Hendre Flourospar mine- North Wales

[darwen dave]

On account of the foul weather we decided a mine trip was in order.

Visited today with mad-dan, buddah and Andyj23UK.

A few pics.

This was a fascinating place and very photogenic. Lots of old iron ladders to climb up and down as well. 

 

[Les W]

Pretty sure they actually mined Calcite here (spar) rather than Flourospar.
Nice pictures though, good to see the obligatory wagon shot. 

 

[ChrisJC]

To be pedantic, it's fluorspar, as in fluorescent, rather than flour. 

Chris.

 

[Fulk]

Les W:

Pretty sure they actually mined Calcite here (spar) rather than Flourospar.

I can't think why anyone would mine calcite . . . but fluorspar, that's another thing.

 

[mr conners]

What great pictures. There is something about mines and quarries that I find fascinating but I struggle to explain what it actually is. Where in N Wales is the mine situated?

 

[rhychydwr1]

What great pictures. There is something about mines and quarries that I find fascinating but I struggle to explain what it actually is. Where in N Wales is the mine situated?

NGR SJ 187 676

there is a book....

 

[darwen dave]

Pretty sure they actually mined Calcite here (spar) rather than Flourospar.
Nice pictures though, good to see the obligatory wagon shot. 

I stand corrected.  :-[

When we visited the wagon had been turned over by some mindless cretin. We put it back on it's wheels but there is quite a bit of damage to the timberwork. 

 

[Les W]

Les W:

Pretty sure they actually mined Calcite here (spar) rather than Flourospar.

I can't think why anyone would mine calcite . . . but fluorspar, that's another thing.

Calcite is used in steel making as a flux to remove impurities, it is used as a pigment for paints, a mild abrasive in kitchen cleaners, in toothpaste, as a safety dust in coal mines, in the chemical industry, in pet foods, pharmacuticles, in antacid tablets and many other uses. Why wouldn't you mine it? 

 

[Ship-badger]

We visited this mine a few years back, when NAMHO was hald at Llangollen. We were told by our guide that at one time almost all of the spar produced was used in the manufacture of VIM, a once very popular scouring powder.

 

[robjones]

There is indeed a book Tony:

From T.M.Thomas 'The Mineral Wealth of Wales and its Exploitation', Edinburgh, 1961:

pp.231-2: '... the lead and zinc beraring province embracing the Carboniferous Limestone and Cefn y Fedw Sandstone Series of north-east Wales contains no workable resources of fluorspar.'

p.232: 'Since 1950 three white spar [calcite or calcspar] mines have been in production in Flintshire. These have supplied in some years as much as 15,000 tons of the raw material, about a third of the total British production. At the end of 1958 only two of these mines were active. The spar is crushed and graded for numerous miscellaneous uses, including pebble dashing and terrazzo work, for chicken feed, cattle foods and chemicals.'

p.138 [re: surface quarrying of siliceous sandstone and silica sand in north east Wales]: 'In 1958 about 40,000 tons of stone were crushed into silica dust or flour for usage as ingredients of scouring soaps, abrasives, paints or enamels.'

So: Hendre Mine worked calcite; there is no workkable fluorspar in the area, and scouring powder was made from siliceous sandstone of Millstone Grit age quarried at surface. 

 

[Fulk]

I guess I gotta grovel.

 

[Roger W]

And there was me thinking it was a genuine flour mine!

White spar, so evidently not wholemeal....

 

[robjones]

And there was me thinking it was a genuine flour mine!

White spar, so evidently not wholemeal....

 

[andyguppy]

Great pics
Guppy

 

[Tangent_tracker]

To be pedantic, it's fluorspar, as in fluorescent, rather than flour. 

Chris.

sorry to raise this post again but need to know - technically isn't it Fluorite they mine out of the ground and end up with Fluorspar or have I got this wrong..?

 

[Blakethwaite]

No, they're both the same thing. Fluorite is its proper scientific name but fluorspar its everyday name.

 

[peterk]

Isn't the scientific name Calcium fluoride with Fluorspar, Fluorite, Derbyshire Spar  being names in common use?

I think "spar" indicates that its a crystalline form of the mineral

 

[Blakethwaite]

I think Fluorite would probably be the correct term in this instance as it is specifically the name of Calcium Fluoride in its naturally occurring form.

Within various publications on the the mining areas of northern England the BGS consistently refer to it as Fluorite.

 

[Brains]

"Spar" is a loose and wooly term for many crystalline substances, including calcite, quartz, barite and fluorite. Wad and caulk are terms for poorly crystalline minerals such as barite etc.
Fluorite is the mineral, while fluorspar would by the crysatalline rock type - confusing!
Consider the term "clay" This can be a rock type (The London Clay), and it can also be a grain size (<) 0.02mm), finer than silt, as well as a mineral type (kaolin, illite, montmorillonite etc). The mineral can form large crystals in pegmatites and other situations

 

[AR]

It's always been my understanding that the term "fluorspar" is an old Anglisation of the German term for a smelting flux "flusspath" (it has a long history of use as a flux in copper smelting),and that the mineral gained the name fluorite as a "scientisation" of the existing term.