Ballycummisk Mine, Audley Mines, Ballydehob, Mizen Peninsula, Cork County, Munster, Irelandi
| Regional Level Types | |
|---|---|
| Ballycummisk Mine | Mine |
| Audley Mines | Group of Mines |
| Ballydehob | - not defined - |
| Mizen Peninsula | Peninsula |
| Cork County | County |
| Munster | Province |
| Ireland | Country |
| Place | Population | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Ballydehob | 271 (2017) | 3.1km |
| Schull | 658 (2013) | 5.1km |
| Baltimore | 347 (2015) | 9.3km |
| Durrus | 334 (2017) | 10.3km |
| Skibbereen | 2,098 (2012) | 14.6km |
Ballycummisk Mine (historic spellings Ballycomisk, Ballycummich, Ballycummish, Ballycammish; grouped with Cappagh and Horse Island as the "Audley Mines") is an abandoned copper mine in the townland of Ballycummisk, on the north side of Rossbrin Cove, about 3 miles (5 km) east of Schull and 2 miles (3 km) south-west of Ballydehob, Mizen Peninsula, West Cork.[1] It was worked in 1814–15, 1825, 1852–53, continuously from 1857 to 1877, and briefly again in the early 1900s.[2] The 1857–77 working under Samuel Hyde was the longest continuous operation in West Carbery and the only West Cork copper mine outside Allihies proved at depth: about 6,300 tons of ore were sold, the workings reached the 210-fathom level (1,260 ft, 384 m) by 1870 and about 228 fathoms (1,368 ft, 417 m) at closure.[3]
The lodes are quartz–barite veins carrying chalcopyrite and argentiferous tetrahedrite with specular hematite, siderite and molybdenite in Upper Devonian mudstones of the Castlehaven Formation; molybdenite from the mine has given Re–Os ages of 315.5 ± 1.6 and 311.8 ± 1.6 Ma, placing the mineralisation at the onset of Variscan compression.[4] The site is Cork County Geological Site CK011 (economic geology and mineralogy themes) and the quartz-rich spoil is described by the Geological Survey as "likely to be of interest to mineralogists and others studying the origin of the West Cork copper mineralization".[5]
Location and access
Irish Grid V 976 322 (EPA site reference E97657 N32197; ITM 497600 E 532260 N; earlier Mindat reading V978323); 6-inch sheet Cork 140 SW; 1-inch sheet 199; 1:50,000 sheet 88; GSI 1:100,000 bedrock sheet 24 (West Cork).[6] The mine lies on the side of a small valley about 100 m from the sea, on the north side of Rossbrin Cove; the shafts are marked on the 1-inch Ordnance map north of the cove and the "Lady's Vein" shafts on the engraved 6-inch map about a mile north of it.[7]
The site divides into a north-eastern and a south-western part, each centred on a large spoil heap; minor public roads bound it on three sides and most of it can be seen from them. A Fastnet Trails signboard on a farm gate on the south side gives a short history with a map and section of the workings and states that the site is private property with no access.[8] A Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland field visit in August 2005 found no accessible underground workings. In July 2009 the adit was visible, overgrown, draining water and collapsed in two places; the Engine shaft was securely fenced and filled with rubbish close to surface; a second open, rubbish-filled shaft lay behind the main spoil heap; a capped and fenced shaft stood at the top of the hill at the bend in the road.[9]
Geology
The mine is in purple mudstone and siltstone of the Upper Devonian Castlehaven Formation, Munster Basin, with the Toe Head Formation adjacent; the strata are folded into ENE-trending anticlines and are strongly cleaved.[10] No bedrock crops out at the mine; the host rock in spoil is a beige silty sandstone with pale grey to brownish-red alteration.[11] Structural interpretation from spoil, photolineaments and the historic plans shows two east–west faults near the principal shafts merging eastwards into one, cut by a north-east–south-west fault along which most of the shafts lie, with a further set of NNW–SSE faults across the site.[12]
The 19th-century descriptions agree on the structure. Kinahan (1861) recorded that the mine is separated from the workings to the east "by a fault or 'flookan course', that runs with a bearing of about N. 40° E., along which they drive their levels", and that the adit "was brought up the fault from Rossbrin Cove"; all the lodes "hade S. at about one in twelve (85°)".[13] Hyde (1870) described the lodes as parallel, east–west "deviating about 32° north of east", underlying south at 85°, with "a well defined elvan course" running nearly east–west parallel to No. 1 lode and, to the north, "the large fault or flucan course, which deviates about 17° from the strike or bearing of the lodes, and crosses all the veins except No. 1", which "materially influences the production of mineral at its junction with the lodes".[14]
Vivian (1853) gave the Lady Vein a bearing about 15° north of east, carrying a flucan and soft clay slate 8 inches to 2 feet wide, cutting the other lodes (bearing east, 15–20° south) at 30–35°.[15] Foley (1857) described the adit, about 167 fathoms long, as "driven on a flucan, which flucan has confined the ore south", intersecting "3 parallel, 1 counter and 2 tributary lodes... at the junction of which good deposits of copper are to be seen", with a heave near the centre of the adit "which pitches the flucan 18 fathoms north".[16] Weaver (1838) described the early working as sunk 20 fathoms "in a quartz lode two feet wide, associated with barytes, and with shale mixed through it".[17]
Genesis. Jukes (1861) regarded the district's copper as originally deposited in patches through 300–400 ft of grits and slates and only locally segregated into fissures; Hyde (1870) argued from Ballycummisk for true Cornish-style lodes.[18] Snodin (1972) documented disseminated red-bed copper (chalcocite, bornite, chalcopyrite, pyrite) in the greenish-grey channel sandstones of the West Cork Sandstone Formation.[19] Wen et al. (1996) compared the major polymetallic veins of the West Carbery district with this stratiform mineralisation and concluded that the veins formed by remobilisation of diagenetic sulphide by metamorphic fluids during late-metamorphic uplift: minor veins record 300–400 °C at 1–3 kbar, major veins 280–350 °C at fluid pressures below 600 bar; major-vein sulphides give δ34S of −15.8 to −4.2 ‰ and barite +12.3 to +15.7 ‰.[20]
Lang (2022) obtained Re–Os model ages of 315.5 ± 1.6 Ma and 311.8 ± 1.6 Ma from two Ballycummisk molybdenites (a Sir Arthur Russell specimen of 1907, NHM BM.1964,R230, and a spoil sample), found molybdenite intergrown with chalcopyrite and concentrated along stylolites normal to the NNW–SSE Variscan compression, no link to an igneous body, and a fluid system with a sedimentary or marine-brine signature; the mine is interpreted as preserving early extensional veining with a later mineralising and remobilising event during compressional reactivation.[21]
The Mining Journal carried the deep-mining argument in its own pages. Its leader of September 1869 held that "the lodes of the Ballycummisk district, as in Devon and Cornwall, run in an east and west direction; they are from 2 to 20 feet wide, with regular and well-defined walls: they are also intersected by cross lodes or cross-courses, slides, flookans", and a paper that December described the lode at 200 fathoms as "varying in width from 4 to 16 ft, and consisting of soft quartz, intermixed throughout with grey, purple, and yellow copper ore, the lode getting wider the deeper it is being worked; near the surface this lode contained blende, sulphate of barytes, ferruginous iron, &c. ... in sinking a few fathoms a lode of rich copper ore was discovered, which has been continuous 200 fms deep ... and free from the impurities found near the surface".
The review of Hyde's Geological Society paper in May 1870 noted that the Irish "elvans" are "certain light-green coarse sandstone bands occurring with the killas", not igneous dykes, but that "the same relation of the elvan courses to the copper lodes is found in Cornwall as in Ireland ... of this the elvan in Ballycummisk is a notable example", and counted five faults crossing the copper zone between Cappagh and Schull Harbour.
The paper's "Deep Mining in the South-West of Ireland" series of March–April 1873 added that "the steatite slates broken at the bottom of the skip-shaft, 210 fathoms deep, in Ballycummisk Mine, will serve at once to show the metamorphosis it has gone through", that the elvan "follows a given line of direction north of east" and "cannot be correctly spoken of by Prof. Jukes as a grit or sandstone", and that the two main lodes were converging in depth so that a junction was expected below the 198.[22]
Lodes and ore shoots
Ballycummisk lodes as described 1853–1932 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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[23]
Named ore shoots include "Kiltie's Pitch" (Foley's "Kiely's Pitch"), shown on Calvert's 1857 section between the Ladder Shaft and the Yellow Copper Shaft.[24]
The Mining Journal's weekly reports and later notices name and measure the lodes as they were worked. In June 1870 "a rich deposit of copper ore has been cut at Ballycummisk Mine, on [the Big] lode, and at the 174 fm level ... The lode is here proved to be [15] ft wide, and extremely productive", its walls "pale-green steatitic fossil killas"; the prospectus of 1872 spoke of "proving two of the lodes ... to the depth of 210 fathoms"; Captain Daniells's reports of 1872–73 distinguish "the north lode" driven west in the 210 and 198 fathom levels, where "a good branch of ore 18 in wide" was met in October 1872, "another part of the lode, where it has formed a horse of killas" in the footwall in November, and a lode "about 5 ft wide" in the 198 end, from "the old lode" stoped in the back of the 186 and cut again by the cross-cut north from the winze under the 210 in May 1873, "composed of grey and yellow ores, with a little mundic", and by the 222-fathom cross-cut in October 1873, "good stones of ore ... of a very promising character (yellow ore)", 6 ft across without reaching the footwall.
