SOUTH CROFTY MINE - Speculation Heralds British Mining Boom

Western United Mines, the mining company involved in bringing Cornwalls last tin mine back  to production, has recently announced the discovery of  a variety of metals firstly gold and now the rare and valuable mineral Indium.

The variety of minerals present in the massive ore deposits of this mine are well recorded, as working in the numerous ore veins has been carried out since the middle ages.


I first worked in South Crofty in 1969 at the age of 19 years, the methods at that time were very old fashioned and the manual work and the heat were truly extreme.

South Crofty Mine - My little Eimco 12b Air Shovel - Complex Lode - 1973

Whether these announcements are to encourage funding or investment is at this time uncertain, but there are certainly some less popular minerals present.

Discovering beautiful crystals and collecting minerals to keep or sell is a  little bonus of working in a mine.  On reflection it sounds a little mad but one of those samples included Pitchblende (Uraninite), This could be cut out of a crosscourse in a Tin vein with a knife.

Pitchblende

 Before the 1980's there was no legislation about exposure underground from radiation, the mine environment it seems was far more dangerous than the actual rock samples.  Radon Gas is the second biggest cause of Lung Cancer in the world , in the Cornish Mines it is associated with the granite, poor ventilation and water particularly in old mine workings.

I recently posted to the Cornish Miners Association website to encourage older miners to have at least regular chest X-Rays. The type of Cancer I have is slow moving and is the type associated with Radon Gas.

The potential for a mining boom in Britain is far greater now and a wonderful way out of recession.  Metal prices are high, there are many areas where the metals used in new technology are certain to be present in old mining areas.   A natural resources and mining programme is required, to highlight areas for exploration, nationalisation of all mineral rights to include the Royal households control over Gold and Silver mining.  Britain probably is faced with a ten year window for the use of fossil fuels, until alternative technology comes on stream, it seems only commonsense to extract the maximum  amount of Coal and Oil in that period.

I do hope that South Crofty will be a successful and a safer mine very soon and that this will be the beginning of a great boom for mining in the United Kingdom.