Just been exploring the BBC World War One at Home pages after they used some pictures I had scanned from a book.

I saw this one but sure there is more on mines there, the site can be searched by location and keywords

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01nhwgx 



Carrock Mine, Cumbria: Mining For Tungsten

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01qcg5p 

---

Enjoyed that :thumbup:

ran a search after watching this as I wanted to find out if there had been any interest lately (what with the upcoming world shortage of Tungsten, developments down south etc.), brought up a good BGS paper on the mine, although not very up to date (1976!)
anyone know if there have been more recent enquirys? you would think there was scope for a small to medium sized modern underground working, unless the difficulty with the ground makes it uneconomic

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=1628 

A few recent MSc projects - other than that its too low tonnage.

SW England is a better bet

interesting..maybe Castle will be investigated then

During its life from the early 1900's the mine yielded a total of over 110,000 tonnes of ore grading 1.081% WO3. Of this approximately 65% was wolframite (35 to 55 mol.% hubnerite) with the balance as scheelite.

On the basis of stoping plans (but no drilling) it is likely that a similar tonnage would exist below the Canadian (or No 1 Level) in the Emerson, Harding, Waterfall, Smith and Wilson Veins. Additional potential exists from surface on the Molybdenite and Mill Veins.

On this basis Carrock would be about the same size as Castle an Dinas and Cligga Head in Cornwall but a fraction of the size (in terms of contained WO3) to Hemerdon.

The remaining potential resources are unlikely to ever be mined due to constraints of tailings disposal in the National Park.

Other tungsten mineralization occurences in the Lake District are at Shap and Eskdale where scheelite and molybdenite have been recorded in small quartz veinlets. Elsewhere in the British Isles sub-economic but widespread tungsten mineralization is known at Ballinglen in County Wicklow, Ireland and at Loch Doon in Scotland.

Somerset Miner

Castle an Dinas was totally worked out by the 1950's. There is no further potential as the granite cupola is LATER than the tungsten veins and has removed the mineralization at depth. (i.e the vein does not exist down into the granite). Check the section in Dines Vol 2 (page 524).

The remaining potential resources are unlikely to ever be mined due to constraints of tailings disposal in the National Park.

At the present time, I agree it's unlikely but if there is perceived to be a national need in future I could see there being leeway allowed in order to get at the reserves. PDNPA have a general presumption against new mineral extraction in their development plan but make a specific exception for fluorspar on the grounds there is a national need for acid-grade.

---

The issue with Carrock is that presently there are no reserves nor any resources defined and with the national park planning restrictions it is very unlikely ever to be able to drill to define any resources.

Its tonnage and ease of mining that get investors interested these days. Castle an Dinas does have N and southern extensions but the tonnage is too low.

Projects like NAE's Redmoor (Sn-W) and others currently under exploration near St Austel are more likley to get the money

As I understand it the recent operations to recover Tungsten ore here, were based on the ore reserves blocked out during the last war.
Little if any new exploratory work was undertaken, the main emphasis being ore recovery.
As Minegeo correctly states there is no way the Lake District Park authority is going to allow the necessary exploratory drilling to take place.

Its tonnage and ease of mining that get investors interested these days. Castle an Dinas does have N and southern extensions but the tonnage is too low.

Projects like NAE's Redmoor (Sn-W) and others currently under exploration near St Austel are more likley to get the money

I know Treliver have been returning reasonable results, I was more thinking of potential underground operations (and hence looking outside of Cornwall, u/g operations just dont seem to have any legs at all there at the moment)

Hi All.

Apologies for joining this discussion late, but having just come back from a week in the lakes (and got a trip down Greenside mine, which was fantastic) I was doing a bit of reading about Carrock.

From what I have read, the general thoughts on any potential exploration/re-opening of Carrock is slim. The grades suggested of in excess of 1% WO3 (including dilution?) would be much higher than most, if not all of the tungsten mines that are looking to open in the next 10 years. Grades of 0.2% to 0.5% WO3 are more likely.

I appreciate the tonnage is never going to rival the hemerdon's of this world, due to the fact its narrow vein, but if a project has good economics it doesn't have to be massive. Although i am aware previous tailing disposal was one of the problems the previous operations had.