The liquidators' particulars of 1874 give "two lodes, known as the North Lode and the Old Lode. The former has been proved to the thickness of 11 ft, and the latter of 6 ft" (14 ft in a later printing); the special correspondent of 1875 found the lode at the 210 "from 8 to 12 ft wide"; Thomas Tonkin in 1878 counted nine lodes in Cappagh and Ballycummisk together, "three of which have proved rich in the Ballycummisk Mines. The lode called Baryta lode, however, is the principal, being of greater proportion than any other in the mines", the Lady vein being the lode "on which the shaft is sunk"; and William Thomas in 1880 argued from the ore that the great lode tried "is not the Cappagh or Coosheen lode, which produces ore entirely different, and of much richer quality", though "all the lodes ... of those mines run through Ballycummisk".[25]
Mineralogy
Primary ore. Chalcopyrite is the dominant copper mineral throughout the district and at Ballycummisk; the miners' "yellow ore" and "stone ore" of the 1861 memoir.[26] Tetrahedrite-group minerals (the "grey copper" of the 19th-century reports, tetrahedrite–tennantite of the EPA survey) are the second major ore mineral in the spoil quartz veins; sulphides occur as aggregates several centimetres across and as single euhedral crystals up to 5 mm.[27] The tetrahedrite is argentiferous: a British Museum specimen (BM 43309) assayed 358.4 oz silver per ton and a chalcopyrite specimen (BM 43307) 35.2 oz/ton; the 1872 prospectus published silver values with traces of gold for five Ballycummisk ores of 14.8–28.5 % Cu; Foley in 1857 noted "specks of silver lead" in his No. 2 lode and Duffy's informant a 15-ft lode of argentiferous galena in the adit.[28]
Bornite ("purple" or "peacock" ore) is recorded on the Purple lode and at the 198-fathom level, and the purple-ore lode was one of the two worked to the bottom of the mine.[29] Molybdenite occurs as fine-grained flakes (below 2 mm in the Russell specimen, below 100 µm in the 2019 spoil sample) intergrown with chalcopyrite and along stylolites; it was first recognised in the Ballycummisk veins by Fletcher (1969), and LA-ICP-MS traces of Mo in chalcopyrite indicate molybdenite micro-inclusions.[30] The EPA survey lists chalcopyrite, cuprite, tenorite, malachite, tetrahedrite–tennantite and barite in the waste; elements of interest are Cu, Ba, Pb, Zn, As and Sb.[31]
Gangue. Quartz (massive and, in the late veins, euhedral and vuggy); barite, white to red, massive and crystalline, syngenetic with quartz, chalcopyrite and specular hematite, with later colloform reddish barite; the mineralised quartz–barite–chalcopyrite–hematite veins are cut by late vuggy veins of euhedral barite and quartz with chlorite encrustations; euhedral siderite crystals below 4 cm intergrown with quartz; folded quartz–barite–hematite veins in pale-yellow altered mudstone; smaller veinlets along the cleavage.[32] Specular hematite ("micaceous iron") and barite were already described in quantity by Snodin (1972) and are the diagnostic association of the Baryta or Big Vein; Collins in 1917 found "a very large quantity of chalybite [siderite] and specular haematite" in the lower dumps.[33] Calcite ("carbonate of lime") and chlorite ("peach") characterise the North and Purple lodes.[34]
Secondary. Malachite ("green ore") was seldom seen below 10 fathoms in the district (W. Thomas, 1863); Foley in 1857 reported "red, blue and black copper and green carbonates" in the adit (cuprite, azurite and tenorite in modern names) and a "Tributary Lode... composed of red oxide of copper"; cuprite and tenorite are reported by the EPA; goethite rims some stylolites in the spoil quartz.[35] Historic miners' names: yellow copper = chalcopyrite; grey copper or fahlerz = tetrahedrite; purple, peacock or variegated = bornite; greens = malachite; micaceous iron = specular hematite; peach = chlorite; mundic = pyrite; heavy spar = barite; flucan or flookan = clay-filled fault.[36]
Contemporary notices in the Mining Journal. In March 1857 "at Ballycummisk, the ore averages 44 per cent, rich dark purple, which is found in the adit level"; a shipment from Horse Island and Ballycummisk that September included ore that "yielded 70 per cent fine copper and 33 ozs silver to the ton"; the December 1859 sale at Swansea fetched £12 14s 6d to £24 7s a ton; in 1863 "the yellow copper lode ... is producing large quantities of ore, and maintains its size and value going down; while in sinking the engine-shaft they find rich specimens of purple ore"; in 1865 the course of ore in the bottom "(purple copper)" assayed 69 per cent; the Irish Industrial Magazine in 1866 gave the Berehaven and Ballycummisk ores as yielding "10¼ per cent, and £8 18s per ton" against 5¾ per cent for Devon and Cornwall.[37]
The 1869 description records blende, "sulphate of barytes, ferruginous iron, &c." near surface giving way in depth to a lode "free from the impurities", the ore "grey, purple, and yellow"; Hyde's paper as reviewed in 1870 characterised the lodes as "grey, purple, or yellow in one, yellow in another; micaceous iron, quartz, baryta, and yellow copper in a third; and carbonate of lime, peach" and purple ore in a fourth; the 1872 prospectus printed analyses of the ores by Frederick Claudet, assayer to the Bank of England, and the "Deep Mining" series of 1873 found the 198 fathom level "extremely rich in yellow and peacock copper ore", the copper appearing in the killas "in some cases as grey copper, and in others as blue carbonate; but their chief value is under the form of the yellow and peacock copper pyrites".
Tonkin in 1878 named the gangue of the Baryta lode "heavy spar and quartz" and the ores of the Lady vein "copper pyrites — redruthite and erubescite (grey and purple copper ores)", the only mention of chalcocite at the mine; Thomas in 1880 recalled the lode near surface as containing "strong yellow copper ore, blende, iron, quartz, and considerable quantities of impure barytes", and the same year an editorial correspondent asked "Will anyone deny that there is barytes at Ballycummisk?".[38]
Waste geochemistry (EPA portable XRF, 13 sites on the south-western heap): Cu median 2,135, maximum 10,568 mg/kg; Ba median 1,576, maximum 4,608 mg/kg; Sb maximum 1,248 mg/kg; As maximum 282 mg/kg. Stream sediment 200 m downstream carried 2,689 mg/kg Cu against 36 mg/kg upstream. There is no mine-water discharge; the leachate is low, antimony being the only water-standard exceedance. HMS-IRC score 4, Class V.[39] Collins in 1917 estimated the dumps at about 20,000 tons at the upper mine and 43,000 tons at the lower, the coarse part of the lower dump carrying about 1 % copper as chalcopyrite and his grab sample of the fines 0.51 %.[40]
History
Colonel Robert Hall opened three mines on Lord Audley's estate, at Horse Island, Cappagh and Ballycummisk, about 1814; Hunt records 16 tons of ore from Ballycummisk in 1814 and 42 tons in 1815.[41] On succeeding in 1818 the second Lord Audley ousted Hall and worked Cappagh himself; in 1824 the Mining Company of Ireland took 31-year leases of the Audley estate and of 1,000 acres of the Earl of Bandon's land at Kilbronogue adjoining Ballycummisk, re-examined Hall's workings at Ballycummisk in 1825, raised small tonnages, and concentrated on Cappagh until it surrendered the lease in 1832.[42] Adam Murray's valuation of November 1833 found "two shafts sunk for copper ore, but never wrought to any extent" a little south-west of Woulfe's house, and an unworked "Woulfe's Vein".[43] The West Cork Mining Company (1834–43), the vehicle of the Audley–Pike fraud, did no work at Ballycummisk.[44]
The estate was sold under the Encumbered Estates Act in November 1852 to Thomas Saunders Cave. Testing under Captain Triphook was under way by October 1852; Captain S. Vivian's report of 16 July 1853 called Ballycummisk "a very valuable property rarely to be met with"; Cave bought a crusher and saw-mill for the mine from Harvey and Co. of Hayle (about 450l. by his agent's later account) but the operation stopped suddenly in December 1853, when Chancery proceedings were brought against him, and the unpaid machinery went back to Hayle in 1854.[45]
Early in 1857 Cave recruited about sixty miners from Allihies, with John Calvert as manager and P.J. Foley as captain; Foley's report of that year claimed "3 shafts sunk to adit, 4 winzes below adit, 3 cross cuts and 3 levels driven", "houses built and whims erected" and a working capital of £6,000 needed, opinions which Calvert dismissed. The surviving setting ledgers for October and November 1857 record contracts for sinking the Lady Vein shaft below the 22-fathom level, sinking the Yellow Copper Shaft under the adit, driving east and west "on the Flookan" at the 22-fathom level, stoping east of Swanton's winze, pumping to the adit by hand and drawing by horse whim, with 39 men employed in October; the Engine Shaft was "water not out" in November.[46] Calvert's plans and sections were deposited with the Home Office (R 58 and R 59) when Cave sold the Ballycummisk lease later in 1857 to Samuel W. Hyde, a London businessman.[47]
