Just a quick question. A small trial working was opened in the 1970s/80s near Blackwater, and I recall it was called Wheal Concord. It isn't in the mines lists, so before I add a photo to the site, can anyone tell me if it was known by any other name? Thanks.

Erm.... just checked... it is there :thumbsup:

---

Well according to BGS substantial reserves of tin in alluvial deposits and mine waste have been identified by Wheal Concord, and Marine Mining has proved alluvial tin on the sea floor off the north coast of the district. Go for it. No doubt we will both be wrong. 🙂

---

Nope it def there ... nice timber head gear and all ..... great place!

On DB as 'Wheal Concord'

---

Ah, thanks. Under 'W'. that's like listing all mines under 'M', and all quarries under 'Q', and all welsh caves under 'O' or 'P'.

Don't agree as thats the name it was known by in SW.. Not heard of many 'Mine Loscoe Colliery' or 'Quarry Cliff'..... 'Wheal' I understood means place of work not just mine (thanks all) and is thus just how it should be, hence Wheal Basset Mine!
Oh and a search under just Concord should have found it.

Happy trails. 😉

---

Its no big deal. If I was writing a book on Cornish mines I would probably have a mine index section with Wheal Busy listed under B, Geevor Mine under G, as this is the easiest way to find a particular site, I believe. A book about welsh caves I would not have all the caves listed under Ogof - most entries would otherwise end up in the O section! Maybe I've got Celtic ancestors from many many years ago, though I suspect in reality I am pure Anglo-Saxon!

I've put my toys away now, so no more uploads until another day. :thumbsup:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh no..... just I been slapped for this one several times and initially was not convinced my self being of Megalithic Derby's Stock (+ a little cornish)..... Ug.... Ug.... but after lots of trips I see the point... Wheals for clay pits, tin mines, quarries etc..... it kinda made sense here... so please no wrong intent mean't.... your pics and uploads have been remarkable and much appreciated by all. :flowers: particularly me as its added breadth.

---

Just a quick question. A small trial working was opened in the 1970s/80s near Blackwater, and I recall it was called Wheal Concord. It isn't in the mines lists, so before I add a photo to the site, can anyone tell me if it was known by any other name? Thanks.

But you did recall it was called Wheal Concord Peter..............

---

oooooooooooooooooooooooooh reaching for the Burgundy! again!

---

May be of interest re Wheal Concord.
Years ago before the site stripped the office was open and filing cabinets hanging open. I 'rescued' quite a lot of paperwork relevant to Marine Mining.
Experience has taught that this can be invaluable in later years.

---

The St Agnes forum Blackwater walk takes in Wheal Concorde http://www.stagnesforum.com  and has a little information on the site. Wheal ConcordConcord and Wheal Briton stand alongside the road which leads from Skinners Bottom to the top of Blackwater North Hill. Wheal Briton closed in 1791 but was reopened in 1810, the same year that work resumed at Concord. The mines then combined and in 1860 The Wheal Concord Silver, Lead and Copper Mining Company Limited was formed but within a couple of years the low price of tin caused it to close. It was thought that operations had ceased forever but, under the leadership of Nicholas Warrell from Falmouth and guidance of Jack Trounson, Wheal Concord again began to produce tin in the 1980s. After a great deal of clearance and preparatory work, and with St Piran's flag flying from the headgear, the mine began to yield up its tin. In December 1981 Prince Charles paid a visit to Concord and descended into the workings. He was glowing in his comments applauding the initiative. The project was, however, short-lived and closed within a few years.

Under development is a walk taking in the surface mining features which are in or near to the village, a volunteer is currently required or a test walk

---

One of my main interests in mining is concerned with it's future.

Trounson bangs on about the area being one of the best bets in Cornwall.

I wondered about it myself and whether it might start up again. We had a chat about this a while ago on ME and the view was that the company went bust and the site was owned by a building society. This is odd as it seems to have been fenced off and is in use...... The field where the dumps were was up for sale a while ago.

I head concord was quite dry, I also gather that it had a lot of development potential and was also drained by the furthest extension of the County Adit, via Phillips adit at about 60M depth.

Funnily enough, my mum got yapping to some heating engineer bloke who was ex Concord staff. He seemed to think that it was a tax dodge for some rich blokes and they were all "playing at it".

I'd like to know a lot more about the place. I'd say that according to the literature, it might be somewhere that people get excited about in the short term.

