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Cornish mining 1900 - 1914 |
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One of the Old World’s greatest copper mines,
Devon Great Consols in the Tamar Valley, was finally abandoned in
1901. In west Cornwall a few large tin producers - mostly
concentrated in the Camborne and Redruth District - dominated the
Cornish mines that entered the twentieth century. Tin had doubled
in price within five years and the mines that survived were
reorganised and consolidated; although as a percentage of world
output, Cornish tin accounted for less than 5%.
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The alluvial tin deposits north of the St Austell
china clay district at Goss Moor, Tregoss Moor, Molinnis Moor,
Redmoor and Breney Common are the sites of the largest and most
important alluvial tin workings in Cornwall. Though worked from
prehistoric times, large scale mining in the early twentieth
century, using suction and bucket ladder dredges, was successful.
The London and West Country Chamber of Mines was formed in 1900 to
protect and promote Cornish Mining interests; this became the
still extant Cornish Chamber of Mines. High prices prompted the
reworking of old waste tips and some ventures met with swift
success, such as the new plant installed at Gunnislake Clitters in
the Tamar Valley.
Secondary tin streaming plants
along the Red River near Camborne prospered during these times
when the mills of large mines could still lose well over a third
of their tin in slimes that were discharged into the river. In the
years leading up to 1914 Dolcoath Mine (which closed in 1920) was
returning some of its highest ever levels of output; around a
quarter of United Kingdom production. By this time
South Crofty
Mine (finally closed for production in 1998) had established
itself and was a name that was to become synonymous with Cornish
tin for generations; indeed its name persists in Cornish mining
culture in the twenty-first century. |
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