An Introductory Guide to Collector Minerals
of |
Cornwall & Devon - Introduction
- Historical Background including photographs of |
An Introductory Guide to Collector Minerals
of |
Cornwall & Devon - Introduction
- Historical Background including photographs of |
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SITE LINKS
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Minerals of
Cornwall & Devon
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Closure of the South Crofty Mine near Camborne in the late 1990s, brought Cornish mining to an end. As is so often the case, it was driven out by economics, rather than by ore exhaustion. Earlier, Wheal Jane, near Truro, had produced excellent ludlamite specimens (type locality for the mineral) and the Geevor Mine, chalcocite specimens, before both mines succumbed to market forces. It was the tail-end of around 300 years of ore extraction and of collector-grade specimens from active mines exploiting the metalliferous mineralizations associated with the Cornish granitic batholith. The region retains its proud, mining tradition: Camborne is the centre for the School of Mines. Evidence of mining is manifested by the wheal houses that pepper much of the Cornish landscape. |
The best specimens have probably been mined - now in collections and museums around the world - or still remain in the bowels of the earth, awaiting an unlikely extraction... But it's not all doom and gloom! The region has a vast amount of tailings and dumps and the prospect of tungsten mining at Hemerdon, near Plympton, as recently announced (2008) may give future collectors something to pick over... Many dumps are forgotten and/or overgrown, lost to the expansions of modern living or are all too often well-picked over by collectors. Nonetheless, they occasionally yield the rare, the interesting and/ or unusual - though perhaps not always in hand specimen size. |
Examples include Penberthy Croft Mine, St. Hilary, Cornwall, which yielded some excellent, bayldonite crystals and other rare mineral species. Recently, good specimens of scorodite, arsenopyrite, barite and allophane have been recovered from sites in Devon. The deposits of China-Clay also produce, on occasions, an interesting array of common and rare species. A major, primary export resource for the region and the UK, they are centred around St. Austell, with its unique and distinctive landscape created by the mining operations and the "reclaimed for Nature" landscaping projects. |
CONNELLITE & Malachite |
CHALCOCITE - Carn Brea
Mine, Redruth, Cornwall. |
OLIVENITE - Wheal Gorland, St. Day, Cornwall. (view: 10x6mms). |
ARSENOPYRITE - Bedford
Consols, Tavistock, Devon. |
BARITE - Sidmouth, Devon. |
Tin & Much More... Cornwall and tin are synonymous and although cassiterite is an essential species in all Cornish collections, other common and very rare mineral species are also strongly represented. By merely mentioning a mineral species, Cornwall may regularly spring to mind. Several mines are noted for distinctive suites or assemblages of minerals. The famous copper arsenates, including liroconite, clinoclase, ceruleite, cornubite, cornwallite, as well as the associated species of scorodite, pharmacosiderite, cuprite and chenevixite from Wheal Gorland is one example. |
Classic
Localities, The mines and mineral localities recorded in the region are almost endless and several have passed into the annals for the superb specimens they have produced during their period of activity. Some individual specimens have also claimed their own fame. These include the amazing siderite/ fluorite/ quartz pseudo/epimorph specimen from the Virtuous Lady Mine in Devon. And from Cornwall, similar examples include the largest-known liroconite crystal from Wheal Gorland and the "sailboat" chalcocite specimen from the Levant Mine, St. Just. This latter example was voted by some as the world's most aesthetic specimen. |
Type
Localities The region is the type locality for a fair number of minerals and many of these are regarded as rare mineral species. Such examples include liroconite, chalcophyllite, cuprite and bournonite. In Devon, the native gold occurence of
Hope's Nose, Torbay - now within a nature reserve area - (ie- no
collecting!) Apart from the delicate specimens of gold it has produced, rare platinum and selenium minerals have also been recorded at the location. |
STRUNZITE - Gravel Hill
Mine, Perranzabuloe, Cornwall. |
LUDLAMITE - Wheal Jane,
Kea, Truro, Cornwall. |
CASSITERITE - United Downs
Mine, Gwennap, Cornwall. |
PHOSGENITE - Padstow, Cornwall. A 3mm tabular crystal on limonite. |
The geology of this part of the country lends itself more to the fossil collector - perhaps counter-balancing the profusion of minerals in the south-west in Cornwall and Devon. However, the area is not without some deposits of note and has its type locality species also. |
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The classic celestite deposit at Yate, near Bristol is one notable mineral occurence. Also noteworthy is the marcasite-crystal form pyrite found at Climping Beach in Sussex. Also in Sussex, one finds the type locality for the unusual species, aluminite, located near Peacehaven. In Kent, typical sedimentary occurences of gypsum, barite and pyrite are also of collector interest. Deserving special mention are the rare species found in the Mendip Hills in Somerset, such as diaboleite and mendipite. Mereheadite, parkinsonite and the more recently described new mineral species, symesite, also have their type locality in the area, at Merehead Quarry. The Mendip area also yields interesting specimens of some of the more common mineral species. Dulcote "picture stone" or polished agate is well-known and interesting specimens of goethite, quartz and calcite can also be found at the locality. |
QUARTZ - Dulcote Quarry,
Wells, Somerset. |
| References / Further Reading
(of
the more recent and accessible literature) Book Magazines/
Journals UK
Journal of Mines & Minerals (UKJMM) © Minerals of Scotland - 2008. |
SOUTHERN ENGLAND
