays though. Cornish mining should really have taken on these new methods earlier, Wheal Jane was close to it but still had some of the old dinosaur methods.

I think the Wheal Maid decline project could have been very similar to that of what is being done at Crofty these days if the development hadn't stopped.

I am really looking forward to seeing what's new down at Crofty some time soon, I loved the contrast between the old cramped workings and the massive tunnels being driven in the new section.

I think the problem with Crofty is that people have been expecting them to just pump out the old workings and get digging... they are essentially starting up a whole new mine and due to the new trackless mining methods they have a hell of allot more preparation to do. The prospects of what could be achieved with the new operation if it is a success are huge, they could essentially tunnel their way into any of the workings around the area that they please. I remember reading that RTZ planned to de-water the Highburrow mines... that would be something quite amazing to see happen. Essentially Crofty need to build their "motorways" to access the "backroads" so to speak.

I'm looking forward to it all if it goes ahead as planned!

This is going to be a little controversial, but here goes: -

Some of Croftys last miners are quite conceited, they see themselves that because they were the last they were the best an noone can do any better.

They don't want to see new methods pf working, because its not mining, they don't want to see it succeed because they couldn't make it happen.

They don't want to see the next generation of miners, as they don't have the family history that they do, as it said on the programme, they are like a deposed aristocracy.

Well in all honesty... b*llocks to them if they are going to be like that.

Cornish mining was always about innovation, progression and new ideas. If they want to hold back the advancement of the heart of Cornish industry because it isn't going to be the same way as before then they are only fooling themselves. The old methods did not work in the modern age, something had to change!

I get the feeling that the great mining engineers of old would be nothing short of amazed at what could be achieved nowdays and I feel they would be backing it 100%

As derrickman alludes to in another thread it is a common problem in Cornwall. CSM long sat back and said we are the best in the world because we are and always have been.

Holmans fell to pieces because they couldn't accept that compressed air had no future in mining and underesourced development of hydraulic machinery - uk production costs are a crock, most mining equipment is now produced in scandinavia where manufacturing costs are far higher.

We are very good down here at looking to past successes and saying we are the best because of what happened in the past, for christs sake with rugby we still cling on to the 1991 championship!

The only way to honour the past sucesses is to stop being bone idle and living off the reputation of our ancestors but instead build on it.

I couldn't agree more with that last statement. Don't be too harsh on Crofty men though as far as I can make out there is only one that likes to mouth off with sour grapes ( and we all know who that is ). He is the one with the "if I can't do it no-one else should", attitude, or "if there isn't a camera or any publicity I don't want to know".

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ho ho ho... proper job....

it's true though. 'Cousin Jack' was in world-wide demand because he was a top-class, state-of-the-art hard rock miner; but that was then, and this is now.

everywhere I travel, I see Brits as Company Reps in the offshore oil business; the modern way of working was to a great extent invented and written in the North Sea, by people who were willing to take an opportunity and move on. I get called a 'North Sea Tiger' at times and I'm actually quite proud of it. Most are.

CSM isn't the backwater it once was, either. I see quite a few CSM people in my travels and they are mostly pretty high quality.



British costs are too high because people have stood still, and the government isn't willing to back people when they can. Do people perhaps think that VW or Renault pay their people fourpence a fortnight and a bowl of rice a day? It's the French that have brought car manufacturing jobs back from Eastern Europe, not McBroon's feckless rabble, afraid of their PC shadows..

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Note I used the past with regards to CSM Derrickman, one of the best developments I have seen from there recently is the Robotic Survey Vehicle.

Things are still happening underground. More rock is being moved and the ground breathes once more with the sound of blasting. Great things are planned, they just need time to happen. Rome was not built in a day and great oak trees grow from little acorns.

Some Cornish Miners (the next generation) would now only use the modern equipment. Most would not want to go back to the good 'ole days, however there are some as others have alluded to, who for what ever reason have their opinion, just don't get in the way of those who do want to create what is a 'modern' mine. I'd like to think that some of those who have gone before and have set the bar pretty high would be interested and support what is being done.

As for CSM, times move on .. and the world changes ... CSM will change accordingly. Its still the best School of Mines in world ....

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well, quite. If you don't move on, you get left behind and someone else takes the gravy.

I was at CSM in the days of 'Paddy' Hackett's reforms and there were some pretty unhappy people at the time; but I think the proof of what he did, is there to be seen. Even then, the split was to a fair extent, between 'incomers' who wanted to modernise and 'locals' who wanted to stand still, and cling to the past.

Wheal Jane had a fair dose of that as well.

'twas ever thus


I was in Camborne two years ago, just for a couple of days, while my younger son was on tour with his rugby club. I stood by the East Pool engine and felt that something was wrong, and then I realised what it was... no tailings! I'd never realised how all-pervading the sound of the tailings belt was.

