St Just Mining District, Cornwall
The St Just mining district is in Cornwall, north and west of the town of St Just . It covers a strip about 6 kilometers long and 2 kilometers wide directly on the coast of the Atlantic . The northernmost mine of the district is the Pendeen Consols Mine near the Pendeen Lighthouse , the southernmost is the Letcha Mine not far from Cape Cornwall where a memorial in the form of a chimney reminds of the history of mining in this region. The area is part of the Cornwall and West Devon mining landscape , which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006 .
The area is disregarded as the origin of cliff mining. This fact, as well as the worldwide leading position in the mining of copper in the 18th century, underlines the historical importance of this area. Many small pits are lined up along the coastline, with some large ones in between, such as the Botallack Mine or the Levant Mine . Due to the remoteness of this region, many relics from this time have been preserved.
geology
The subsoil in this area consists largely of slate and green stone , into which granite has penetrated. The granite caused the tin and copper ores to settle in the high-yielding ore veins . In total, over 150 different minerals have been found in the area's pits, including cassiterite ( tin stone ), chalcosine ( copper luster ), chalcopyrite ( copper pyrites ) and bornite .
These high-yield veins run more or less perpendicular to the coast, almost vertical and have a width of about one meter. The highest ore concentrations are found by or under the sea, they quickly become less productive towards the inland. This distribution resulted in many tunnels running under the sea. There were pits on the coast as far as St. Ives , but they were much smaller and less profitable than those in the St Just area. Further inland, mining took place only at Leswidden (about 3 kilometers east) of St Just.
history
Tin and copper have been mined here for around 2000 years . Until the mid-16th century, miners worked the alluvial tin deposits in the valleys around St Just and on the open ore veins along the coast. Mining in significant quantities began around 1820. The small town of St Just quickly transformed into a metropolitan area, the population rose from 2,779 in 1801 to 9,290 in 1861.
The mining area began to decline around 1866 when the price of copper dropped significantly as new ore deposits were found overseas. As a result, many mines were closed and the miners and their families left Cornwall to find work. Since the mining in the ore mines in this area was very demanding, the Cornish miners were in demand all over the world and the St Just mining area was known all over the world. Between 1841 and 1901, about one million migrants left England and Wales , the vast majority of whom were miners. In the United States in particular, many Cornish miners found work. These migrated miners were known as cousin jacks . The origin of this was either that they asked about employment for their cousin Jack, who still lives in Cornwall, or because the Cornish miners called each other cousin and Jack was the most common name among them.
The mines near the Geevor Mine , which was still active at the time, were reactivated again between 1960 and 1970 in order to find new deposits. However, the low raw material price and the lack of large deposits made these activities fall asleep again. With the closure of the Geevor mine in 1990, there was no more active mining in the St Just district. In total, the area contains the remains of around 64 pits, some of which are still partially preserved. Some mines have become the property of the National Trust . A visitor center with a working steam engine is maintained by the National Trust in the Levant Mine . The Geevor Mine also has a visitor center operated by the National Heritage Memorial Fund . Since the mine was closed quite late, the existing machinery could be preserved.
In addition to the Levant and Geevor mine with their visitor centers, the Botallack mine east of St Just, which was founded in 1721 and closed in 1914 , is particularly worth mentioning . It was one of the largest mines of its time; in 1870 530 people were employed here. Today there are still some buildings on top of the cliff, but also some ruins very deep down on the cliff edge. On Cape Cornwall there is a memorial in the shape of a brick chimney that commemorates the days of active mining in the area.
Mining and Environment
The mining of the copper and tin deposits had a strong impact on nature in the region. The mining and treatment of ore resulted in severe air pollution from the coal fires used to operate the steam engines and rotary kilns, as well as the calcination of the ore, which produces toxic gases. Furthermore, large spoil heaps were created around the mines, where only very specialized plants could survive. The poisonous arsenic in the ore , some of which was deposited in such large quantities that it was worth selling, also caused severe pollution. The water that was pumped out of the mines and used for surface ore treatment also contained poisons and heavy metals that were deposited in the area. A lot of wood from the area was needed to build the tunnels, so many forests were cut down during the active period.
In the literature
The area and its history are processed in Hammond Innes ' thriller The Killer Mine (German title: Die Todesmine ). Sometimes the geology of the area is also discussed. At the center of the plot is the (fictional) Wheal Garth mine near the Botallack mine , which is used for alcohol smuggling .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Overview of the mines in the area ( Memento from August 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.intocornwall.com/engine/azabout.asp?id=67&code=b Information about the Botallack mine
- ↑ http://www.landsendarea.co.uk/540_mininggeology.htm Mines & Geology
- ↑ http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/mines/st-just-area/St-Just.htm
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/england/cornwall/article_1.shtml BBC article, The Cornish Diaspora. I'm alright Jack
- ↑ http://www.geevor.com/index.php?object=206 Information from Geevor Zinn Museum
- ↑ http://www.geevor.com/
- ↑ http://www.intocornwall.com/engine/azabout.asp?id=67&code=b
- ↑ http://www.historic-cornwall.org.uk/flyingpast/industry.html Cornwall's Industrial Past
- ↑ http://www.landsendarea.co.uk/540_mininggeology.htm St Just Heritage area
- ↑ D. Banks, PL Younger, R.-T. Arnesen, ER Iversen, SB Banks: Mine-water chemistry: the good, the bad and the ugly. Environmental Geology, 1997.
Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 12 " N , 5 ° 40 ′ 56" W.