carnkie
17 years ago
"JohnnearCfon" wrote:

"carnkie" wrote:


I think Asbestos could be added with some justification.



In the case of the diamond mines it was surely a secondary product. Was it ever a primary product in mines? It is something I have absolutely no knowledge of, other than hearing vague mentions of it so am curious to know more.



Just added Jeffrey to the DB. In fact, the Jeffrey Mine is the largest open pit asbestos mine in the world.

A bit more about asbestos mines in Canada here:


http://www.miningwatch.ca/index.php?/Asbestos/Asbestos_in_Canada 
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
JohnnearCfon
17 years ago
That's an interesting site, thanks Carnkie. Interested to learn about asbestos mines.

It is good to see that Canada has it's priorties right! Asbestos is ok so long as it is in cement etc, lets export it to India where it can be processed! 25 years later cement crumbles and releases fibres, by which time it is too late to work out where it all came from! No problem! :guns:

Just looked up the location of the Jeffrey Mine - there is even a town called Asbestos!
carnkie
17 years ago
There is an interesting PDF on Asbestos Minining in Southern Africa here. Usual horror story.

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:2460UZ295wcJ:hesa.etui-rehs.org/uk/newsevents/files/AsbestosminingSA.pdf+asbestos+mines&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3  

For some reason the direct link won't work so you need to go via here.
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
JohnnearCfon
17 years ago
I was just looking through the latest photographs, mainly of SW England. Something I quickly noticed was how many of the west country mines are listed as "Mixed Mines" This was confirmed on looking through the database search facility.

Whilst I realise a high percentage of west country mines did produce different minerals over the years, is the mixed mine classification being over used here? In a previous post it was suggested mines should be classified by their primary mineral indeed this is also stated in the add a mine page. Then additional minerals listed in mine page.

What do the west country experts think?

I realise this would be a major undertaking (especially if comments are needed to be added for many of them), but would not it be better to classify them at least by their priamry mineral?
carnkie
17 years ago
I agree with point you are making. The obvious example is that many of the mines produced tin and copper at various times during their history but often the importance of one outweighed the other. I've tended to call the Basset Mines copper (apart from LTd) but they did produce a lot of tin. This can be explained in the description.
Here lies the problem. How do you go through the hundreds of mines marked mixed and sort it out? I would suggest it's an impossible task except maybe for a few obvious examples.
Not that I'm counting myself as an expert. Far from it.
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
carnkie
17 years ago
I notice that Spitfire has just uploaded some interesting photos of Cusvey of which the Trevithick Society says:

Cusvey (Coosvea/Coosvean/Cuzveth) lies at the eastern end of the parish of Gwennap, immediately to the north-east of Wheal Fortune Mine, and for most of their existence the two mine setts were associated together. Tin dues for Cusvey ('Cuzveth') were paid to the Manor of Cusgarne between 1734 and 1764. A plan of Cusgarne Common, from about 1780, shows a mineralised structure, known as Bread and Cheese Lode, lying along the southern side of Cusvey. This was probably the tin lode which was exploited first on the site.
By 1790 Wheal Fortune was an important copper producer, and the lodes in Cusvey section were a significant part of the mine. By the end of the 1790s Wheal Fortune and Cusvey were making considerable profits. In 1819 Richard Thomas reported that although the mines were idle, they had made considerable profits, and the setts were then being incorporated into John Taylor's Consolidated Mines, which was to become the largest copper producer in the world.


Over to you Paul but I would call it copper and add that description.
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
JohnnearCfon
17 years ago
Yes, I did realise it would be an enormous taks for all of the mixed mine (as I said).

Maybe concentrating on the mines that have content and where a ready made description could be copy/pasted would be a start though.

I am so glad this is a comparitevely minor occurence in N Wales!
Peter Burgess
17 years ago
Is it not the case that there are so many sites in Cornwall which were worked at different times either for tin or copper, both in a major way, that a mineral type of tin/copper would be the obvious answer to this problem? I can't think of another example of this. There are very few sites where arsenic was worked on equal terms with another product, and the question of lead/silver is answered by the question "what was the mine opened to extract?" Was it lead, and they then discovered good silver content, or was it silver primarily such as the Devon mines? Most lead/silver sites were probably lead mines first and foremost, with one or two exceptions. Tin/copper sticks out as the only exception, like a sore thumb.

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