Hyde's first venture, raising "manganese" on a Professor Bray's advice, produced unsaleable bog iron; by 1858 £60 a month was going on administration and £90 on development among 30 miners.[48] By 1861 the mine was, in the Geological Survey's words, "the only place in the whole district... in which the copper lodes have been developed; the mine at the present time being most satisfactorily worked, under the superintendence of Captain Richard Pope", with the 51-, 61- and 72-fathom levels driven north along the flookan and the 82-fathom level being driven.[49]
Hyde kept the mine at work privately for twenty years, the produce falling from 14–20 % in 1857–60 to 7–8 % by 1870 as the copper standard declined. In February 1870 he told the Geological Society of London that Ballycummisk was "200 fathoms or 1,200 feet deep... making large returns of ore", with the Ladies' vein worked at the 210-fathom level, and put the mine's returns at £50,000.[50]
In mid-1872 he floated the Ballycummisk Copper Mining Company Ltd (10,000 shares of £10 in the prospectus, though the Mining Journal's share list carried it from 1873 as 50,000 shares and fully paid shares were being offered at £2 5s by April 1873; Board of Trade file BT 31/1744/6458), which also took Coosheen under its lease; Captain Edward Daniel (Daniells) was manager and reported almost weekly in the Mining Journal in 1873, the year of peak output; the company was in liquidation by March 1874, when its leases and plant were offered by tender, the two mines were auctioned in one lot on 8 July 1874, and Hyde carried the mine on privately.[51] Falling prices and rising costs "as the workings pushed towards a depth of 1400 feet" ended the mine in 1877 "at 1368 feet from the surface"; the plans and a longitudinal section "down to 228 fathoms", dated February 1878, were deposited with the Inspector of Mines, Joseph Dickinson, as abandoned-mine plan No. 833, annotated "latterly worked by Sam Hyde and previously by the Ballycummisk Co., Mr. Edward Daniel, Manager".[52]
The Mining Journal record, 1857–85. The paper noticed Cave's reopening in March 1857, when "at Ballycummisk, the ore averages 44 per cent, rich dark purple, which is found in the adit level", two vessels were expected "with new engines and machinery", Calvert was "consulting engineer and resident manager, and Mr. P. J. Foley captain"; in October 1857 "a steam-engine for pumping is now being erected" and a third shipment in nine months had gone from Horse Island and Ballycummisk together; 30 tons sold at Swansea on 2 March 1858 for £538 18s 6d. The Rough Notes of November 1858 recorded Professor Bray's bog iron collected as manganese and added that "those who are well acquainted with the Ballycumisk Mine say it ought to be a good concern".[53]
John Roberts of Schull wrote in December 1859 that "the Ballycumisk Mine, now 60 fms deep, and the deepest mine in the locality ... has sold three valuable [cargoes] of ore within the past 12 months, and another cargo nearly ready for market", the sale of 6 December 1859 realising £1,639 11s for three parcels at £12 14s 6d to £24 7s a ton, and that "the deepest levels in Ballycumisk are the best". The mine appears in the Swansea sale lists through 1861 (124 tons in the December quarter), the Schull Bay directors visited it in July 1861, and the former Audley manager M. Edwards reported it "taken up by an enterprising gentleman, and ... now in active operation".[54]
By July 1862 the mine was "being worked in a most spirited manner by a single proprietor, Mr. Hyde, of London ... The mine is sunk 100 fathoms deep, and the engine-shaft is still being sunk; there is a course of ore in the bottom level, which fact completely upsets all the theories ... 'that the ore in this district does not continue in depth'"; a visitor in November 1862 found that it had "sold from June, 1861, to June, 1862, above £3000 worth of copper ore", was "making good bi-monthly sales of ore, and is improving in depth", had "a steam pumping-engine and drawing-engine with crusher attached", employed about 120 persons, and was managed by Captains Pope and Allen; the cylinder sizes, the double road to the 54 and the "three-quarters of a mile of railway" in the same account belong to Great Cappagh, the next mine in the visitor's itinerary.
The paper reported "a fine course of ore in the 120" in March 1863, "the bottom [level], 120 fathoms from surface, is the best part of the mine", a course "from the 80 to the 114" that May, and the sale of 125 tons for £855 11s on 16 June 1863; a working miner complained in January 1864 that "the agents scarcely give us as much as would be necessary to keep soul and body together", and a visitor that winter put Cappagh and Ballycummisk at 80 and 120 fathoms, producing "large quantities of rich purple, yellow, and grey copper ore".[55] Depth was the paper's constant theme: "120 to 130 fms" in September 1864, 150 fathoms with a bottom course of purple copper assaying 69 per cent in February 1865, 160 fathoms "making regular returns from a very large lode (upwards of 12 ft wide)" in November 1865, "working without intermission for the last ten years ... a depth of 160 fms ... employment to over 100 persons" in September 1866, when the September quarter's sales were 142 tons for £1,024. The Cave estate, with the Ballycummisk lease excepted from its yearly tenancies and reports on the mines by Mr English (1853) and Mr Lisabé (1865) in its rentals, was offered in the Landed Estates Court in August 1867.
In September 1869 the paper's leader declared that "Ballycummisk Mine is 200 fathoms deep, and has had a continuous course of ore from near the surface to the bottom, and still going down as good as ever", that Hyde had taken up the mine against the warnings of friends, and that "hundreds of people for years have found constant employment"; a December paper put its sales "in sinking a trial shaft 200 fathoms deep" at "over £60,000"; and the Cappagh prospectus of January 1870 named Berehaven, Knockmahon and Ballycummisk as "almost the only Irish mines which occupy anything like a prominent position in the ticketing lists".[56]
Hyde read his paper to the Geological Society of London on 11 May 1870; the paper's leader of 21 May hailed the 1,200-ft shaft as "important both from a geological and mineralogical point of view", its review a week later claimed "for Ballycummisk the honour of the second place" after Berehaven in proving deep mining in Cork, and in June "a rich deposit of copper ore has been cut ... at the 174 fm level".
The prospectus of the Ballycummisk Copper Mining Company (Limited), printed on 13 July 1872, offered £100,000 under Henry Deffell, George Grant Francis of Swansea, Alfred Gouger, S. W. Hyde of Hyde and Co., Leadenhall Street, and John Romanes, with Spencer Herapath and John Quain of Dublin as brokers and Thomas Southcott as secretary at 85 Cheapside, to buy Ballycummisk and Coosheen from Samuel Hyde for £80,000: the Ballycummisk lease ran 21 years from 1858, the mines had "produced up to the present time upwards of 5000 tons of ore, which would show a present market value of upwards of £50,000", two lodes were proved to 210 fathoms, "during the past two years while the market price of copper remained low the proprietor deemed it advisable to suspend the raising of ore, and to confine the operations to sinking, driving, and exploring", leaving "about 2000 tons of ore in stopes ready to be raised", and A. Tregoning's report of 19 June 1872 found little water and "the machinery at Ballycummisk ... quite sufficient to open the mine to a much greater depth". The lists closed on 23 and 25 July.[57]
Captain Daniells's weekly reports began in September 1872: the sump-shaft was sinking under the 210, the 198 and 210 fathom levels were driving west on the north lode, and the Vesper, chartered with coals, sailed on 18 October "with an average cargo of 121 tons of good copper ore", the second since the flotation, 63 tons having sold at Swansea on 17 September at up to £17 a ton. The sump-shaft reached the 222 fathom level in the week ending 17 January 1873, the skip-shaft was let to sink under the 210 and holed to the sump in May, a rise was put up for ventilation, and a winze under the 210 was sunk to the 222 and turned north to cross-cut the old lode, but by June "the great influx of water into the winze under the 210" stopped it "until such time as we tap the lode in the bottom".
Sales were brisk: 118 tons for £719 16s on 11 March, 126 tons on 13 May and again on 3 June, two parcels of 64 and 63 tons in October, and a dealer advertised through the spring that "upwards of 600 tons of rich copper ore has been raised and sold within the last few months at prices ranging to £16 10s per ton" while offering fully paid shares at £2 5s; the 222 cross-cut cut the old lode in October and drove 6 ft across it without reaching the footwall.[58]
The company did not outlast the boom. A brokers' circular was advising clients to sell Ballycummisk from July 1873; 47 tons were in the Swansea sale of 31 March 1874; and on 14 March 1874 the liquidators advertised the leases and plant for sale by tender, following it with an auction by Fuller, Horsey, Son and Co. at the Auction Mart on 8 July 1874, in one lot, of "the Ballycummisk and Coosheen Copper Mines ... together with the costly plant and machinery now in work".
