Castle-an-Dinas · Page 3 · AditNow Community

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Peter Burgess
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#41

Does it have a bucket?

carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie Topic Starter

15 years ago

#42

The extremely extensive tar sands of Canada are extracted by strip mining to obtain the oil. Large buckets. Or possibly by quarrying.....or maybe opencast ...or :confused:

Funny how a simple original post escalated. :surrender:

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

JohnnearCfon
50.2% (Neutral)
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15 years ago

#43

"carnkie" wrote:

Funny how a simple original post escalated. :surrender:

Not if it is one you started Carmkie!!! :lol:

digger 1
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#44

"Knocker" wrote:
Clay (Well china clay certainly) I would argue that it doesn't need much concentration! Take a look around the processing plants, have a look at the size of the waste tips. Every tonne of clay yields in the region of 100 tonnes of waste, that is massive concentration.

Sorry Steve it's about 13 tonnes of waste to every tonne of clay 😉

carnkie
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Newbie Topic Starter

15 years ago

#45

"JohnnearCfon" wrote:

"carnkie" wrote:

Funny how a simple original post escalated. :surrender:

Not if it is one you started Carmkie!!! :lol:

Your such a cynic John. 😉

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

Knocker
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#46

I'll bow to you on that one digger, but that was the figure quoted to us by ECC 12 years ago.

unregistered user
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#47

I've abseiled into a stope near south shaft, it looked fine to me. I've also seen other access points. I gather the ground is good. The thing is, do you really want to see a massive stope with simple, well defined walls, with business like timbering....?

It's basically pretty boring really, as mines go. No secondary minerals, no artifacts, it's just a bloody great big slot in a hill.

Great Royalton mine is far more interesting.....

derrickman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#48

that's a matter of point of view. I don't actually get particularly excited about broken pipestems and clog prints, but a bloody big slot in a hill is the essence of what the place was

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

JohnnearCfon
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#49

"derrickman" wrote:
that's a matter of point of view. I don't actually get particularly excited about broken pipestems and clog prints, but a bloody big slot in a hill is the essence of what the place was

I think a lot of people on this site will hold a different view!

And Carnkie: Me, a cynic, never! Perish the thought! 😉 😉

carnkie
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Newbie Topic Starter

15 years ago

#50

"derrickman" wrote:
that's a matter of point of view. I don't actually get particularly excited about broken pipestems and clog prints, but a bloody big slot in a hill is the essence of what the place was

I agree with that. A small extract from the preface of Tony Brooks book on the mine, Castle-an Dinas 1916-1957 may be of interest.

Castle-an-Dinas is a unique mine in many ways. It is the only mine in Cornwall that was successfully worked solely for wolfram. Unusually for Cornwall, where every possible mineralised area had been prospected in the 18th and 19th centuries, the lode was not discovered until the early years of the 20th century. The lode, which only carried wolfram in the upper levels, was payable from surface and, because of the topography, it was possible to work the mine above drainage adit level from the start of mining, in 1917, until 1942. During the early 1940's South Shaft was sunk below adit level and the equipment installed there can only be described as something from a past age. Castle-an-Dinas must have been the last mine in the world to install a Cornish pump and possibly one of the last to erect a steam winder. The aerial ropeway and lighting plant were also steam driven and at one stage they were using a steam pump for sinking. Hand drilling in the stapes continued until 1943 and all ore underground was hand-trammed up until the mine's closure in 1957. Finally, the mine manager, Joe Chenoweth was in charge of the mine throughout its 40 year life -surely a record.
Castle-an-Dinas with its ancient hill-fort and modern mine is a fascinating place and one to which I return often.

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

Peter Burgess
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Newbie

15 years ago

#51

"derrickman" wrote:
that's a matter of point of view. I don't actually get particularly excited about broken pipestems and clog prints, but a bloody big slot in a hill is the essence of what the place was

Here's another of my dreadful analogies.

A mine is like a window. Its not just the shape of a window that makes it what it is, it's the view you have because it exists. A mine can be used as a window into the history of the time it was dug and of the people who dug it. :smartass:

derrickman
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Newbie

15 years ago

#52

the question is, are you primarily interested in the people who dug it and their lives, or are you more interested in the configuration, how it was dug, and what remains?

both answers are correct for a given value of 'you', they are not mutually exclusive but they are not the same.

speaking as someone with a long-standing professional interest in the second alternative, and at times, a professional interest in predicting what might be encountered and how to deal with it, I would tend to take the latter view.

you may well incline to the former for your own reasons, which are valid for you.

''the stopes soared beyond the range of our caplamps' - David Bick...... How times change .... oh, I don't know, I've still got a lamp like that.

JohnnearCfon
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#53

"derrickman" wrote:
the question is, are you primarily interested in the people who dug it and their lives, or are you more interested in the configuration, how it was dug, and what remains?

both answers are correct for a given value of 'you', they are not mutually exclusive but they are not the same.

speaking as someone with a long-standing professional interest in the second alternative, and at times, a professional interest in predicting what might be encountered and how to deal with it, I would tend to take the latter view.

you may well incline to the former for your own reasons, which are valid for you.

Personally, I am interested in all of the above.

Peter Burgess
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

15 years ago

#54

Likewise. The broader the perspective, the better the view.