Following on from the email I sent to the list yesterday, here is some info which comes from another mailing list I am on. I hope its of interest to list members.
All the best
Roger
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I did the tourist trip into South Crofty at the beginning of February.
They take you to see the winding gear on top of the Cooks Kitchen shaft and
into the winding house to see the winding engine and all the cable wound
back on the drum. The cages are out of the shaft and lying on the ground.
They then take you down the Tuckingmill decline to a depth of about 150
feet. In the distance you can see the water level where it has flooded back
up the incline. You then clime up into the old North Tincroft Lode and you
can walk along the bottom of the stopes. Its not exactly hard core sub brit
but its still worth a trip. It takes about two hours in all and costs £5
weekdays and £7.50 on Saturday. You need to book on 01209 715777
They have a very interesting business plan in terms of reopening the mine.
It seems to consist of building some 250 houses on the site. This will give
them the money to build a new processing/separator plant for extracting the
tin. From what I hear processing was performed at Wheal Jane mine due to
pollution problems with the South Crofty site and that prior to closure all
the ore was trucked to Wheal Jane. They are then going to process the tin
that is above the water table and as the world price of tin goes up they are
going to pump out the water to get at the deeper tin.
I am told that there are still extensive tunnels above the water table which
are accessible. You also used to be able to get back up the main drainage
adit. My contact said that it was hard going as you were fighting against
the out flowing water. The adit wonders all around under Camborne before
reaching South Crofty as it drains a number of other (old) mines in the
area.
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