Copper Mining
- Copper Mining and Smelting – History
- Copper Mining
- Copper Smelting Technology – From South Wales to New South Wales.
- Lentin’s description of copper smelting in Anglesey in 1800
- Ure’s description of the smelting process at Swansea, 1861
- The six stage smelting process used at Cadia in 1861
- South Australia – The Copper Kingdom.
- Kapunda
- Burra
- Wallaroo, Moonta and Kadina
- The Bon Accord Mine, Burra, South Australia
- Copper mining in New South Wales before 1860
The Mines Royal, 1560s-1680s
The removal of the monopoly of the Mines Royal allowed Cornish copper mining to expand.
Under Letters Patent, dated 1564 and 1604, the Society of the Mines Royal was given the sole right to mine for gold, silver, copper and quicksilver over much of England and Wales. The first attempts at copper mining in Cornwall and smelting at Neath in South Wales in the 1580s failed. After this time the Society ignored copper in favour of lead mining. By legislation in 1689 and 1693 the “dead hand of monopoly” was abolished, opening the way for others.