Geology of Great Britain > Coppermines Valley, Coniston, Cumbria, UK by Ian Butler

Coppermines Valley, near Coniston. The view is from near the path on the SW side of Church Beck. It’s as good a place to walk as any if you’re a geologist into minerals and mineralisation. The area has been mined for copper and quarried for slate. On the right hand side of the image the spoil from quarrying slate at the Blue Quarry on Rascal How is up on the fell behind the terrace of cottages. Looking further up the valley the large spoil heap sitting next to Church Beck comes from the ore dressing floors, the ruins of which are just to the right of the spoil heap in this view.

The two valleys either side of Kennel Crag in the centre of the image are Red Dell on the eastern side and the valley of Levers Water Beck on the western side. The main workings in Coppermines valley are located here. The mineralised lodes are vertical to subvertical veins hosted within tuffs and rhyolites of the Ordovician Borrowdale Volcanic Group. Mines located in Red Dell exploited the Bonser Vein, while those in the valley below Levers Water exploited the Paddy End vein. Late 19th century reports suggest that the Bonser vein was several metres wide and in places carried chalcopyrite equivalent to a solid 20cm vein of chalcopyrite. Mining reached a peak in the 19th century, but at depth the Bonser vein becomes enriched in magnetite which created problems for ore beneficiation. Plans and sections of the mines can be seen framed on the wall of the Black Bull Inn in Coniston.

Some of the images in the gigapan (near the top left around Raven Tor) are blurred. This may be due to low-level local seismic activity caused by the operator stomping around too close to the tripod.