Penberthy Croft Mine

St Hilary, Cornwall, England, UK

Penberthy Croft Mine is an abandoned copper and tin mine which produced a huge range of minerals, typically as uncommon secondary minerals.

Penberthy Croft Mine was exploited from the 1700s at least, but it may be older than that.

It is believed the mine closed in the late 1840s, but records of this are spotty; there are some records of historical output.

In the present day, interest in the site is purely mineralogical – the site is now designated as a SSSI so visits are unlikely to be allowed without membership to a society etc.

The locality is best known for its secondary minerals, particularly arsenates; it is the type locality for the copper lead arsenate ‘bayldonite and the aluminium arsenates bettertonite and penberthycroftite.

The site is also the original British locale for several other uncommon minerals.

Mindat has a good list of the species found at the site, currently at 129 valid minerals!

I would highly recommend reading the PDF from the Scottish Geology Trust too, if you have an interest in the site.

 

Further reading

 

 

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