Arsenic is not a mineral as I understand. Arsenic is the result of refining and burning Arsenopyrite, commonly known to the mining community as Mispickel. FeAsS: Arsenic 46%. Occurrence in tin, copper, cobalt, nickel and especially lead and silver veins, usually traceable to igneous intrusions; examples of pneumatolytic veins (tin and copper) are those of Cornwall & Devon.
Rutley’s Elements of Mineralogy. p. 477-78

We pretty much use mineral/product interchangably... Probably I should rename it to 'product' throughout though to avoid this.

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Ps: Do we yet have chalk and flint. Both were mined in parts of kent/sussex.

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Been there for ages good sir :)

Just look at the drop-down menu under 'Mine Search' for the current full list.

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The following new mineral/products have been added today:

Witherite
Bauxite
Antimony
Anhydrite
Sulphur
Arsenic

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Where's the list to please?

Where's the list to please?

It appears in various forms dotted around the site, for example:

- on the left hand side of every page as a drop-down menu under Mine Search and on the search refiner on mine search results

- as a drop-down menu when you're adding a mine using the Add a Mine page

- on the Find a Mine By Mineral Type pages http://www.aditnow.co.uk/mineral/mines-quarries-uk-mineral-type.aspx 

- on the Major Mining Region pages http://www.aditnow.co.uk/uk-mining-regions/ 

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Here's a few more for you to ponder over:

Peat:
Peat is made up of mainly mosses and other bog plants. The lower levels are compressed into a homogenous substance, which in turn leads to a change of an increase in carbon.

Anthracite:
A form of coal once mined in Devon, and is black or brownish-black, and occasionally iridescent. Anthracite contains about 95% carbon with its constituents of hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen in very small quantities. Occurs where the coal-bearing strata has been subjected to considerable pressures or increased temperatures.

Lignite:
Another form of coal, and is also known as brown coal. Formed by vegetable deposit with a brilliant lustre, and contains a great deal of moisture. Brown coal is often associated with coal with much vegetable matter and is not as evident as Lignite. Jet is another form of Lignite which is a very resinous hard coal-black variety of Lignite. It is capable of taking a very high polish and is suitable for ornaments.

Uranium:
This can be divided into a number of products for the benefit of the list. Pitchblende: This is a Uranium dioxide, being partly oxidized, and contains various amounts of the following – thorium, zirconium, lead, helium, argon, nitrogen etc. Occurs in igneous rocks, granite and pegmatites, and also in high temperature veins associated with, tin, copper, and lead minerals.
Other Uranium minerals include the following: Tobernite (copper uranium), Autunite (lime uranium), Carnotite and Zippeite.

Zircon:
Zircon has been mined on Dartmoor on the Youlden Brook back in the early 1900s. Zircon, better know as a synthetic gem ‘zirconia’ has been used as diamonds in jewellery, albeit, ‘Paste Jewellery’ It is a primary constituent of igneous rocks, especially the more acidic granite of Dartmoor. It is associated with Rutile, Ilmenite and Monazite and in decomposed granites (growan) can contain largish crystals which made the Dartmoor mine famous in its day. An article in one of the local papers “An Age of Fakes” appeared many years ago.

Pyrite:
Virtuous Lady Mine, Devon was once worked solely for minerals, and one particular mineral was Pyrite which is an iron pyrite. The Pyrite they were selling was the famous “Lady’s Slipper” pyrite shaped just like the front section of a slipper. This is usually composed of siderite and forms an epimorph and is probably the only locality in the world where it’s been found.

And a few more:

Titanium:
Titanium has never been found in a free state in nature, and resembles tin (cassiterite). Titanium minerals of importance are as follows: Ilmenite, Rutile, Anatase and Brookite which are all secondary titanium minerals and have a very metallic or sub-metallic lustre. I won’t go into each of the secondary minerals composition as I think Titanium will be sufficient to be entered on the list.

Palladium:
This occurs as native metal in Platinum and in cupriferous pyrites, especially those containing Nickel and Pyrrotite. Its native form is a silver-white metal which is very similar to Platinum except that it’s not so ductile. Palladium is used in dental alloys, and a catalyser for coating the surfaces of silver reflectors used in search-lights.

Platinum:
Is a very important native metal being malleable and ductile, and also, welded at a very bright red heat. Its native form is alloyed with iron, iridium, osmium, gold, rhodium, palladium, and copper.

My two pennysworth on the latest additions
The Lady's slipper specimens are siderite (iron carbonate) epimorphs after baryte not pyrite (iron sulphide) completely different mineral. I dont know of any British mines worked mainly for pyrite, and it seems a bit unlikely since pyrite is usually associated with far more valuable minerals here #awaits correction#
If there are any then it would probably merit inclusion since pyrite isn't an iron ore but is mined for use in making hydrochloric acid.

Titanium, palladium, platinum, and uranium I would also seriously doubt whether there are any British mines with any of those as a main product.

Anthracite I would think would be covered by coal and peat is still 'vegetable' rather than 'mineral' and can't really be said to be mined or quarried

That leaves lignite and zircon, maybe lignite could be lumped in with coal, British Geological Survey keep it separate in their mineral listings if that's any help.

