Interesting about mining in Shetland, what sort of mining can I ask, google doesn't seem to come up with much.
best regards
*SHETLAND
“Copper mining started in Shetland in 1789 when Alexander Crieghton of Tynemouth and London discovered copper prospect at Sandlodge [or Sand Lodge] some 12 miles south of Lerwick, and at Garthsness some 20 miles south of Lerwick. In order to exploit these prospects he formed a partnership with Thomas Williams of Llanidan and Pascoe Grenfell of London.”
In 1790 Williams sent a party of Welsh miners to Shetland. Leaving in September with 12 tons of ore for Beaumaris. According to local tradition they discovered that a Shetland workman had been adding copper coins to samples being tested for their copper content in order to prolong his employment. Creighton continued his efforts to establish a mine in Shetland. At first he concentrated his attention on the prospect beside the house of John Bruce at Sandlodge, sending in 1793 a ship load of iron ore to Newcastle. In 1800 with a London flour miller, Robert Redman they formed the Shetland Mining Company. Creighton then broke with the company and tried to raise capital to work the Garthsness prospect. In 1800 Robert Redman sent a party of Cornish miners, led by Matthew Thomas as mine captain to start work. In 1802 Richard Trevithick supplied a steam engine and in June 1802 a smack loaded with copper ore left for Swansea. By July 1805 they were down to 34 fathoms and pumping out 1500 gallons of water a day. By October this had risen to 6000 a day and the shaft was 38 fathoms deep. By December at a total cost of £1050, the shaft was finished, being 40 fathoms deep. In August 1807 mining ceased when the last of the coal stocks ran out. Three levels had been driven from the foot of the shaft to intersect the lodes. In June 1808 John Fleming, a minister with an interest in minerals, found the mine full of water and the engine dismantled.
“The copper deposit at Sandlodge is a massive vein of sparry ankerite with some chalcopyrite, in Old Red Sandstone. At the surface the vein has been oxidise to hematite and malachite. Much, if not all of the ore deposits obtained from the mine seems to have come from these near surface deposits, but in the 1800s and later in the 1870s much money was wasted putting down shafts to reach a rich lode that probably does not exist. Again in the 1920s a company was floated to work the mine, but no mining seems to have taken place.” [based on] Flinn (1990) ibid.
Anderson, George and Peter Anderson 1863 Fourth edition. Guide to the Highlands and Western Islands of Scotland including Orkney and Zetland. Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh. 824 copper ores.
Flinn, D. (1989) Travellers in a Byegone Shetland. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh. Not seen
Flinn, Derek. (1990). Richard Trevithick, Arthur Woolf and the Shetland mining Company. The Journal of the Trevithick Society (17) 23-30.
Flinn, Prof Derek is listed as Honorary Senior Fellow at Liverpool University’s Department of Earth & Ocean Sciences. He wrote the BGS memoir `Geology of Yell and some neighbouring island in Shetland’. He has also published a number of papers on Shetland mineralogy, and one or two on historical subjects. Googling, flinn shetland mines” produced 225 hits.
Haswell-Smith 337 copper ore in Copper Geo
Haswell-Smith 389-390 The sand in the Wick of Houble is magnetic and at Moo Wick at the tip of Lambhoga there is a residual deposit of kaolin. At Hesta Ness in the north-east the serpentine has been altered to antigorite and steatite. Here too there are bands of pure talc which was mined at one time.
Haswell-Smith 395 Haaf Gruney, near Uyea. a disused chromite mine.
Haswell-Smith 398 Unst, coarse-grained gneiss which is sometimes studded with garnets. The serpentine has veins of iron chromite. Unst has the only surviving talc mine in Britain.
Hibbert 33 Fair Isle, vein of copper ore 6” wide.
Hibbert 82 Fitfiel Head, vein of iron-mica 8 feet wide.
Hibbert 83-84 Garthsness a bed of iron-pyrites 8½ feet wide.
Hibbert 105-106 old shafts, worked by Welsh miners 1780s. Brown haematite, copper-pyrites, and sparry iron-stone were found. In the course of 2 years 470 tons of copper-ore were exported to Swansea.
Hibbert 162-164 Note IX Sandlodge Mines p 105 shafts 22 fathoms deep.
Hibbert 318-319 discovery of chromite of iron on Unst, used as a yellow pigment.
Rice, C M 2002 Metalliferous minerals 🇮🇳 Trewin, N H (ed) 2002 The Geology of Scotland. The Geological Society, London. Chromite on Unst 440. Sandlodge Mine 448.
Tindall 47 Unst, talc quarries, sepentine mines.
There. Now you know as much as I do.
Cutting coal in my spare time.