South Caradon Mine, Caradon Hill, St Cleer, Cornwall, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
South Caradon Mine	Mine (Abandoned)
Caradon Hill	Hill
St Cleer	Civil Parish
Cornwall	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

A copper mine.

Very extensive remains of dumps, dressing floors, engine houses and other structures in River Seton valley, to the north of Crow's Nest.
Started 1833 and closed 1886. Produced over 200,000 tons of copper ore.

The mine site occupies the southern flank of Caradon Hill and the valley of the River Seaton where the river cuts the hillside north to south. The other mines seen on the western side of the valley moving around to the north are West Caradon, Craddock Moor, and Gonamena.

It was the presence of alluvial cassiterite (tin oxide) in the river valley that originally attracted miners who established the Gonamena stream works. Later a company was formed with the intention of hard rock mining for tin, but it was underfunded and unsuccessful. Under the ownership of Mr. James Clymo and his son Peter the site was prospected for copper as that had previously been tentatively exploited by opencast drift mines. In 1834 a copper lode was struck from an adit driven in the valley’s eastern side. This was worked from Sump Shaft which remained active throughout the life of the mine and became the deepest shaft on the mine sett at 250 fathoms.

Before the venture was finally wound up in 1886 a second and more productive copper lode was found to the south and in all around 218,000 tons of 10% copper ore was raised making it the 6th most productive copper mine in Cornwall.

The northern ‘Main’ lode is marked by the ruins of Sump Shaft, Pearce’s Shaft, and Engine Shaft, which trace the line of the lode up the steep hillside.

The southern lode was more a collection of lodes along the southern flank of the hill: Clymo’s, Jope’s, Kitford’s, Holman’s (all named after directors of the company) and Caunter Lode (caunter being a term that refers to a lode that runs at an offset angle to the main lode, in this case, a northerly underlie whereas the other lodes underlie 20° south). These are marked by ruins at Jope’s Shaft (where the well-preserved chimney stands in the valley), Holman’s (where the archway over the tramline remains) and Kitto’s in the far east of the sett.

Geochronology

Geologic Time				Rocks, Minerals and Events
Phanerozoic
	Paleozoic
		Permian
			Guadalupian	ⓘ Major polymetallic mineralization ~270 Ma Cornwall, England, UK
			Cisuralian	ⓘ Porphyry dikes intruded (latest age) ~275 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Greisenization (latest age) ~280 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Porphyry dikes intruded (earliest age) ~280 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Formation of metallized pegmatites ~285 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Greisenization (earliest age) ~285 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Emplacement of major plutons ~295 Ma Cornwall, England, UK

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References