Do we think that the 'success' of Scotgold permitting Cononish (although its not funded yet), in the loch lomond and trossachs could be used as some kind of model for at least an exploration programme? Also Glebe operate in the Peaks? these guys must have tough environmental constraints, even for putting holes in the ground?

I met a guy at a tin and tungsten conference and he eluded to the fact that there was no/limited exploration/ development below adit level? and these lodes would generally run vertically for a few hundred fathoms, unless there is a structure that cuts the lode off as per Greenside?

Just wonder if using other projects within national parks may assist someone if they were to review carrock as a potential prospect?

Cheers (and apologies for the ramble)

You are correct in that there has not been any exploration below the lowest adit level at Carrock and that potentially economic mineralization does lie in the floor of these drives on the veins. In 1972 there was a proposal (that I worked on) to drive a long exploration adit from near Grainsghyll Bridge to the WNW to cut up to 20 veins from the Mill Vein to the Wilson Vein some 30-50m below the lowest extant level.

Considering the nature of this style of vein mineralization is temperature of deposition dependent thus the depth to which mineralization could occur is restricted to, perhaps, a further 50 - 80 odd metres following the curve of the greisen cupola. On this basis the potential is probably in the region of a further 100,000 tonnes at, say, 1% WO3. This is unlikely to carry the capital cost of a new development.

Whilst many of us would be very happy to see Carrock reopen the reality is that presently no reserves or resources exist, a great deal of diamond drilling would be required to establish any resource and the geological controls suggest an economic reserve unlikely.

Minegeo - many thanks for replying.

The largest point that I think will limit the chance of a resource and perhaps a mineable reserve is that there could be a structure that cuts the mineralisation off at depth. As you say, it will need a truck load of drilling to prove if there is an economic structure there.

I think with the tungsten price today approx. $350/mtu or $35,000 and a grade of 1%, even a reserve of a million tonnes could possibly be enough to see a small 10 year operation through. I agree that 100kt will be a touch on the small side!

Do you think there is any potential in the Lakes for an economic deposit, I also heard that Force Crag is not mined out (obviously there will be the usual NP challenges!)

Thanks once again.

gp1184

No doubt that 1Mt @ 1% WO3 would be economic, but bear in mind that the total production from Carrock has only been 110,000 tonnes @ 1.08 WO3. So to imagine that there could be a ten-fold increase is extremely unlikely given the geological constraints.

Ther is no evidence for any structure (as you call it) cutting off the veins at depth, the issue is that deeper in the vein system would have been out of the range of scheelite / wolframite depositional temperatures . (Plenty of published information on this by BGS, especially Tom Sheppard et al.) In simple terms the vertical range of tungsten minetalization is limited to no more than around 175 - 200m and this has been already exposed in the northern drives on the Harding Vein system already.

Forc Crag had a published reserve base of 48,500t @ 2.33% Pb, 4.0% Zn (Report dated 1972). This is: a) low grade and b) about a weeks production from aan average modern zinc mine.

On the basis that the Force Crag Vein is geologically similar to the zinc-dominant mineralization in the Thornthwaite and Threlkeld veins which showed economic mineralization over vertical intervals of 175m and 280m respectively, Force Crag has defined similar mineralization over 150m (just above No. 3 Level down to Gunns Sump), so the potential does exist for deeper extensions. However tonnage and grade would be the inhibiting factors for a modern development.

Thanks once again Minegeo.

I now understand better, the geological constraints and that the odds of finding 10x the ore amount is rather slim.

Thanks also for the description on force crag. Looks like that is limited also.

Looks like mining in the lakes wont be restarting soon!

Thanks once again for your time.

Hi Martin
Just read your note on Carrock, well there is only one mine in that area and that is Brandy Gill it is a fair walk up to reach but it is worth an explore there are two entrances. It was a lead mine but not on a big scale there has been three trials of which lead to nothing. There is other mines on the Calbeck Fells most of which you can not get in to. You can get in to a few but they are wet. I hope this information is of use to you. By the way I once lived in Fort William 17 Wades Road the Cairns family
Peregrine

---