The particulars describe Ballycummisk as "about 11 miles from Skibbereen, on the Rosbrin Harbour, available for vessels of 150 tons burden ... As much as 126 tons of washed ore have been raised in one month ... There are two lodes, known as the North Lode and the Old Lode ... The workings have been sunk to a depth of 222 fathoms, with headings every 12 fathoms. They are efficiently drained by pumps on the various levels worked by a Cornish pumping-engine; there is also a powerful winding engine, stamping machine, range of 11 hutches with jigging gear, three washing machines ... crushing rollers, screens, riddles ... several dwellings, offices, stabling, &c., and a wharf on Rossbrin Harbour. The surface and underground workings are intersected by tramways", the mineral area held "for a term of which about 25 years are unexpired, at a dead rent of £60 per annum, and a royalty of 1-16th"; Coosheen, two miles off, with its two pits to 36 and 56 fathoms below adit, five sets of pumps, Cornish engine, table winding engine and Blake's crusher, was held for 31 years from 24 June 1865 at £40 a year and one-eighteenth.[59]
Hyde carried the mine on after the sale, and the paper's later notices are retrospective: the special correspondent of May 1875 credited "Capt. Hyde, of London" with having "single handed ... sunk the engine-shaft in Ballycummisk Mine 210 fms deep. The lode instead of diminishing in size or productiveness is from 8 to 12 ft wide", put the sales "from one lode principally" at "upwards of £50,000", and urged cross-cuts to the parallel lodes at the 210; Ballycummisk ore was still in the Swansea sales of November 1876 and mid-1877; Tonkin in 1878 recalled that "the development of these mines for many years gave remunerative employment to numbers"; a dialogue of 1880 said that the mine "was operated on by the enterprise of an individual for many years ... but after the concern passed into the hands of a company [success did not] attend the undertaking"; William Thomas that May wrote that "the late proprietor of Ballycummisk Mine, in order to solve this problem, confined the operations principally to sinking until he reached a depth of about 220 fms, and the lode is still continuously large and productive ... The sales of ore amounted to over £50,000", that between Ballycummisk and Cappagh lay "an intervening run of unexplored mineral ground about ¼ mile in length", and that "the owners of Rossbrin, Ballycummisk, Intermediate Sett, and Cappagh Mines are Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy Collins"; and the Board of Trade's list of October 1884 of defunct companies to be struck off includes the Ballycummisk Copper Mining.[60]
A Ballycumisk Mining & Smelting Company Ltd was registered in 1904 (BT 31/10731/81332); mining-accident indexes record the death of a miner, Lawrence O'Brien, at Ballycummisk on 14 February 1908 while travelling in pony-hauled tubs for West Carberry Copper Estates Ltd.[61] H.J. Daly, reporting for the Ministry of Munitions in June 1917, called it "the largest copper producer in the Schull area", abandoned, and "could not ascertain any definite information as to why the last company who worked it failed so completely"; Collins two months later recorded that it "was worked to a depth of 900 feet following two chimney like shoots upon different lodes" and judged that "the shoots are exceedingly short, veritable chimneys in fact".[62]
A 1932 field report by J. Duffy recorded the former miner Pat Collins's account of the mine: an adit driven on the flookan course from the river to the Engine Shaft, 120 fathoms deep and used as the pumping shaft, and about 120 fathoms beyond it to the Drawing (Skip) Shaft, about 250 fathoms from surface; communicating levels every 10 fathoms below the adit between the two shafts, extended 60 fathoms west and 30 fathoms east of the drawing shaft; work confined to the grey-ore and purple-ore lodes west of the drawing shaft, "improving with depth and still good at the bottom"; the main adit dry to the engine shaft but closed at its mouth by slipped material, and driven about 150 fathoms north-east beyond the drawing shaft, where a 15-ft lode of argentiferous galena was cut.[63] Dresser Minerals drilled five surface diamond holes (BC1–BC5, 150–305 ft) under Prospecting Licence 2814 in 1979–81 to test a broad barite-vein zone, logging fractured rock, quartz–barite stringers, white crystalline barite and minor chalcopyrite, and produced a 1:20 sketch of "underground development, 80 ft level, upper shaft".[64] The site was surveyed by the EPA/GSI in 2007 and designated a County Geological Site in 2023.[65]
Operators and companies at Ballycummisk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Workings and surface remains
The adit was driven from the valley floor near Rossbrin Cove north-eastwards along the N 40° E flookan course, unwatering the ground to 20–30 fathoms and cutting all the lodes; Foley put its length at about 167 fathoms in 1857 with "a back of 27 fathoms" at the forebreast, and Duffy's informant said it was later carried 150 fathoms beyond the drawing shaft.[66] Calvert's 1857 section names, from the adit entrance eastwards, Calvert's Shaft, the Engine Shaft or Ladies Vein shaft (sunk on the Lady's Vein), the Ladder Shaft, Kiltie's Pitch and the Yellow Copper Shaft with "Old Stopes" (the 1814–25 workings) above it, with two winzes and a 22-fathom level below the adit; Duffy's informant gave the Ladder Shaft as 13 fathoms deep and the yellow copper shaft about 10.[67]
The 1877 working plan and section show a shallow western shaft (No. 1 on the plan, No. 2 on the section), the Engine Shaft to about the 138-fathom level and the deep Skip Shaft with a sump, with levels at roughly 11–12-fathom intervals numbered 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 72, 82, 92, 102, 114, 126 and 138 on the Engine Shaft side and 150 to 222 on the Skip Shaft side, extensive stoping from the adit to about 138 fathoms and patches of stoping on the deep levels; the surface vignette shows a pumping engine and chimney, a drawing engine, a headframe at the Skip Shaft and miners' cottages.[68]
The Geological Survey's summary gives seven levels, four shafts, two steam engines, crushers, an office and workshops.[69] The EPA survey located a pumping engine house beside the Engine shaft and a drainage engine house between the two waste heaps, and two large stone-built pillar-like structures with several smaller concrete ones, "perhaps for hoisting or loading ore"; by 2023 the north-eastern heap was wholly overgrown with gorse and the south-western heap still had two well-exposed faces.[70] Waste heaps: SP01 1,535 m², 6,192 m³, coarse and cobble-rich; SP02 1,272 m², 4,928 m³, gorse-bound.[71]
The Mining Journal fills in the plant and the deep workings. Cave was erecting "a steam-engine for pumping" in October 1857;[72] in November 1862 there was "a steam pumping-engine and drawing-engine with crusher attached"; the prospectus of 1872 spoke of "powerful pumping-engines, capable of working to a much greater depth"; and the liquidators' particulars of 1874 list "a Cornish pumping-engine ... a powerful winding engine, stamping machine, range of 11 hutches with jigging gear, three washing machines, all driven by a horizontal steam-engine and boiler ... crushing rollers, screens, riddles ... several dwellings, offices, stabling, &c., and a wharf on Rossbrin Harbour" available "for vessels of 150 tons burden", the surface and underground workings "intersected by tramways" and "headings every 12 fathoms" to 222 fathoms.
The paper never names the makers or gives the cylinder sizes of the Ballycummisk engines; the only engine dimensions it records in the district are Cappagh's 50-inch pumping engine and 24-inch crushing and drawing engine of 1862–63 (a 56-inch cylinder with a 9-ft stroke by 1880) and Crookhaven's 26-inch engine with an 8-ton boiler. Daniells's reports of 1872–73 name the sump-shaft (sunk to the 222 in January 1873), the skip-shaft (let to sink under the 210 and holed to the sump in May 1873), Carrol's winze, from which a cross-cut was driven and holed to the 222 end in August 1873 to ventilate it, the winze under the 210 flooded in June 1873, and the 174, 186, 198, 210 and 222 fathom levels, with stopes numbered 1 to 6 over the 198; the ore went to Swansea in the company's chartered brigs, the Vesper bringing coals to Rossbrin on the return voyage.[73]
The account books of Harvey and Co. of Hayle, the largest of the Cornish engine builders, were transcribed for their Irish customers by Cundick (2002). Cave's 1853 plant appears under "Audley Mines" in August 1853 (a complete crusher per the "Trelissick" to Schull, £180, and a water-wheel shaft, centre piece and sawmill, £265), and when Cave's working collapsed the Mining Journal's Dublin correspondent wrote that he had "laid out some 10,000l., as report goes. The mines were stopped; Messrs. Harvey, of Hayle, removed the engines—and this was another instance of London management of Irish mines".[74][75][76]
Cave's managing agent, M. Edwards, answered the Skibbereen correspondent's charge of "machinery ordered, amounting to thousands of pounds, that was never required—some of which, it appears, was recently transshipped to the manufacturers" with the statement that "the only machinery ever ordered for the mines, and which was done previous to my coming there, was a crusher and saw-mill, the cost of which amounted to about 450l.; and when the works were suspended, the merchants purchased them back again at a trifling amount under cost price"—a figure that matches Harvey's own entries, and which leaves no firm evidence of a steam engine at Ballycummisk before 1857.[77][78] Under Hyde the mine bought steadily from Hayle between 1865 and 1872, but neither the Cornish pumping engine nor the winding engine is among the purchases, so both must have come from another maker or second-hand.
The entries are: June 1865, new and second-hand pitwork, flat rods and engine sundries per the "Henry Harvey" to Schull (£622 8s 5d); 1866, spares, chain, pumps, plates, hemp and timber (£545 14s 7d) and a second-hand oven for Captain Pope; January to July 1867, stamp heads, Norway baulk, pitwork, steel and chain; August 1867, "a 12-inch horizontal engine, 18-inch stroke, on cast-iron bed plate with 1 boiler and outfit complete as contract" (£220, delivered to Rossbrin Harbour) together with a cylinder cover and gland, fourteen crusher rolls and "2 hands stop blocks for main beam, fitted"; 1868, timber, stamp heads and a second-hand boiler to Rossbrin; about 1871, two second-hand 13-inch pumps, a 20-inch piston with rings "bored, turned and fitted", boiler plate and Norway baulk via Swansea; May 1871, a wrought-iron boiler with gun-metal tubes (£39 10s, via Bristol and Cork); and crusher rolls in 1872.[79]
The 12-inch horizontal engine of 1867 is evidently the "horizontal steam-engine and boiler" that drove the stamps and washing machines in the 1874 sale particulars; the stop blocks for a "main beam" confirm a beam pumping engine already at work; and the 20-inch piston implies an engine of that cylinder size on the mine, most likely the winding engine, whose dimensions are not otherwise recorded.
