Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape

Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
UNESCO World Heritage Site
	Part of Crown Mines, Botallack (St Just Mining District)
Location	Cornwall and West Devon, United Kingdom
Criteria	Cultural: (ii), (iii), (iv)
Reference	1215
Inscription	2006 (30th Session)
Area	19,719 ha (48,730 acres)
Coordinates	50°8′10″N 05°23′1″W / 50.13611°N 5.38361°WCoordinates: 50°8′10″N 05°23′1″W / 50.13611°N 5.38361°W
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The Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape is a World Heritage site. It includes select mining landscapes in Cornwall and West Devon. The site was added to the on July 2006. Plans to restart mining at South Crofty,^[1] and to build a supermarket at Hayle Harbour,^[2] caused its status to be questioned.

The World Heritage Committee considered placing the site on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2014. This proposal was rejected. Instead, they agreed on a follow-up "Reactive Monitoring Mission".^[3]^[4]

History

Devon made around 25-40% of the amount of tin that Cornwall did up to the mid-16th century. However, the total amount of tin made in both Cornwall and Devon at this time was relatively small. After the 1540s, Cornwall's production took off while Devon's production was only about between a ninth to a tenth of that of Cornwall.

From the mid-16th century onwards, the Devon Stannaries were giving very little in income to the King. They were sidelined after the Supremacy of Parliament Act 1512.

The landscapes of Cornwall and West Devon were reshaped during the 18th and 19th centuries by the mining of copper and tin. The underground mines, engine houses, foundries, new towns, smallholdings, ports, harbours, and other supporting industries together meant the region produced two-thirds of the world's supply of copper.

During the late 19th century, arsenic production came to the east of Cornwall and West Devon. As a result, the region supplied half the world’s demand. ^[5]

Geevor Tin Mine near St Just, Cornwall

Areas

Levant Mine in St Just Mining District

The World Heritage site consists of individual but topical linked areas around Cornwall and West Devon. The areas (with the area codes from the site nomination) are:^[6]

A1 - St Just Mining District
A2 - Port of Hayle
A3i - Tregonning and Gwinear Mining District
A3ii - Trewavas
A4 - Wendron Mining District
A5i - Camborne and Redruth Mining District
A5ii - Wheal Peevor
A5iii - Portreath Harbour
A6i - Gwennap Mining District
A6ii - Devoran and Perran Foundry
A6iii - Kennall Vale
A7 - St Agnes Mining District
A8i - Luxulyan Valley
A8ii - Charlestown
A9 - Caradon Mining District
A10i - Tamar Valley
A10ii - Tavistock

Ancient rocks, rare heavy elements

Geology of Wales and SW England

Devon and Cornwall rocks were once in the core of huge volcanic mountains. Those rocks usually contain more heavy metallic elements than usually found on the Earth's surface. A recent news item says a new mineral was found in Cornwall called Kernowite.^[7]

Rocks from ocean floor mid-ocean ridges (oceanic lithosphere) may come to the surface under orogeny as ophiolites. Wherever there is a large ground-down mountain chain there may be a source of heavy metals.