Geevor Tin Mine
Victory shaft headgear
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| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Pendeen |
| County | Cornwall |
| Country | England, United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 50°09′09″N 005°40′33″W / 50.15250°N 5.67583°WCoordinates: 50°09′09″N 005°40′33″W / 50.15250°N 5.67583°W |
| Production | |
| Products | Tin |
| History | |
| Opened | 1911 |
| Closed | 1990 |
| Owner | |
| Website | http://www.geevor.com/ |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | ii, iii, iv |
| Designated | 2006 (30th session) |
| Reference no. | 1512 |
| State Party | United Kingdom |
| Region | Europe and North America |
Geevor Tin Mine, formerly North Levant Mine is a tin mine in the far west of Cornwall, United Kingdom, between the villages of Pendeen and Trewellard. It was operational between 1911 and 1990 during which time it produced about 50,000 tons of black tin. It is now a museum and heritage centre left as a living history of a working tin mine. The museum is an Anchor Point of ERIH, The European Route of Industrial Heritage. Since 2006, the mine has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape.
Tin and copper have been mined from the general area of Geevor since the late 18th century. It was originally a small enterprise known as Wheal an Giver, "a piece of ground occupied by goats". The area was worked under the name of East Levant Mine until 1840 and then as North Levant from 1851 to 1891 when it closed. During the 1880s as many as 176 workers were employed at the mine, but in the ten years after North Levant's closure the site saw only intermittent activity by a few miners.
At the turn of the 20th century a group of St. Just miners who had emigrated to South Africa were forced to return by the outbreak of the Second Boer War. They leased the area and conducted more thorough prospecting, being encouraged enough to set up a company called Levant North (Wheal Geevor) in 1901. This was acquired by the West Australian Gold Field Company Ltd. in 1904 which brought together various mines under the name of Geevor Tin Mines Ltd. in 1911, not long after the price of tin had rapidly risen to £181 a ton in 1906 from a low of £64 in 1896.
The Wethered shaft (named after Oliver Wethered, one of the founders of the mine) was begun in 1909 and initial development occurred around it. By 1919, the works were moving west toward the coastline and the Victory shaft (named to celebrate the end of the First World War) was sunk about 540 metres to the north-west. The mine suspended operations in 1921 and again for 12 months during the tin crisis in 1930 that permanently closed many other Cornish mines. In 1944 working through Wethered shaft was discontinued, but the Victory shaft continued in use.
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Wikipedia