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June, 1944

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The new ore field of Cumberland is that south of Beckermet, in the Calder Bridge and Gosforth area. Nearly a hundred boreholes were put down before it was decided to sink Haile Moor shaft in August, 1939, to tap part of this field. This sinking is 780 ft. deep. The shaft is elliptical, 21 by 12 ft., with a 9 in. dividing wall and acts as both downcast and upcast, with a single inlet Keith Blackman centrifugal fan, 4 ft. in dia. and 20,000 c.f.m. capacity on the surface at the upcast side. In opening out and working this mine, ventilation will be a primary consideration.

In recent years old mines in the Egremont and Cleator Moor area have been reopened. Wyndham mine at Bigrigg is producing again and so is Crowgarth at Cleator Moor. In conjunction with the latter, a borehole pump of 2,000 g.p.m. capacity and driven by a 360 h.p. 3,000 V induction motor is working 405 ft. down the old Stirlings No. 4 shaft. This was the mine which ceased working in 1923 and was unique in this country in the fact that iron ore miners turned left at the bottom of the shaft and colliers turned right.

In remining these old areas, water problems are very acute and usually a central pumping plant has to be used, as the one described above. Two new shafts have been sunk in old areas in the last few years. Exploration around Frizington was again tried recently by two separate firms. One of these sank a small exploration shaft to a depth of 70 ft., drove 25 ft. north and 35 ft. south to reach a fault in each case and then explored along the fault this undertaking has been abandoned, however.

In the upper coal measures at Millyeat, near Frizington, a bed deposit of hematite was worked many years ago. No details are known. This is the only deposit in this area in the coal measures.

Throughout the history of Cumberland there have been geological complications — finding the ore only to lose it again — and the cost of exploration has been a major item. However, Cumberland was early this century a thriving ore mining area and now it appears to have regained some of its former glory. Much ore is left and it is to be hoped that it will be able to compete successfully with foreign competitors after the war and not have its doom sealed by high royalties, costly ore transport to the furnaces, and other financial burdens.

Scotland

Hematite has been worked in the past in odd veins and beds in Scotland. Small quantities of hematite were produced at Tomintoul, Banffshire, in the 18th century. There have been various mines in Kirkcudbrightshire, where ore lies in the Old Red Sandstone. The most important mines were at Pennel Burn, Ayrshire, and Garleston, where ore lies in the lower carboniferous lava flows. The latter produced 10,280 tons in 1874. There are indications of former mining activity in the Orkneys and Shetlands.

Miscellaneous unstratified ores

At many points in England and Wales there are small orebodies, mostly hematites, but some being precarboniferous. Some have been worked, whilst others are purely of geological interest. None are economically important.

Hematites are found at isolated places at Ambleside, and Alston in Cumberland, and the Cross Fell, Stanhope and Wearhead areas in the Pennines. The ore is in veins, generally in the Great Limestone, with some flats. Sometimes galena is present also.

Hematite is found and has been worked in the carboniferous limestone at Redesdale in Northumberland; and at Hand Dale and Fryden Dale in Derbyshire.

Pre-carboniferous ores are found in Anglesea near to Holyhead Bay and near to Beaumaris and disused quarries in these areas show that they were worked many years ago. In North Wales, they are found at Bangor, Snowdon, in the north and south corners of the Lleynn Peninsula, north of Harlech and farther south at Cader Idris, Dolgelly and Aran Fawddry, and also between Mold and Rhyl.

An isolated pocket of hematite in the Manx Slates of the Isle of Man is of interest. It is situated at Maughold Head at the southern tip of Ramsey Bay. During, and after the last war it was worked by Bell Brothers of Middlesbrough at the South Port Mooar mine. In 1917 there were seven men employed underground, ten in 1918 and nine in 1919. There were two other small separate mines also at Maughold. Soon after 1920, however, these operations ceased, but in 1938 prospecting for iron ore was again being conducted. However, the discontinuous bunchy nature of the ore and the frequent thinning of the veins make the prospect of any future large scale activity unlikely.

In South Wales, hematite has been found at Trecastle, Bute Mwydny and Llanharry. The first three are vein-like formations, whilst the Llanharry deposit is an irregular flat overlain only by unconformable superficial deposits and surrounded by carboniferous limestone. The Llanharry deposit is still being worked and in 1938 it employed 315 men underground and 104 on the surface. It is mined in a similar way to the Cumberland deposits of this sort. Between 1910 and 1925, some 920,000 tons of hematite were raised from Llanharry.