Production
Ore sold from Ballycummisk by year | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Total 1857–77 about 6,300 tons; 1873 was the peak year by tonnage and value. Cole (1922) gave the maximum as 671 tons in 1869, an error repeated in later summaries.[80] Average yields on the West Carbery longitudinal sections were about ½ to 1½ tons of ore per square fathom stoped, against 14–33 tons claimed at Allihies.[81]
Mining Journal references
The Mining Journal is the only continuous contemporary record of Hyde's private working and the fullest for the company of 1872–74, whose manager's weekly reports it printed. In the Internet Archive's run of the paper (collection pub_mining-journal, which lacks the 1860 volume and the years 1886–93) 269 passages in issues between 1852 and 1885 mention Ballycummisk, many of them Swansea sale lists, share lists and prospectuses of neighbouring mines; the substantive items are tabled below. Each identifier opens at archive.org/details/ followed by the identifier; the text is uncorrected OCR and figures should be checked against the page images.[82]
Mining Journal issues noticing Ballycummisk Mine (Internet Archive run) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Collecting and specimens
The mineralogical interest is in the quartz-rich spoil, which the EPA and GSI describe as containing visible chalcopyrite and tetrahedrite–tennantite and "significant amounts of mineralized vein quartz"; the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland noted it as the best example of regional copper mineralisation, with well-formed tetrahedrite crystals, largely of micro size.[83] Historic specimens include Sir Arthur Russell's 1907 quartz–molybdenite from the dumps (Natural History Museum, London, BM.1964,R230) and the assayed tetrahedrite and chalcopyrite BM 43309 and BM 43307. The Russell collection register lists fourteen Ballycummisk specimens in all, the largest institutional holding from any of the Audley mines (register numbers below are given with a space in place of the comma of the BM 1964R series).[84]
Ballycummisk specimens in the Russell collection (Natural History Museum London) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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References
1. Cole, G.A.J. (1922) Memoir and Map of Localities of Minerals of Economic Importance and Metalliferous Mines in Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Ballycummisk and Cappagh entries.
2. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 20, 26, 95–96, 115–116.
3. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Table 7 and pp. 115–116; Hyde, S. (1870) On deep mining, and the mineral-bearing strata of the south-west of Ireland. Geological Magazine 7, 241–252 (read before the Geological Society of London, 23 February 1870); copy in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554299, Mine Records: Geology), pp. 241–252.
4. Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), pp. 128–134, 150–156.
5. Hennessy et al. (2023) County Geological Site Report CK011, Ballycummisk Mine, prepared for The Geological Heritage of Cork: an audit of County Geological Sites in County Cork. Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin.
6. EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, §5.27.1 and the Ballycummisk detailed site report; Hennessy et al. (2023) County Geological Site Report CK011, Ballycummisk Mine, prepared for The Geological Heritage of Cork: an audit of County Geological Sites in County Cork. Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin.
7. Cole, G.A.J. (1922) Memoir and Map of Localities of Minerals of Economic Importance and Metalliferous Mines in Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Ballycummisk entry; EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, Ballycummisk detailed site report.
8. Hennessy et al. (2023) County Geological Site Report CK011, Ballycummisk Mine, prepared for The Geological Heritage of Cork: an audit of County Geological Sites in County Cork. Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin.
9. Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland field notes, August 2005 and July 2009 (earlier Mindat description of this locality); EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, Ballycummisk detailed site report, p. 2.
10. EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, Ballycummisk detailed site report, p. 1; Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), p. 128.
11. Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), p. 128.
12. Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), pp. 128–129 and Fig. 4.9a.
13. Kinahan, G.H. (1861) in Jukes, J.B., Du Noyer, G.V., Willson, W.L., Wyley, A. & Kinahan, G.H., Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 23–25.
14. Hyde, S. (1870) On deep mining, and the mineral-bearing strata of the south-west of Ireland. Geological Magazine 7, 241–252 (read before the Geological Society of London, 23 February 1870); copy in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554299, Mine Records: Geology), pp. 244–245.
15. Vivian, S. (1853) Report on Ballycummisk Copper Mine to T.S. Cave, Audley Mines, 16 July 1853. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), pp. 13–15.
16. Foley, P.J. jun. (1857) Report on the Ballycummisk Copper Mines, situate on the south west coast of the County of Cork. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), pp. 1–2 and 8–9.
17. Weaver, T. (1838) Geological relations of the south of Ireland. Transactions of the Geological Society of London, 2nd series, vol. 5, p. 26.
18. Jukes, J.B. (1861) Note on the mines of the south-west of Cork, in Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 27; Hyde, S. (1870) On deep mining, and the mineral-bearing strata of the south-west of Ireland. Geological Magazine 7, 241–252 (read before the Geological Society of London, 23 February 1870); copy in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554299, Mine Records: Geology), pp. 245–248.
19. Snodin, S.R. (1972) The nature and origin of copper-rich sedimentary rocks in south-west Cork, Ireland. Warren Spring Laboratory report; abstract in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554299, Mine Records: Geology, pp. 69–72); cited in Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191).
20. Wen, N., Boyce, A.J., Fallick, A.E., Ashworth, J.R. & Ixer, R.A. (1996) The genesis of Cu-bearing quartz veins by metamorphic remobilization from stratiform red bed deposits, SW County Cork, Ireland. Mineralogy and Petrology 57, 73–89.
21. Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), pp. 100, 131–134, 150–156, 180–181.
22. The Mining Journal (London), 11 September 1869, Vol. 39 No. 1777, leader on the Geological Survey memoirs and the mines of the Ballycummisk district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1869-09-11_39_1777); The Mining Journal (London), 18 December 1869, Vol. 39 No. supplement, paper on the Cappagh and Ballycummisk mines and the geology of the Schull district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1869-12-18_39_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 28 May 1870, Vol. 40 No. supplement, review of S. Hyde's paper to the Geological Society on the Ballycummisk and Coosheen mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1870-05-28_40_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 22 March 1873, Vol. 43 No. supplement, Deep Mining in the South-West of Ireland No. II (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-03-22_43_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 5 April 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1963, Deep Mining in the South-West of Ireland No. III (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-04-05_43_1963).
23. Vivian, S. (1853) Report on Ballycummisk Copper Mine to T.S. Cave, Audley Mines, 16 July 1853. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), pp. 13–15; Foley, P.J. jun. (1857) Report on the Ballycummisk Copper Mines, situate on the south west coast of the County of Cork. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), pp. 1–2; Kinahan, G.H. (1861) in Jukes, J.B., Du Noyer, G.V., Willson, W.L., Wyley, A. & Kinahan, G.H., Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 24–25; Hyde, S. (1870) On deep mining, and the mineral-bearing strata of the south-west of Ireland. Geological Magazine 7, 241–252 (read before the Geological Society of London, 23 February 1870); copy in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554299, Mine Records: Geology), pp. 244–246 and 251; Ballycummisk Mine abandonment plan No. 833: working plan at 8 fathoms to one inch and longitudinal section ("Record Plan", Joseph Dickinson, Inspector of Mines), deposited February 1878. Geological Survey of Ireland mine records (GSI Goldmine records 24780086, Mine Maps: Ballycummisk working plan, and 24780032, Mine Maps: Ballycummisk longitudinal section, Record Plan); Duffy, J. (1932) Report on copper deposits in south-west Ireland (Counties Cork and Kerry), 13 January 1932. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (Ballycummisk section filed in GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk; full report in GSI Goldmine record 9554307, Mine Records: Reports, Duffy 1932), pp. 17–18.
24. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 1; Calvert, J.C. (1857) Section of Ballycummisk Mine, dated 12 August and November 1857. Geological Survey of Ireland mine records (GSI Goldmine record 9557200, Mine Maps: Ballycummisk longitudinal section No. 8; tracing in GSI Goldmine record 9554141, Mine Records: Mine plans, Ballycummisk, pp. 2–3); Foley, P.J. jun. (1857) Report on the Ballycummisk Copper Mines, situate on the south west coast of the County of Cork. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), pp. 1–2.
