Dear All,
Further to Peters' thorough reply: in Mid-Wales the Darren mines galena was
very rich in Tetrahedrite (Mason pbls.). Also the Esgairmwyn Mine had the
interesting deviation from most if not all the Mid-Wales mines, in that the
silver content was increasing with depth (in galena) - and the mine was
significantly deep for this area. It has been intimated that an original
orebody depth/extent indicator can be taken from this (allowing for glacial
erosion): if this be right and the theory correct, a significant portion of
the orebodies were removed by erosion or they were not of appreciable depth
anyway in some cases. I am not going to put my head on the block too much
with this!!! - I am interested in the theory and think there is a valid
point.
Don't forget that silver in varying quantities (some significant), was found
in zinc: the smelters knew about this but kept quiet! - so records of Zn/Ag
results will be negligible until 'quite late' into the 1900's - mind you, it
was to the advantage of the mine operators to keep quiet even if they did
know! Just a few interesting points that might be of interest I hope!
In the past, quite a bit of 'all sorts' of ore was sent to smelters described
and logged as lead or zinc, but who knows now exactly what it was, what came
out of it , and who benefited! - but I doubt that most mineral owners knew
anything about it!
Regards, Bernard.
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