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Lady's Slipper:

Pyrite, from the Virtuous Lady Mine, Buckland Monachorum, Devon: fine grained, intergrown with some siderite forming a tapering cast. The original crystal around which it grew (siderite) having been dissoloved by some natural forces.
The Lady's Slipper epimorph usually composed of siderite, but at this particular mine pyrite first came to light around 1832-33 and for which it is almost the only locality.
Greg & Lettson, in their Mineralogy (1858 p. 260) thought the original crystals must have been gypsum, but following Russell, it is now generally supposed that these casts are after baryte, of an unfamiliar habit.
Pyrites were mined at Virtuous Lady Mine as well as a number of other minerals

A number of mines have sold Pitchblende during their working life here in the South West. Take Kingswood Mine, Buckfastleigh, Devon for instance. Or another - the Huckworthy Bridge Mine, along with Cobalt.

Most of the above seem to be far too specific to appear on a site like this and would make searching for a mine on the data base more like lookinf for a needle in a haystack. I think anthracite & lignite would be best left undr "coal" as indeed you list them as a type of. Maybe on the individual mine home page a note could be left if deemed appropriate. For instance, this mine was for antharcite a xxxx type of coal whose properties are xxxx & xxx.

Similar comments apply to palladium (who remembers beat the clock?) ;D

Whilst I realise some quarries (open cast) are listed, I think listing peat bogs on here would be far too much. Besides, how would they be listed? There were many cases of small local use only peat extractions. They were also called "turberies" (spelling?). 😉

Maybe on the individual mine home page a note could be left if deemed appropriate. For instance, this mine was for antharcite a xxxx type of coal whose properties are xxxx & xxx.

I agree, this seems to be the most sensible option.

Incidentally the last work carried out at Gwynfynydd was reworking the spoil outside to extract more Gold, but they also manged to extract some other metals, such as palladium.

(I remember beat the clock....)

A number of mines have sold Pitchblende during their working life here in the South West. Take Kingswood Mine, Buckfastleigh, Devon for instance. Or another - the Huckworthy Bridge Mine, along with Cobalt.

..........but would these not be listed as copper mines? there is only the facility to list mines with one main mineral not everything they produced.

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Yes, Sparty_lea, this is becoming more like a geology/minerology thread! We are mine explorers! 😉

I think, as I said earlier, splitting headings up into such minor minerals will end up making it vey difficult to find mines by mineral type. Also, it will make it more likely to end up with many errors.

Yes, Sparty_lea, this is becoming more like a geology/minerology thread! We are mine explorers! 😉

I think, as I said earlier, splitting headings up into such minor minerals will end up making it vey difficult to find mines by mineral type. Also, it will make it more likely to end up with many errors.

Hard to be a mine explorer for very long and not have some interest in geology/mineralogy,;D in metal mines anyway.

I think you're right about dividing coal up into lignite/anthracite people will likely search on 'coal' and not find them.

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Now the site has gone international a few people have suggested some more mineral / product types.

Diamond is the most obvious and glaring omission. Classifying them as 'other rock' mines doesn't quite sound right...

Therefore this is an open call for any suggestions for additional mineral / product types. I'd prefer to add a batch rather than lots individually.

Previously agreed principle of not being too specific still apply I guess.

:)

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Have read all the foregoing but the classifications seem blurred to me. In some cases we are listing minerals while in other cases we are listing the metals or elements.
We have baryte and witherite listed which for want of a better word are ores of barium yet we list copper, iron etc. By listing baryte and witherite should we not put down cassiterite for some tin mines or haematite or magnetite for some iron mines?

On the matter of rocks surely it would be far simpler to list them as rock types such as
Igneous
Sedimentary
Conglomerate
Breccia
Metamorphic
(I'll leave it to the more learned to decide on the exact divisions)

Not even geologists can agree on the classification of some rock types. I was on a field trip recently where the Great Whin Sill was in evidence and I always understood that it was a massive dolerite intrusion but the geologists there were emphatic it was a basalt intrusion that was intruded explosively.

To the layman any hard igneous rock is a granite but we are not laymen; we are a specialised group and, as such, I think we should get our terminology right in the first place.

Sorry Sparty_lea I know you have a soft spot for Witherite.
:confused:

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We have baryte and witherite listed which for want of a better word are ores of barium yet we list copper, iron etc. By listing baryte and witherite should we not put down cassiterite for some tin mines or haematite or magnetite for some iron mines?


To the layman any hard igneous rock is a granite but we are not laymen; we are a specialised group and, as such, I think we should get our terminology right in the first place.
:confused:

But surely (for instance) it depends what the mine was commonly regarded as mining. How many mines are known as "cassiterite mines"? Or how many mines were known as "haemetite mines"? They would have normally been called "tin mines" or "iron mines" surely?

As has been said before (by me and others) making too many sub-categories makes searching unwieldy and probably unhelpful.

Whilst agreeing with Sparty's point about having an interest in minerology, the main focus of this site is mine exploring so the searchabilty of the site needs to be for that, not so much for every possible mineral rock type.

Getting too complicated for me. I would just add Diamonds and Uranium.

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