25. The Mining Journal (London), 11 June 1870, Vol. 40 No. 1816, Mineral Resources of the South-West of Ireland, discovery at the 174 fathom level at Ballycummisk (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1870-06-11_40_1816); The Mining Journal (London), 13 July 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1925, prospectus of The Ballycummisk Copper Mining Company (Limited) with the report of A. Tregoning, 19 June 1872 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-07-13_42_1925); The Mining Journal (London), 2 November 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1941, British Mines, Ballycummisk, reports of Captain Daniells, 7 September to 26 October 1872 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-11-02_42_1941); The Mining Journal (London), 7 December 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1946, British Mines, Ballycummisk, reports of Captain Daniel, 1 to 15 November 1872 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-12-07_42_1946); The Mining Journal (London), 24 May 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1970, British Mines, Ballycummisk, report of Captain Daniels, 16 May 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-05-24_43_1970); The Mining Journal (London), 18 October 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1991, British Mines, Ballycummisk, report of Captain Daniell, 10 October 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-10-18_43_1991); The Mining Journal (London), 25 October 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1992, British Mines, Ballycummisk, report of Captain Daniell, 17 October 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-10-25_43_1992); The Mining Journal (London), 6 June 1874, Vol. 44 No. 2024, advertisement of the sale of the Ballycummisk and Coosheen Copper Mines by the liquidators, 8 July 1874 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1874-06-06_44_2024); The Mining Journal (London), 27 June 1874, Vol. 44 No. 2027, advertisement of the sale of the Ballycummisk and Coosheen Copper Mines by the liquidators, 8 July 1874 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1874-06-27_44_2027); The Mining Journal (London), 29 May 1875, Vol. 45 No. 2075, The Mineral Resources of the South-West of Ireland No. VI, Ballydehob district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1875-05-29_45_2075); The Mining Journal (London), 9 February 1878, Vol. 48 No. supplement, Tonkin, T., The Mineral Resources of Ireland, the Roaring Water and Ballycummisk district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1878-02-09_48_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 1 May 1880, Vol. 50 No. supplement, Thomas, W., Short Notices on Irish Mines, Ballycummisk and Cappagh (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1880-05-01_50_supplement).
26. Kinahan, G.H. (1861) in Jukes, J.B., Du Noyer, G.V., Willson, W.L., Wyley, A. & Kinahan, G.H., Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 24–25; Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), p. 97.
27. Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), p. 128; EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, Ballycummisk detailed site report, p. 1.
28. Butler, J.R. (1963) A report on elements in Irish copper ores, and Coughlan, H.E. (1963) A note on Irish copper ores and metals, in Ores and Metals: a report of the Ancient Mining and Metallurgical Committee, Royal Anthropological Institute, London, tabulated in Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Table 6, p. 107; Mining Journal 1872, p. 648 (prospectus of the Ballycummisk Copper Mining Company Ltd), tabulated in the same work, Table 6a, p. 106; Foley, P.J. jun. (1857) Report on the Ballycummisk Copper Mines, situate on the south west coast of the County of Cork. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), p. 2; Duffy, J. (1932) Report on copper deposits in south-west Ireland (Counties Cork and Kerry), 13 January 1932. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (Ballycummisk section filed in GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk; full report in GSI Goldmine record 9554307, Mine Records: Reports, Duffy 1932), p. 17.
29. Kinahan, G.H. (1861) in Jukes, J.B., Du Noyer, G.V., Willson, W.L., Wyley, A. & Kinahan, G.H., Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 24; Hyde, S. (1870) On deep mining, and the mineral-bearing strata of the south-west of Ireland. Geological Magazine 7, 241–252 (read before the Geological Society of London, 23 February 1870); copy in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554299, Mine Records: Geology), p. 246; Duffy, J. (1932) Report on copper deposits in south-west Ireland (Counties Cork and Kerry), 13 January 1932. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (Ballycummisk section filed in GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk; full report in GSI Goldmine record 9554307, Mine Records: Reports, Duffy 1932), pp. 17–18.
30. Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), pp. 97, 100, 131–134, citing Fletcher (1969).
31. EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, §5.27.1, and Ballycummisk detailed site report, p. 1.
32. Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), pp. 128–129.
33. Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), p. 97; Kinahan, G.H. (1861) in Jukes, J.B., Du Noyer, G.V., Willson, W.L., Wyley, A. & Kinahan, G.H., Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 24; Hyde, S. (1870) On deep mining, and the mineral-bearing strata of the south-west of Ireland. Geological Magazine 7, 241–252 (read before the Geological Society of London, 23 February 1870); copy in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554299, Mine Records: Geology), p. 244; Collins, H.F. (1917) Report on the Skull copper mines, Co. Cork, 31 August 1917. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554297, Mine Records: Reports, Skull), p. 25.
34. Kinahan, G.H. (1861) in Jukes, J.B., Du Noyer, G.V., Willson, W.L., Wyley, A. & Kinahan, G.H., Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 24; Hyde, S. (1870) On deep mining, and the mineral-bearing strata of the south-west of Ireland. Geological Magazine 7, 241–252 (read before the Geological Society of London, 23 February 1870); copy in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554299, Mine Records: Geology), p. 244.
35. Mining Journal 1863, p. 811, cited in Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Introduction note 2, p. 141; Foley, P.J. jun. (1857) Report on the Ballycummisk Copper Mines, situate on the south west coast of the County of Cork. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), pp. 1–2; EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, Ballycummisk detailed site report; Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), p. 130.
36. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Table 1, p. 6.
37. The Mining Journal (London), 28 March 1857, Vol. 27 No. 1127, notes on the Audley Mines under Mr Cave (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1857-03-28_27_1127); The Mining Journal (London), 3 October 1857, Vol. 27 No. 1154, Mining in Ireland, Audley Mines, shipment from Horse Island and Ballycummisk (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1857-10-03_27_1154); The Mining Journal (London), 17 December 1859, Vol. 29 No. 1269, letter of John Roberts, Facts from the Schull mining district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1859-12-17_29_1269); The Mining Journal (London), 4 July 1863, Vol. 33 No. 1454, Mining in Ireland, the Cappagh, Ballycummisk and Schull Bay mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1863-07-04_33_1454); The Mining Journal (London), 18 February 1865, Vol. 35 No. 1539, letter of A Mine Proprietor, Crookhaven, 15 February 1865 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1865-02-18_35_1539); The Mining Journal (London), 10 February 1866, Vol. 36 No. 1590, the Irish Industrial Magazine on the value of Irish copper ores (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1866-02-10_36_1590).
38. The Mining Journal (London), 18 December 1869, Vol. 39 No. supplement, paper on the Cappagh and Ballycummisk mines and the geology of the Schull district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1869-12-18_39_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 28 May 1870, Vol. 40 No. supplement, review of S. Hyde's paper to the Geological Society on the Ballycummisk and Coosheen mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1870-05-28_40_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 13 July 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1925, prospectus of The Ballycummisk Copper Mining Company (Limited) with the report of A. Tregoning, 19 June 1872 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-07-13_42_1925); The Mining Journal (London), 15 March 1873, Vol. 43 No. supplement, Deep Mining in the South-West of Ireland No. I (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-03-15_43_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 9 February 1878, Vol. 48 No. supplement, Tonkin, T., The Mineral Resources of Ireland, the Roaring Water and Ballycummisk district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1878-02-09_48_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 1 May 1880, Vol. 50 No. supplement, Thomas, W., Short Notices on Irish Mines, Ballycummisk and Cappagh (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1880-05-01_50_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 3 April 1880, Vol. 50 No. supplement, letter on barytes in the Cappagh mines and at Ballycummisk (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1880-04-03_50_supplement).
39. EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, §5.27.1, and Ballycummisk detailed site report.
40. Collins, H.F. (1917) Report on the Skull copper mines, Co. Cork, 31 August 1917. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554297, Mine Records: Reports, Skull), pp. 25–26.
41. Hunt, R. (1848) Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and of the Museum of Practical Geology, vol. II part ii (returns of copper ores sold 1804–47), p. 712 ff.; Cole, G.A.J. (1922) Memoir and Map of Localities of Minerals of Economic Importance and Metalliferous Mines in Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Ballycummisk entry; Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Table 2, p. 21.
42. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 25–28.
43. Murray, A. (1833) General report on the estates of Lord Audley, 13 November 1833, printed in Pike v. Vigers (Court of Chancery, Ireland, 1838), reported in Drury, W.B. & Walsh, F.W. (1842) Reports of cases argued and determined in the High Court of Chancery in Ireland during the time of Lord Chancellor Plunket, Dublin; copy in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554308, Mine Records: Mine Reports, West Cork), pp. 93–95, and in the Landed Estates Court, particulars of sale of the Audley estate (1852/1855), Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554308, Mine Records: Mine Reports, West Cork), pp. 16 and 18.
44. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 31–36.
45. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 95–96 and 164 (notes 15.14–15.18); Vivian, S. (1853) Report on Ballycummisk Copper Mine to T.S. Cave, Audley Mines, 16 July 1853. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), pp. 13–15.
46. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 115 and 168 (notes 19.1–19.5) and Fig. 20, p. 53; Foley, P.J. jun. (1857) Report on the Ballycummisk Copper Mines, situate on the south west coast of the County of Cork. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), pp. 1–2; Ballycummisk Mine setting ledgers, October and November 1857. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554138, Mine Records: Financial, Ballycummisk setting ledgers 1857, pp. 1–2).
47. Cole, G.A.J. (1922) Memoir and Map of Localities of Minerals of Economic Importance and Metalliferous Mines in Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Ballycummisk entry; Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 115.
48. Mining Journal 1858, p. 764 ("Rough Notes" IV), cited in Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 168 (note 19.7).
49. Kinahan, G.H. (1861) in Jukes, J.B., Du Noyer, G.V., Willson, W.L., Wyley, A. & Kinahan, G.H., Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 24.