I often hear ex miners call the mines a tax dodge, in most cases this is a complete pile of rubbish! Concorde was operating in the time of record tin prices and were I guess at the stage that crofty are now - lots of development and exploration and looking to start building processing facilities, Concords new concentrator was to be what is now Treasure Park. Unfortunately the devastating crash of 85 ocurred

So, do we know anything about the present state of play with concord? Apart from the headgear is in a bad state, the grounds taken over by gippos and the steelwork in the shaft looking very corroded.........

One of my main interests in mining is concerned with it's future.

Trounson bangs on about the area being one of the best bets in Cornwall.

I wondered about it myself and whether it might start up again. We had a chat about this a while ago on ME and the view was that the company went bust and the site was owned by a building society. This is odd as it seems to have been fenced off and is in use...... The field where the dumps were was up for sale a while ago.

I head concord was quite dry, I also gather that it had a lot of development potential and was also drained by the furthest extension of the County Adit, via Phillips adit at about 60M depth.

Funnily enough, my mum got yapping to some heating engineer bloke who was ex Concord staff. He seemed to think that it was a tax dodge for some rich blokes and they were all "playing at it".

I'd like to know a lot more about the place. I'd say that according to the literature, it might be somewhere that people get excited about in the short term.

I don't know much about the present day sirtation but a little background. In 1980, Wheal Concord Ltd was formed to examine tin-bearing lodes in the area between Mawla [703 458] and Blackwater [735 460]. The shaft at Wheal Concord (formerly Wheal Briton) [728 460] was rehabilitated and shallow cross-cutting commenced. In 1981, some 8000 tonnes of ore were hoisted. Operations were suspended in 1982 but the mine was not allowed to flood. A new company, Concord Tin Mines Ltd acquired the mine in 1984 and almost immediately began underground exploration. The same company commenced the evaluation of leases in the Cligga area [740 535], to the north of the district with the intention of milling the ore from both these projects at a new mill under con¬struction at Gilberts Coombe [690 443]. But the tin slump in the mid 80s.
I really can't understand a building society getting involved and I'm not even sure it's legal. Anyway the ore reserves at Crofty are 3.5 million tonnes at a grade of 1.5 per cent tin metal. Of course ther is always the water..........

---

Do I remember that the headgear used to be on Contact Shaft (cligga) and at Nangiles before that, or am I wrong?

Do I remember that the headgear used to be on Contact Shaft (cligga) and at Nangiles before that, or am I wrong?

built at Geevor for Cligga then on to Nagiles, the mistake Concord made was to start stoping before they had a mill, all they could do was sell as mined lowish grade material for not much money. We sampled the mine when they were looking for help / or looking to get out, there was tin there along with blende and chalcopyrite plus other sulphides but nothing desperate it would have been interesting to see it at greater depth.

The question is and a few of us were about to attempt it recently, only to be foiled by the recent site occupiers.......

Is phillips adit still dry? If so, where does it go?

Rumours vary and a few people say that the upper level was neck deep, a few say it is underwater.

I thought that concord was mining quite high grade tin. Unless that was a lode that was in the vicinity.

Is there any good written material about what they achieved?

I wonder if the mine has a near future......

I understand they mined just over 20,000 tonnes in 1981-1982 and recovered about 0.8% tin at the Wheal Jane concentrator. The milling deal fell through so the first company went into receivership. CTM ltd who took over had plans to restart mining there and look at Cligga as well. They put a resource of 1,350,000 tonnes on Wheal Concorde, but surely that must have been more than arbitrary considering the lack of drilling. They said they planned to construct a decline and second shaft and eventually equip the mine to a 600tpd capacity. Whether this was at all realistic or not I have no idea. There seem to be about three significant and proven lodes, north dippers, as well as a few undeveloped ones, average widths 4-5 ft, with tin, and some sulphides.

What kind of development was done on them, along either strike or depth I'm not sure but I wouldn't have thought it was very much. Geologically its been argued that the area is ideally situated and is likely to develop well in depth, but you cant be sure the lodes continue unless you intersect them at depth and along strike. Ive read the odd comment here and there about development underground not being encouraging, but that could mean a number of things.

As people have said above Trounson was very involved in the mine, and its mentioned in Cornwalls Future Mines very favourably along with the general Blackwater area, so theres no doubt it was a very serious prospect, but the work there hasnt left very much to go on. Certainly it looks to have started off very speculatively (pretty good speculation albeit) and whether now considering the results were clearly pretty unspectacular, the overall incentive to even drill what is still a fairly uncertain deposit must be pretty low. I suppose all things considered it depends if theres anything better around.