UK Grid Reference: SW786560
Latitude: 50°21'41"N
Longitude: 5°6'47"W
An iron mine on the Perran Iron Lode, started in the middle of the 19th century and worked intermittently until the second world war. The lode, which passed about 30 yards south of Treamble farm, was originally worked from two open cuts, located SW and SE of the farm, respectively. When the western pit was excavated, a NS-trending lead lode was exposed which is believed to represent the southern extension of Trebellan lode that also was worked a little further north by North Retallack Mine. The lode is said to have intersected with the Perran Iron Lode, close to which it carried native silver and silver ores.
The pits opened up the lode on an overall length of 235 yards. The extent of workings in the western pit is not exactly known, because it was backfilled early. The eastern pit, also known as Garden quarry, was 60 ft deep and up to 120 ft wide. Later on, shallow shafts were sunk along the strike of the lode, but not much further underground development was carried out. Dines notes that the very limited amount of stoping shown on the mine plans, and the exposures in the eastern pit do not justify the reports by contemporary authors about the amount and quality of the ores raised.
The early period of activity ended around 1892 and the mine lay idle until 1937, when it was taken over by Lloyd's Perran Iron Company. A new pit, 250 yards long and 150 yards wide, was excavated to a depth of about 20 ft in the eastern part of the sett. However, no continuous orebodies were encountered and the lode, which was expected to be about 40 ft wide, was not thicker than 14 ft. In 1940, after about 4,000 tons of ore had been raised, the workings were abandoned and the mine was taken over by the Home Ores Department, who did some further development and continued working it until 1943.
The area has now been converted into a caravan park. The pits are backfilled and there are no traces of the mine workings left. The grid reference marks the site where the eastern pit was located.
From 1859 to 1892, the mine produced 15,300 tons of brown iron ore, 958 tons of mixed brown iron and spathic ore, 32 tons of 75% lead ore, 7 tons of 40% zinc ore and 130 oz of silver. From 1937 to 1940, 4,000 tons of iron ore were raised, and another 15,000 tons of ore are recorded for the last period of activity between 1940 and 1943. In addition, up to 500 tons per year of fullers earth were produced from decomposed killas.
References
- A.K. Hamilton Jenkin: Annotations to Ordnance Survey map, scale 1:10,000, sheet 48NW.
- Dines, H.G. (1956): The metalliferous mining region of south-west England. HMSO Publications (London), Vol. 1, pp. 439, 443-444.
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