The shovel could only have survived due to the copper content within it. It really is a remarkable story which can be found on youtube!
And yes this working is the 'cobalt' vein, which also cuts through EV and is part of Reeking mine, but we have had the ore analysed previously and it had very little cobalt in it, something of the order of 1%. A member has reference to Wedgwood dismissing the ore as not good enough, but perhaps at one time it was good enough for less refined pottery/glass? I like to think the Manganese was every bit as profitable but who knows!? That said, we have found some very black samples of Wad that we need to get analysed again. Apparently, the XRM machine has gone walkies at MMU or something else has happened, but they are currently sitting on a sample waiting for a chance to analyze it. I've also passed some of the purple fungus on to someone doing their thesis on mycology in places such as Alderley so they might find something to add to what we already know.