Eastgate Quarry, Eastgate, Stanhope, County Durham, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
Eastgate Quarry	Quarry (In Development)
Eastgate	Village
Stanhope	Civil Parish
County Durham	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

Eastgate Quarry, Eastgate, Weardale, County Durham, England, UK

The Blue Circle Cement Quarry worked an exposure of the Great Limestone on the south side of the Wear River, between the villages of Eastgate and Westgate. The quarry was operated by Blue Circle Industries (British public company) from the mid 1960s and was acquired by the French company Lafarge in 2001 and worked until closure in 2002-2003. It is the third source, along with the Heights Quarry and Rogerley Mine, of emerald green fluorite in Weardale. Fluorite crystals from the Cement Quarry are often paler green than either the Heights or Rogerley, and usually have a purplish gray cast due to internal purple color zones. Yellow, pale blue and purple fluorite are also found. Mineralization is found in flats associated with ore-bearing veins in exposures of the Great Limestone. No studies of mineralization in the quarry have been published, but it is likely that mineralization occurs along an extension of the Heights West Cross Vein on the south side of the River Wear.

In 2004, it was announced that a hot geothermal power plant would go ahead on the site of a former cement works. The geothermal plant was planned to heat the UK's first geothermal energy model village, the official working title being Eastgate Renewable Energy Village. But the plan fell through, and instead of the village a large outdoor set was built for the filming of the ITV series Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands, first broadcast in 2016.

The exploratory geothermal borehole drilled in December 2004 was the first to be completed in the United Kingdom for more than 20 years. The water temperature at a depth of 995 metres (ca. 3,264 ft) was found to be 46.2 °C, and it was estimated that the water temperature of a production borehole with a depth of about 1,800 metres (ca. 5,906 ft) would be in the range of 75–80 °C, with a volume of water similar to that already being exploited in the existing geothermal energy scheme in Southampton.

A new specimen mining operation called the "Lady Annabella mine" (named for Annabella Bruce, the daughter of Ian and Diana Bruce of UK Mining Ventures) started operating on fluorite veins in 2020. Specimen recovery from this mine began in July of that year.

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