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as has been said we need to move on with new machines ,i drive a boomer but can jack leg aswell its nice to do it the old way some times and i have great respect for the boys who done it all the time but at the end of the day you get paid for the ground you brake ..4 mtrs V 8 feet you know what i will go for! :thumbsup:

There will always be the 'When I's' in any industry. ie
'When I was a lad we had real drills and put holes in one at a time like a proper miner,' Yes and suffered bad backs, Vibration Whitefinger, crushed hands and feet from machine and jackleg malfunctions. The list is endless.
Modern mining? Bring it on, and when Crofty hits paydirt, watch out for the red faces then, and the turncoats of course!
I'm pretty sure that had someone suggested these 'last generation' miners throw away their caplamps and use candles as their fathers and their fathers had done, then you would certainly be regaled with mining terms that don't appear in the glossary..! 😞 :thumbup: :thumbup:

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Great story fom Crofty in the early 1970's, electric caplamps were being introduced to replace carbide lamps, the miners didn't like them so used to sabotage them to make them look bad, many of the miners ended up with acid burns down their legs!

Most of us realise how hard it is to break an oldham!

were carbide lamps in use at Crofty as late as that? What about other Cornish mines?

I've never worked with a carbide lamp, although I have used one for caving... an old 'premier' which I bought I the late 1960s and still lives in the cabinet in the dining room...

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There are parallels in a whole load of other careers with the "onwards and upwards" and "dunlike change". One thing that absolutely does my head in to the degree I want to punch the perpetrator is arrogant management "speak". It's all very new-labour. Here, let nanny hold the hammer. Grrrr.

I wonder about the methods used in the past, the far past and now and wonder if there is perhaps too much "change" and whether the present mode is one for the future. I'm not sure and here's why I don't think so.

The way mining methods evolved was largely down to increased efficiencies and technology. This progressed where, in competition with overseas "tin piles" only the biggest mines with the biggest skip roads and blady blah made any money. All the others fell by the wayside.

As I gather, the last modern mines were Geevor, Crofty, Pendarves and Perhaps Concord a teeny bit, basically working on the traditional way of doing things. I also gather that "big mining" was the order of the day at Jane. This whole "big deposit-low grade" approach. This seems to be what crofty are aiming for. A bloody great big production facility which uses big kit to shift huge tonnages rather than blokes with picks and wagons. This is all very well but I'm not sure it's going to hold it's place in the evolution of Cornish Mining. I'd say that we might even see a return to earlier methods.

One thing that interests me hugely is how our over population is going to cope with dwindling resources. Rather than the bogeyman of Anthropogenic Global Warming Hysteria, Peak oil should prove an interesting read in the history books but more importantly, Tin and Copper are being pretty well pinched. It is inevitable that should civilisation continue to require those metals, it would be perhaps foolish to overlook our deposits. To the people that say that Cornish mining is dead, I would say, we had round one, and in due course, round 2 will happen with tin, coal, tungsten, iron and every other thing that we have buried and "they" don't.

So, remembering Trounson's book and having a look at the sorts of lodes which are on the future "hit list", I think the Crofty/Jane big mine approach will not be such a good idea. Obviously, there is then the question of how you make it pay.

For instance, Killifreth is down as being a bloody good prospect for tin (funnily enough, not in Trounson's book, or Cornwall's minerals plan) and I don't imagine it would be a great idea to go sinking a monster decline to what could be quite a localised deposit.

I think that in the longer future, looking back, the size of cornish mines/time graph will be an upturned parabola and the number/time will appoximate the inverse.

Having said, this assumes that we are not thrown back to the stone age by oil peaking.

Anyway, I quite like the romance of people operating small mines again and using a central mill. I know that elfnsafety will have none of that, but again, stone age vs health and safety will see that kicked into touch.

I wonder when we shall see a return to smaller prospects like Concord being started again.....

I'd like to know. Are crofty going to mine the wide formation?

I drove past there the other day and thought "they should have scrapped the old mill when prices of scrap were up"

Stuey wrote

For instance, Killifreth is down as being a bloody good prospect for tin (funnily enough, not in Trounson's book, or Cornwall's minerals plan) and I don't imagine it would be a great idea to go sinking a monster decline to what could be quite a localised deposit.
I don't know what book you're reading but Trounson devotes no less than nineteen pages to Killifreth and as others, regards it as a good bet.
The reason being it was stopped owing to a low tin price and not a lack of ore, also it is situated between Wheal Busy and Poldice but at a much shallower depth.
As to your remarks on Crofty, let the mining men do the mining and remember the old saying, "Those that can do those that can't teach"!

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spitfire