>PEMBREY COPPERWORKS: The last of the copperworks in the region to be
established, it occupies a site beside the dock at Burry Port. It was
erected by the Birmingham firm of Mason & Elkington in 1849, and a lead and
silver works were added to the north in 1853.
I made some enquiries following Nat's earlier query on the list but, despite
there being regular references, in the standard works on copper smelting, I
was unable to find any local archival evidence for the early use of
electro-refining at Pembrey. The outline history of the copperworks and the
adjoining Parkes' lead/silver smelter, where the Parkes process for silver
concentration was developed, is well known, and there are numerous
references to the impact Mason and Elkington had on the locality, but not a
single mention on electro-refining of copper. Work by Thomas, 'Pembrey
parish, early industrial efforts', and Nicholson make no reference to the
process. I find this strange if the process did originate at Pembrey and
had a significant impact on the copper industry. Mason and Elkington were
certainly involved in electro-plating copper but that was carried out at
their Birmingham works, not at Pembrey.
However, Jake Almond, in his recent paper on copper flotation ('The Elmore
brothers and the flotation process for separating minerals', Historical
Metallurgy, vol. 34. pt. 1, (2000), pp. 31-46) makes reference to the
involvement of the Elmores in setting up electrolytic copper refineries
'near Swansea' in the 1880s. His source was Peter Jenkins, The Glasdir
expirment, 1987. Unfortunately, neither this work nor the 2nd edn., 1996,
expand on the role of the Elmore's in copper refining.
Peter
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Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 07831 427599
University of Exeter - Department of History
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list.
See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details.
Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
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