50. Hyde, S. (1870) On deep mining, and the mineral-bearing strata of the south-west of Ireland. Geological Magazine 7, 241–252 (read before the Geological Society of London, 23 February 1870); copy in the Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554299, Mine Records: Geology), pp. 246 (and footnote) and 251.
51. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 115, 118 and 169–170 (notes 19.10 and 19.35); Morris, J.H. & Cowman, D. (2001) An index to listings of Irish mining companies in the catalogue of the Board of Trade records held in the Public Record Office, Kew. Journal of the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland 1, 9–18.
52. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, pp. 112 (Fig. 36) and 115–116; Cole, G.A.J. (1922) Memoir and Map of Localities of Minerals of Economic Importance and Metalliferous Mines in Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Ballycummisk entry.
53. The Mining Journal (London), 28 March 1857, Vol. 27 No. 1127, notes on the Audley Mines under Mr Cave (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1857-03-28_27_1127); The Mining Journal (London), 3 October 1857, Vol. 27 No. 1154, Mining in Ireland, Audley Mines, shipment from Horse Island and Ballycummisk (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1857-10-03_27_1154); The Mining Journal (London), 6 March 1858, Vol. 28 No. 1176, Swansea copper-ore sales, 2 March 1858 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1858-03-06_28_1176); The Mining Journal (London), 20 November 1858, Vol. 28 No. 1213, Mining in Ireland, Rough Notes No. IV (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1858-11-20_28_1213).
54. The Mining Journal (London), 17 December 1859, Vol. 29 No. 1269, letter of John Roberts, Facts from the Schull mining district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1859-12-17_29_1269); The Mining Journal (London), 28 December 1861, Vol. 31 No. 1375, Swansea copper-ore sales for the quarter ending 30 December 1861 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1861-12-28_31_1375); The Mining Journal (London), 13 July 1861, Vol. 31 No. 1351, West Carbery Eagle on the Schull Bay and Ballycummisk mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1861-07-13_31_1351); The Mining Journal (London), 21 September 1861, Vol. 31 No. 1361, letter of M. Edwards, Redruth, on the Audley Mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1861-09-21_31_1361).
55. The Mining Journal (London), 12 July 1862, Vol. 32 No. 1403, paper on the mines of the Schull district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1862-07-12_32_1403); The Mining Journal (London), 1 November 1862, Vol. 32 No. 1419, Mining in the West of Ireland, a visit to the Schull district mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1862-11-01_32_1419); The Mining Journal (London), 7 March 1863, Vol. 33 No. 1437, Mining in Ireland, discoveries at Cappagh and Ballycummisk (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1863-03-07_33_1437); The Mining Journal (London), 14 March 1863, Vol. 33 No. 1438, Mining in the West of Ireland, district notes (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1863-03-14_33_1438); The Mining Journal (London), 2 May 1863, Vol. 33 No. 1445, Mining in Ireland, district notes (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1863-05-02_33_1445); The Mining Journal (London), 27 June 1863, Vol. 33 No. 1453, Irish Mine Share Market, Swansea sales of 16 June 1863 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1863-06-27_33_1453); The Mining Journal (London), 30 January 1864, Vol. 34 No. 1484, letter of John Morgan, working miner, Skibbereen (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1864-01-30_34_1484); The Mining Journal (London), 26 December 1863, Vol. 33 No. 1479, Mining in Ireland, a tour of the West Cork mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1863-12-26_33_1479).
56. The Mining Journal (London), 3 September 1864, Vol. 34 No. 1515, leader on the Roaring Water and neighbouring mines after G. Henwood's report (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1864-09-03_34_1515); The Mining Journal (London), 18 February 1865, Vol. 35 No. 1539, letter of A Mine Proprietor, Crookhaven, 15 February 1865 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1865-02-18_35_1539); The Mining Journal (London), 25 November 1865, Vol. 35 No. 1579, letter on the copper trade and the Cork mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1865-11-25_35_1579); The Mining Journal (London), 29 September 1866, Vol. 36 No. 1623, Mining in Ireland, the Cappagh, Ballycummisk and Schull Bay mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1866-09-29_36_1623); The Mining Journal (London), 10 November 1866, Vol. 36 No. supplement, Swansea copper-ore sales for the quarter ending September 1866 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1866-11-10_36_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 24 August 1867, Vol. 37 No. 1670, Landed Estates Court, sale of the late Audley estate (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1867-08-24_37_1670); The Mining Journal (London), 11 September 1869, Vol. 39 No. 1777, leader on the Geological Survey memoirs and the mines of the Ballycummisk district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1869-09-11_39_1777); The Mining Journal (London), 18 December 1869, Vol. 39 No. supplement, paper on the Cappagh and Ballycummisk mines and the geology of the Schull district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1869-12-18_39_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 15 January 1870, Vol. 40 No. 1795, Copper mining in Ireland, the Cappagh Mining Company (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1870-01-15_40_1795).
57. The Mining Journal (London), 21 May 1870, Vol. 40 No. 1813, leader on Mining in Ireland and Mr Hyde's paper (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1870-05-21_40_1813); The Mining Journal (London), 28 May 1870, Vol. 40 No. supplement, review of S. Hyde's paper to the Geological Society on the Ballycummisk and Coosheen mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1870-05-28_40_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 11 June 1870, Vol. 40 No. 1816, Mineral Resources of the South-West of Ireland, discovery at the 174 fathom level at Ballycummisk (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1870-06-11_40_1816); The Mining Journal (London), 13 July 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1925, prospectus of The Ballycummisk Copper Mining Company (Limited) with the report of A. Tregoning, 19 June 1872 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-07-13_42_1925); The Mining Journal (London), 20 July 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1926, registration and abridged prospectus of The Ballycummisk Copper Mining Company (Limited) (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-07-20_42_1926).
58. The Mining Journal (London), 28 September 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1936, Mining in Ireland, Ballycummisk ore ready for shipment (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-09-28_42_1936); The Mining Journal (London), 2 November 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1941, British Mines, Ballycummisk, reports of Captain Daniells, 7 September to 26 October 1872 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-11-02_42_1941); The Mining Journal (London), 25 January 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1953, British Mines, Ballycummisk, manager's report for the week ending 17 January 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-01-25_43_1953); The Mining Journal (London), 17 May 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1969, British Mines, Ballycummisk, sale of 126 tons and report of Captain Daniells (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-05-17_43_1969); The Mining Journal (London), 21 June 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1974, British Mines, Ballycummisk, report of Captain Daniells, 13 June 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-06-21_43_1974); The Mining Journal (London), 15 March 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1960, Mining Notabilia, Ballycummisk sale of 118 tons (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-03-15_43_1960); The Mining Journal (London), 31 May 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1971, advertisement of Henry Mansell, Ballycummisk shares (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-05-31_43_1971); The Mining Journal (London), 18 October 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1991, British Mines, Ballycummisk, report of Captain Daniell, 10 October 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-10-18_43_1991); The Mining Journal (London), 25 October 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1992, British Mines, Ballycummisk, report of Captain Daniell, 17 October 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-10-25_43_1992).
59. The Mining Journal (London), 12 July 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1977, advertisement of Trevoir and Co., mining brokers (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-07-12_43_1977); The Mining Journal (London), 14 March 1874, Vol. 44 No. 2012, Swansea sale list for 31 March 1874 and notice of the Ballycummisk Copper Mining Company (Limited) in liquidation (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1874-03-14_44_2012); The Mining Journal (London), 6 June 1874, Vol. 44 No. 2024, advertisement of the sale of the Ballycummisk and Coosheen Copper Mines by the liquidators, 8 July 1874 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1874-06-06_44_2024); The Mining Journal (London), 27 June 1874, Vol. 44 No. 2027, advertisement of the sale of the Ballycummisk and Coosheen Copper Mines by the liquidators, 8 July 1874 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1874-06-27_44_2027).
60. The Mining Journal (London), 29 May 1875, Vol. 45 No. 2075, The Mineral Resources of the South-West of Ireland No. VI, Ballydehob district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1875-05-29_45_2075); The Mining Journal (London), 11 November 1876, Vol. 46 No. 2151, Swansea copper-ore sales, 7 November 1876 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1876-11-11_46_2151); The Mining Journal (London), 11 August 1877, Vol. 47 No. supplement, copper ores sold at Swansea in the year to June 1877 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1877-08-11_47_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 9 February 1878, Vol. 48 No. supplement, Tonkin, T., The Mineral Resources of Ireland, the Roaring Water and Ballycummisk district (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1878-02-09_48_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 28 February 1880, Vol. 50 No. supplement, Mining in the South-West of Ireland, a dialogue quoting Kane on the Audley mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1880-02-28_50_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 1 May 1880, Vol. 50 No. supplement, Thomas, W., Short Notices on Irish Mines, Ballycummisk and Cappagh (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1880-05-01_50_supplement); The Mining Journal (London), 4 October 1884, Vol. 54 No. 2563, Board of Trade list of defunct companies to be struck off the register (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1884-10-04_54_2563).
61. Morris, J.H. & Cowman, D. (2001) An index to listings of Irish mining companies in the catalogue of the Board of Trade records held in the Public Record Office, Kew. Journal of the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland 1, 9–18; the fatality is listed in a secondary index of Irish mining accidents 1900–09; the original Inspector of Mines return has not been located.
