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West Caradon Mine Timeline 
 
 
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South Caradon East Caradon Gonamena Caradon LC Railway LLU Canal
1837 to 1886 85,011 tonnes of ore produced
The Start 
    1837 
    The success of the adjacent South Caradon mine encourages trials on the West Caradon set.Some copper was found but work was abandoned.  

    1839  
    New lease is granted , work is restarted and is soon sucessll. 

    1841  
    First copper sales is reported of 38 tons Allen 
    The mine is to become the second of the profitable mines in the area after an outlay of £5140 

    1844 
    Elliots shaft is sunk  

    1846 
    Recorded Production peaks at 47036 tons. 

    1846-1855 
    Production exceeds that of South Caradon. 
The Mine in 1854 
From figures in Allen 
Shares 256 ,Dues 1/15th 
Original outlay £5120 
Tons ore produced 4026 tons for £37536 
Monthly cost £2360 
Employees : 
Men 406 Women and children 194 
Number of engines and largest : 
4 ,30 inch  with a 50" being installed 
Dividends 1854: £6912 
Largest before £13,440 
Total profits to 1855: £63060 
Landowner: W Fookes family and F Hender 
Purser E A Crouch 
Captains; R Dunstan, H Taylor J Buzza J Bennett 
Engineer M Loam
 
    1860s The Decline Starts 

    1860 
    30" engine is erected to open up new ground in the Western part of the set. Production starts to fall. 

    1864 
    Mine is reported as only just  covering its costs. Sprago 
    The reserves in the Eastern part of the sett are becoming exausted. 
     
     
    1869 
    Fall in production is temporarily halted.. 

  
The mine in 1865 
Thomas Sprago 
"From an outlay of £10,000 this mine has divided in profit £1000,000 she has been worked for about 20 years, which would ,without compound interest, give £5000 a year, or 50 per cent upon the outlay. While the selling value is quoted a little under the outlay, In a mine of this magnitude, with shafts at 170 fathoms below the adit, with apparently skillful management, as is evidenced by the agents taking advantages of the cross courses for sinking their shafts with greater speed and economy, with 8 to 10 lodes already discovered, and natural facilities for cross cutting those productive granite rocks it would be contrary to the general course of things to suppose that there is not yet a successful career open to the proprietors of West Caradon" 
 
 
1870s The mine falls silent 
    1870  
    Three engines are sold, work is commenced in Western part of the sett based on Marina's shaft. 

    1873 
    Production again starts to fall. 

    1874 
    Sett is  abandoned

 Falling reserves,falling prices 
Not also had the mine been struggling with diminishing reserves but copper prices had been dropping since 1860. By 1873 the price per ton for its ore had dropped by over £4 a ton, losing half its value.
1880s Final attempt at a re-work 
 
    1880 
    Mine re-opens with the Western part of sett operated as New West Caradon . Both mines under the Management of "John Watson & Others"
    1886  
    last record of copper  closed coincides with South Caradon stopping its pumps.  

    1886-1889 
    West Caradon mines adventurers and New West Caradon Mines adventures are shown as owners but no copper production is recorded.

 New West Caradon 
Based on Rickard's and Marina's shaft this mine operated under the Same management as West Caradon from 1880 onwards. It only produced 293 tons of copper raising £939.5 with a maximum of 59 tons in 1881.  
The number of staff employed was correspondingly low with the most being  28 in 1881.   

Chief agents of the mine:  

  • John Watson
  • Nich Richards
  • Jas kelly
Secretary 
  • WH Watson
Ref Burt 0223
 
Production Production of copper in tons 

1845 to closure 
Based on figures in Burt ref 0225
The graph shows how quickly the mines production fell in the 1860's as its reserves in its Eastern section were exhausted. The red line marks 1862, the period of Webb and Geaches report on the mine. The fall was briefly arrested in the Early 1870's but had ceased completely by 1874.
 
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