Stratified ores

It is from the mesozoic stratified ironstones that the principal tonnages are now obtained. Since the latter part of the last century the rate of increase of output grew rapidly until the last war and possibly at the moment the output is higher than ever before. These ores cover a considerable area of England and consist of a few main fields and other isolated parts of no great economic importance which have produced ironstone and in some cases still produce small quantities. Some of these, the Weald and various Coal Measure ironstones, for instance, were very important in earlier times. A very high percentage of the total output is now obtained from the Jurassic rocks, at various horizons (see Table III).

Coal Measure ironstones

These are the only stratified primary rocks of any economic importance. In most coalfields, clayband and blackband ironstones were formerly of great importance, though only small tonnages are now mined. In 1857, 80 per cent, of Britain's ores were obtained from the argillaceous ironstones of the carboniferous rocks, but in 1890 the figure was just under 17 per cent. These ironstones occur as nodules in the beds of shale and fireclay or sometimes as thin veins of ironstone a few inches thick interspersed within the shale. They vary in colour from light grey to black.

The only area where any appreciable outputs are now obtained is in South Staffordshire, in the Hednesford and Cannock Chase area, though only about 2,000 tons per annum are now obtained. Small amounts are brought up from collieries at Temple Newsham, Yorkshire, Wolstanton, North Staffordshire; six collieries in Warwickshire, and at Dudley in Worcestershire. Though there are potentially very large reserves of iron-bearing material in the coal measures, they are difficult to extract from the shale nodules and are now of little economic importance. The beds are of a lenticular nature and the blackband ores contain much less argillaceous matter than the claybands.

In the South Wales coalfield there are numerous thin ironstone bands in the lower coal measures from which large quantities of ore were formerly obtained from the Ebbw Fach valley, Ebbw Vale, the Taft and Cynon valleys, Cwmavan and Maesteg and Pembrokeshire. In 1872, over 1,100,000 tons were raised, but in 1890 the output was only 40,000 tons. Similarly, Coalbrookdale in Shropshire was once an important producer. South Staffordshire produced 715,451 tons in 1875 and 41,063 tons in 1890, and the Middle Coal Measures contain many ironstone bands, some over a foot thick. North Staffordshire was the highest producer in 1890, the ironstone being obtained from these measures, chiefly from the Red Shagg, Bassey Mine and Half Yards Ironstones. Similarly, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham at one time produced large amounts of coal measure ironstones. From Yorkshire there have been considerable amounts of coal measure ironstones raised. The famous Low Moor cold blast pig iron was produced from the Blackbed ironstone, which was worked until recently. Also the Tankersley and Thorncliffe areas have produced considerable amounts. Small amounts of coal measure ironstones have also been produced from Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Cumberland and from North Wales. The North Wales areas were at Ruabon and other parts of Denbighshire, Flintshire and Carnarvonshire.

From 1850 to 1885, Scotland averaged about two million tons per year of ironstones from various horizons from the calciferous sandstone to the coal measures mostly from Ayr, Edinburgh, Fife, Lanark and Linlithgow, with the peak about 1884. In 1937, 2,795 tons were produced, mostly from Linlithgow and Lanarkshire, with the rest from Edinburgh, Fife and Stirling, and only 90 tons from Ayr.

The getting of all coal measure ironstone is now limited to gate rippings, an operation incidental to the getting of the coal. The ripping (occasionally dinting) dirt is stowed into gate side packs, but first of all the ironstone nodules are extracted, loaded into tubs and sent out of the pit.

In Ireland, the aluminous ores of Antrim have long been known, but never largely worked. Maximum production of all Irish ores was 239,325 tons in 1880, whilst the figure was 41,103 tons in 1914 (from Antrim) and 54,533 tons in 1917, with an average iron content of 38 per cent. There are no ores of any great economic importance. Concretionary iron carbonate is common in the upper carboniferous shales, but it is difficult to work owing to the amount of associated material that must be moved during its extraction. The richest ground is around Loch Allen. Smelting was carried on by means of charcoal in the 16th and 17th centuries and later with coal from the few local collieries. The ore contains about 35 per cent, of iron. A valuable bed of blackband ironstone 15 in. thick associated with thin coal was until recently worked near Ballycastle, Co. Antrim. It contains 30 per cent. of iron and sufficient carbonaceous matter for calcination. The most profitable ores of Ireland are the bedded laterite ores of the tertiary basaltic series of Co. Antrim and were regularly mined during the last war.

Also in Ireland, gothite, magnetite, hematite and bog iron ore have been mined at different places. The latter is exported for the purification of gas.

Drawings and Photographs accompanying the article