MINE TOURS DRAW HUGE CROWDS

 It was a vision from the past and glimpse of the future at South Crofty Mine on Saturday as hundreds of people went back down the mine.

The second annual South Crofty Open Day offered free underground tours and nearly a thousand visitors took advantage of the unique opportunity to see how close the mine is to re-starting full tin production by donning helmets and looking at the current developments for themselves.

Support for the event came not just from local residents and holidaymakers but also from representatives of all the surrounding mines – Geevor, King Edward Mine and the Cornish Mines and Engines group – as well as from local Liberal Democrat MPs Andrew George and Julia Goldsworthy.

Baseresult Holdings Ltd owns South Crofty mine and the company’s managing director, Kevin Williams, said he was delighted so many people had shown such enthusiasm and solidarity.

“Last year was our first ‘Open Day’ and we were overwhelmed with the interest it created,” said Kevin. “This year even more people wanted to go underground to see the progress we are making. 

“There is clearly a great deal of continuing local and national interest in what we are doing and I was personally very pleased and proud to be able to talk to so many visitors about all that is going on.  It is a very exciting time for both the company and Cornwall.  There is no better way to regenerate this area than by providing a huge and sustained boost to the local economy with full-scale tin production and that is exactly what we are on track to do.”

Mary Pearson from Leicester has been visiting her brother in Helston. She took her whole family on the underground tour because she wanted to see a “proper working tin mine”.

“It was fantastic,” said Mary, “It was so informative to see all the tunnels from the 1800s to the new one they’re mining now and to clearly see the fool’s gold, copper and tin in the rocks. We had a bit of a wait and were covered in mud but it was definitely worth it.”

Trevor Perkins from Gloucester is a mine enthusiast and a member of a caving club near his home. He said he was very impressed with what he had seen underground and would be trying to arrange a special visit for his caving club.

Catherine Allen and Steven Gajardo, from Lanner, were equally enthusiastic.

“It’s very exciting,” said Catherine.  “Neither of us have ever been on an underground tour before and to see the mine for ourselves has been fantastic.  We both want to come again.”

On top of the mine tours the Open Day offered a whole list of attractions including pot throwing, a blacksmith’s forge, a working replica of The Puffing Devil Engine, Richard Trevithick’s first successful self-propelled vehicle, face painting, a bouncy castle, craft stalls and traditional Cornish music and dancing performed by Wildworks.

A series of competitions with a mining theme were also hard fought during the day including hand drilling, wellie boot throwing and the most demanding of all, wagon loading.

Working against the clock, pairs of men were invited to fill mine wagons with loose stones before pushing them along a length of mine track and emptying them. The winners were brothers Mark and Clark Frost from Redruth who achieved the task in 6 minutes 6 seconds – narrowly beating Robert Smith and Steve Tarrant from the Camborne School of Mines who filled and emptied their wagon in 6 minutes 15 seconds. Mark and Clark were each presented with a 36 pint box of beer provided by Skinners Brewery.

For those wanting more information about South Crofty’s future the mine’s directors were on had to answer questions and explain the reasons behind the recent rise in demand for tin.  A petition in support of re-starting tin mining, which contained more than 600 names, was presented to Baseresult’s directors by local councillors Stuart Cullimore and Mike Champion.