I plan on visiting South Terras Mine in June, exploring for radioactive minerals. Can anyone tell me if the old mine and buildings are on a public right of way or if I need permission from the land owner to expore the site?

I understand that the adit is blocked off but does anyone know where it is located? I'd like to make some radiation measurements at the adit entrance.

Many thanks if you can help.

Steve

The mine was "dynamited in" by a well known mineral collector and I gather the reading outside the adit is about 8mSv/hr rising to about 18 mSv/hr in the adit. We went in with breathing apparatus and saw the blockage and it may be climbable, but not with breathing apparatus, there is no evidence of any minerals worth picking up. The New Shaft is worth a look as it has the pitwork still in and a nice brick collar (near the chimney). The remains of the barn by the side of the road has some pitchblende in it and will make your geiger counter go pretty wild. The other shafts are obliterated at surface and there is nothing much in the tips which remain near the iron works part of the site.

It's not really worth a visit to look underground. I gather it was a fair old trip before it was run in. It's been like this for decades, I gather.

NB:- 10mSv per year is the maximum dose allowed for radiation workers. 18mSv per HOUR is probably unwise to enter as I gather the relationship between affect and concentration is not linear

Stuey is spot on with his comments, went in there 20 years ago, blocked and didnt find anything. The rumour back then was that the well know Mineral collector, who died of cancer, which was attributed to collecting here and Wheal Edward. Whether or not this was proved I dont know.
But having had an old mining friend, die of lung cancer at 58, as a result of "dry" drilling during his mining career. I for one wont be going anywhere near it, no matter how good the mineral samples are!!!

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This was reputed to be the home of a very unusual albino bat. The question was raised how does the radiation affect bats; the bat workers involved just suggested that the long term effects would probably exceed the normal life time of a bat anyway.

Those are wise words from Stuey and Mikebee62, take note

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I collected quite good meta-torbernite, meta-autunite and zippeite speciments from the dumps in the early 1970's however these dumps have been removed many years ago and little of interest now remains.

NB:- Can someone adjust these if they aren't linking?

Essentially, Gem Adit is the one which used to be the way in. It goes that short distance to the Uranium lode, where it is possible to go left along it for a nadge and then where there is stoping above, it's run in. This would be about 5mm on that plan.

The threads about radioactivity and getting cooked are on here if you can be bothered to drag them up.

http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/1665/ 

The one worth a peruse:-

http://www.wpb-radon.com/Radon_research_papers/2001%20Daytona%20Beach,%20FL/2001_07_Two%20Abandoned%20Metalliferous%20Mines%20in%20Devon%20and%20Cornwall,%20UK%20--%20Radon%20Hazards%20and%20Geology.pdf 

The most amusing thing is that there is a chap down there who has a bit of his garden fenced off as it's so radioactive.......however, that's possibly in the same vein as being able to walk to Launceston up the county adit and the massive lake under Carn Brea!

Hey and dont fly from St Mawgan airfield as the Terras mine dumps were used as hardcore for the runway in WW2 !!! :lol:

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On a serious note, is there any organisation monitoring cancers or radiation in domestic premises in this area? - Only mention it, as I knew someone who past away in their early 50's recently from the big C who lived in the Terras side of St.Stephen. Not saying there is a definitive link in that case, but I do wonder if it is high enough to make a difference.

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The analogy is:-

Bequerels= How much it's raining.

Greys= How much of it hits you

Sieverts= How wet you get.

The key hazard from radon type stuff is high energy alpha particles and to cut a long story short, they can either ****** up your eyes or your lungs with your air pipes coming in a little behind.

The general consensus is that you're more likely to fall through a false floor or get hit by a rock/buried than get some sort of cancer, even though you may increase your probability by exposure.

I gather there have been high incidence of eye and lung cancer among miners, but the correlation of horribleness if offset by black lung, etc, etc, etc.

Still, Terras being at that level, if you go in there without BA, it's probably very unwise. Put it this way, your geiger counter won't work, even if it's a gamma tube. It's about gas mk6!

But, if you spend much time in any mine with poor ventilation, you're likely to have been exposed to a fair old load of high energy alphas.

Polonium being the highest energy of them all....plenty of that in Terras.

The mine was "dynamited in" by a well known mineral collector and I gather the reading outside the adit is about 8mSv/hr rising to about 18 mSv/hr in the adit. We went in with breathing apparatus and saw the blockage and it may be climbable, but not with breathing apparatus, there is no evidence of any minerals worth picking up. The New Shaft is worth a look as it has the pitwork still in and a nice brick collar (near the chimney). The remains of the barn by the side of the road has some pitchblende in it and will make your geiger counter go pretty wild. The other shafts are obliterated at surface and there is nothing much in the tips which remain near the iron works part of the site.

It's not really worth a visit to look underground. I gather it was a fair old trip before it was run in. It's been like this for decades, I gather.

NB:- 10mSv per year is the maximum dose allowed for radiation workers. 18mSv per HOUR is probably unwise to enter as I gather the relationship between affect and concentration is not linear

I don't plan on trying to enter the mine, I just wanted to monitor radiation levels at the entrance to the adit. At 8mSv/h, I can assure you that I won't be there for long but just long enough to make a measurement. I'm staying in Cornwall on holiday a bit further down and plan on stopping off at South Terras on the way home.

Do you know if there is public right of way to parts of the mine. I assume that the land is privately-owned.

Thanks for the advice.

Steve

As with a lot of cases, the entrance is in farmland which is remote from the farm.

Old Gunnislake Mine should be on your "research it" list.

The key hazard from radon type stuff is high energy alpha particles and to cut a long story short, they can either ****** up your eyes or your lungs with your air pipes coming in a little behind.

When I try to look at online data for lung cancer, The Radon influence seems to be hidden by Fuel generated PM10s from Trains / buses / Old Cars etc in built up areas drifting in prevailing winds etc, as well as the obvious influence from smoking
I guess it is hard to identify a carcinogenic symptom that can ONLY be down to Radon.

Thanks for Info!

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hopefully this should link to a short video about south terras. :ohmygod:

I was wondering what concentrations we are talking in order to get the readings from Radon/daughters that we'd be looking at. In essence, Radon is very very radioactive and the concentration is in the order of 1/1000% rather than approaching 1% which you might think.

Matey's gamma detector "doing lots" appears to be a bit misleading as a nano-sievert is a 1/1000 of an order less than the cooking absorption readings. When you consider the significance of the gamma decay readings in a ratio of the energy released by alpha particles, it's nothing.

Having said, I'm sure anyone involved in poking around old workings has been nuked without knowing it, in fact every survey I've seen with rad/O2 on it suggests that there is high rad where there is low vent, in most cases.

anyway...