Wheal Pendarves, Killivose, Camborne, Cornwall, England, UKi

Regional Level Types
Wheal Pendarves	Mine (Inactive)
Killivose	- not defined -
Camborne	Civil Parish
Cornwall	County
England	Constituent Country
UK	Country

Located 1.5 km to the south of Camborne, Wheal Pendarves was a product of the 1960's resurgence of interest in Cornish Tin. There had been extensive, although largely unproductive, mining here through the nineteenth century, notably West Condurrow, Wheal Nelson and Wheal Tryphena, which had all closed by the 1870's. One of the few productive lodes had been the Tryphena Lode and in the 1960's exploration for its presumed western extension was carried out by Camborne Tin Ltd.

The results of this exploration were sufficiently encouraging for Simms Shaft to be sunk in 1967-68 followed by initial underground development. At that time, Simms was the first new shaft sunk in Cornwall for forty years. Production was negligible at this period and in 1970 one of the major shareholders - Union Corporation - withdrew support for the project. On 1st May 1970 Camborne Mines Ltd was formed to operate the mine.

No mill was erected at Pendarves. Instead, an existing tin streaming mill at Roscroggan (4km north of the mine) was purchased and modified to enable it to treat Pendarves ore, which was transported there by road. Some limited mining was undertaken on a trial basis in 1972 until early 1973 when the company went into receivership.

In June 1973, Pendarves was purchased by Great Western Ores Ltd, a subsidiary of South Crofty Ltd. The Roscroggan Mill was closed and thereafter the ore went to South Crofty mill for processing. Production was built up to around 40,000 tonnes per annum, but mined in very difficult conditions and in 1984 it was announced that Pendarves would go on to care and maintenance pending the results of an extensive drilling program to determine whether the mine could sensibly be developed. Acquisition by Carnon Consolidated caused this decision to be altered. While exploration was still a priority, the mine would be continued in operation, albeit at only modest levels of production.

Pendarves is working in the western extension of the Carn Brea granite ridge, at the point where it narrows and plunges into the killas. The mine workings show three main types of rock: a coarse-grained porphyry; an argillaceous-shale killas and various elvan dykes. Ore has been mined from two principal lodes, trending northeast to south-west. The Tryphena Lode is, in fact, a complex of seven known veins, four of which have been the mainstay of the southern section of the mine. Typically these veins average 1 metre in width and dip at 75 degrees to the south-east. In some areas the granite wall rocks are strongly kaolinised and haematised, causing severe mining problems.

North of Simms Shaft lies the Harriet Lode, which is again a collective name for in this case at least ten veins. At depth, these veins converge to form a single lode 1.5 metres wide and dipping 50 degrees to the south-east. Mining conditions in the Harriet Lode are much better than those of Tryphena Lode, but only a minority of the mine's production has been won from north of the shaft.

Additionally, limited exploration has been undertaken on the Q7, Q7A, Frasers and Killivose Lodes, but the potential of these is largely unproven.

Simms Shaft was originally sunk to a depth of 260 metres, through very weak ground which entailed concrete lining throughout. Somewhat curiously the shaft was rectangular in cross-section, rather than the more typical circular section of modern shafts. This gave access down to 5 level. During 1976, the shaft was sunk by 10 metres to allow the development of 6 level. In 1981 a winze was sunk from 6 to 7 level, lateral development completed under the shaft sump and a raise put up to deepen the shaft to serve 7 level which, at 305 metres is the present depth of working. Expenditure of £90,000 was approved for this development.

The majority of production has come from 5 level and above. By 1978, the Tryphena Lode on 6 level had been found generally poor. When deepened in 1981, this lode proved similarly unpromising on 7 level.

Development and stoping have been largely traditional. The former uses hand-held pneumatic drills and rocker shovels, loading to wagons hauled by battery electric locomotives. Stoping methods have been largely restricted to shrinkage stoping - because of the often weak wall rocks - with ore being fed to wagons via 'Cousin Jack' chutes. In recent years some draw point stopes have been introduced.

Ore is not crushed underground but raised in a counterbalanced skip/cage system for primary crushing on surface and storage prior to being despatched by road.

Pendarves is a wet mine, pumping typically 1-1.5 million gallons per day from 5 level. The combination of kaolinised wall rocks and water means that, especially in Typhena Lode, the broken ore is a sludge, which creates severe handling problems at every stage.

In 1984 Pendarves came close to closure, having virtually run out of developed ore ready for stoping. The future of the mine cannot be predicted with any certainty, but the increased level of exploration and development expenditure which is being undertaken offers the only hope of establishing whether any future is possible.

The above text is taken from a Carnon Consolidated prospectus published just prior to the tin price crash of 1985.

Pendarves was one of the first casualties of this event and was closed in 1985. The site was subsequently cleared of buildings and equipment, leaving only the dumps, that did yield some mineral specimens.

Recently the site was purchased, the dumps cleared and is now (2017) an equestrian centre.

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Specimens obtained from Wheal Pendarves during its final working period are sometimes misleadingly labelled as coming from Wheal Bounty, a mine located within the lease area operated by Pendarves Mine, although Pendarves did not connect to the old Wheal Bounty workings.

Thus, they are more correctly described as coming from Wheal Pendarves.

These specimens closely resemble material derived from the Harriet Lode.

Geochronology

Geologic Time				Rocks, Minerals and Events
Phanerozoic
	Paleozoic
		Permian
			Guadalupian	ⓘ Major polymetallic mineralization ~270 Ma Cornwall, England, UK
			Cisuralian	ⓘ Porphyry dikes intruded (latest age) ~275 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Greisenization (latest age) ~280 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Porphyry dikes intruded (earliest age) ~280 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Formation of metallized pegmatites ~285 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Greisenization (earliest age) ~285 Ma Cornwall, England, UK ⓘ Emplacement of major plutons ~295 Ma Cornwall, England, UK

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References