62. Daly, H.J. (1917) Report on the Skull copper mines, Co. Cork, for the Ministry of Munitions, 9 June 1917. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554297, Mine Records: Reports, Skull), pp. 20–21; Collins, H.F. (1917) Report on the Skull copper mines, Co. Cork, 31 August 1917. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554297, Mine Records: Reports, Skull), pp. 25–26.
63. Duffy, J. (1932) Report on copper deposits in south-west Ireland (Counties Cork and Kerry), 13 January 1932. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (Ballycummisk section filed in GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk; full report in GSI Goldmine record 9554307, Mine Records: Reports, Duffy 1932), pp. 17–18.
64. Dresser Minerals (1979–81) Prospecting Licence 2814, Ballycummisk: logs of diamond drill holes BC1–BC5, section of underground development on the 80 ft level from the upper shaft, and geological map of the Ballycummisk area. Geological Survey of Ireland open files 10207159–10207184 (GSI Goldmine).
65. EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin; Hennessy et al. (2023) County Geological Site Report CK011, Ballycummisk Mine, prepared for The Geological Heritage of Cork: an audit of County Geological Sites in County Cork. Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin.
66. Kinahan, G.H. (1861) in Jukes, J.B., Du Noyer, G.V., Willson, W.L., Wyley, A. & Kinahan, G.H., Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 24; Vivian, S. (1853) Report on Ballycummisk Copper Mine to T.S. Cave, Audley Mines, 16 July 1853. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), p. 15; Foley, P.J. jun. (1857) Report on the Ballycummisk Copper Mines, situate on the south west coast of the County of Cork. Typed transcript, Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk), p. 1; Duffy, J. (1932) Report on copper deposits in south-west Ireland (Counties Cork and Kerry), 13 January 1932. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (Ballycummisk section filed in GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk; full report in GSI Goldmine record 9554307, Mine Records: Reports, Duffy 1932), p. 17.
67. Calvert, J.C. (1857) Section of Ballycummisk Mine, dated 12 August and November 1857. Geological Survey of Ireland mine records (GSI Goldmine record 9557200, Mine Maps: Ballycummisk longitudinal section No. 8; tracing in GSI Goldmine record 9554141, Mine Records: Mine plans, Ballycummisk, pp. 2–3); Kinahan, G.H. (1861) in Jukes, J.B., Du Noyer, G.V., Willson, W.L., Wyley, A. & Kinahan, G.H., Explanations to accompany Sheets 200, 203, 204 and 205, and part of 199, of the maps of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 24; Duffy, J. (1932) Report on copper deposits in south-west Ireland (Counties Cork and Kerry), 13 January 1932. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (Ballycummisk section filed in GSI Goldmine record 9554143, Mine Records: Reports, Ballycummisk; full report in GSI Goldmine record 9554307, Mine Records: Reports, Duffy 1932), p. 18.
68. Ballycummisk Mine abandonment plan No. 833: working plan at 8 fathoms to one inch and longitudinal section ("Record Plan", Joseph Dickinson, Inspector of Mines), deposited February 1878. Geological Survey of Ireland mine records (GSI Goldmine records 24780086, Mine Maps: Ballycummisk working plan, and 24780032, Mine Maps: Ballycummisk longitudinal section, Record Plan); Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Fig. 36, pp. 112–113.
69. Hennessy et al. (2023) County Geological Site Report CK011, Ballycummisk Mine, prepared for The Geological Heritage of Cork: an audit of County Geological Sites in County Cork. Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin.
70. EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, Ballycummisk detailed site report, p. 2; Hennessy et al. (2023) County Geological Site Report CK011, Ballycummisk Mine, prepared for The Geological Heritage of Cork: an audit of County Geological Sites in County Cork. Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin.
71. EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, Ballycummisk detailed site report.
72. The Mining Journal (London), 3 October 1857, Vol. 27 No. 1154, Mining in Ireland, the Audley Mines, a shipment from Horse Island and Ballycummisk and the pumping engine (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1857-10-03_27_1154).
73. The Mining Journal (London), 1 November 1862, Vol. 32 No. 1419, Mining in the West of Ireland, a visit to the Schull district mines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1862-11-01_32_1419); The Mining Journal (London), 13 July 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1925, prospectus of The Ballycummisk Copper Mining Company (Limited) with the report of A. Tregoning, 19 June 1872 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-07-13_42_1925); The Mining Journal (London), 27 June 1874, Vol. 44 No. 2027, advertisement of the sale of the Ballycummisk and Coosheen Copper Mines by the liquidators, 8 July 1874 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1874-06-27_44_2027); The Mining Journal (London), 25 January 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1953, British Mines, Ballycummisk, manager's report for the week ending 17 January 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-01-25_43_1953); The Mining Journal (London), 24 May 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1970, British Mines, Ballycummisk, report of Captain Daniels, 16 May 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-05-24_43_1970); The Mining Journal (London), 23 August 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1983, British Mines, Ballycummisk, report of Captain Daniell, 15 August 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-08-23_43_1983); The Mining Journal (London), 28 June 1873, Vol. 43 No. 1975, British Mines, Ballycummisk, report of Captain Daniell, 20 June 1873 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1873-06-28_43_1975); The Mining Journal (London), 2 November 1872, Vol. 42 No. 1941, British Mines, Ballycummisk, reports of Captain Daniells, 7 September to 26 October 1872 (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1872-11-02_42_1941).
74. Cundick, R. (2002) Harvey's of Hayle: sales to Irish mines 1823–1884. Journal of the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland, 2, 15–20 (Irish extracts from the Harvey and Co. account books, pp. 17–20)..
75. The Mining Journal (London), 12 August 1854, Vol. 24 No. 990, Dublin correspondent on T. S. Cave and the Audley Mines: Messrs Harvey of Hayle removed the engines (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1854-08-12_24_990).
76. Cowman, D. and Reilly, T. A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, chapter 15 note 18 (Cave's engine and crushers reclaimed by the suppliers), citing The Mining Journal (London) 1853 p. 789 and 1854 p. 540..
77. The Mining Journal (London), 21 July 1855, Vol. 25 No. 1039, Skibbereen correspondent, Mining Operations in Ireland: the Audley Mines idle; machinery never required, some transshipped to the manufacturers (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1855-07-21_25_1039).
78. The Mining Journal (London), 28 July 1855, Vol. 25 No. 1040, Letter of M. Edwards, Mining in Ireland, the Audley Mines: the only machinery ordered was a crusher and saw-mill costing about 450l., bought back by the merchants when the works were suspended (Internet Archive item sim_mining-journal_1855-07-28_25_1040).
79. Cundick, R. (2002) Harvey's of Hayle: sales to Irish mines 1823–1884. Journal of the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland, 2, 15–20 (Irish extracts from the Harvey and Co. account books, pp. 17–20)..
80. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Table 7, p. 117, and Table 2, p. 21; Cole, G.A.J. (1922) Memoir and Map of Localities of Minerals of Economic Importance and Metalliferous Mines in Ireland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Ballycummisk entry; Daly, H.J. (1917) Report on the Skull copper mines, Co. Cork, for the Ministry of Munitions, 9 June 1917. Geological Survey of Ireland mine-record files (GSI Goldmine record 9554297, Mine Records: Reports, Skull), pp. 20–21.
81. Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, p. 3.
82. Internet Archive, The Mining Journal (London), collection pub_mining-journal, per-issue scans and OCR text, identifiers sim_mining-journal_YYYY-MM-DD_volume_issue (archive.org, consulted September 2026).
83. Hennessy et al. (2023) County Geological Site Report CK011, Ballycummisk Mine, prepared for The Geological Heritage of Cork: an audit of County Geological Sites in County Cork. Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin; EPA/GSI (2009) Historic Mine Sites – Inventory and Risk Classification, Vol. 1 and site reports. Environmental Protection Agency and Geological Survey of Ireland, Wexford and Dublin, Ballycummisk detailed site report; Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland field notes 2009 (earlier Mindat description of this locality).
84. Natural History Museum, London, register of the Sir Arthur Russell mineral collection (BM 1964R series), Irish entries as listed by the Department of Mineralogy, Ballycummisk entries.
85. Lang, J. (2022) Metallogenesis of Cu deposits in Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks, southern Ireland. PhD thesis, University College Cork (hdl.handle.net/10468/13191), p. 100; Cowman, D. & Reilly, T.A. (1988) The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters, Adventurers and Miners. Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, Table 6, p. 107.
86. Hennessy et al. (2023) County Geological Site Report CK011, Ballycummisk Mine, prepared for The Geological Heritage of Cork: an audit of County Geological Sites in County Cork. Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin.
Select Mineral List Type
Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical ElementsDetailed Mineral List:
| ⓘ Formula: FeAsS References: |
| ⓘ Azurite Formula: Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 Habit: None Colour: Blue Description: Found on oxidising Sulphides as thin strong blue coatings. References: |
| ⓘ Baryte Formula: BaSO4 Habit: Tabular Colour: White Description: Significant amounts of massive material can be found on the spoil heap. Micaceous hematite is often found in conjunction with massive barite.
Rarely tabular crystals can be found. References: |
| ⓘ Bismuthinite Formula: Bi2S3 Description: Identified by thin-section ore microscopy. |
| ⓘ Bornite Formula: Cu5FeS4 Habit: None Colour: Grey Description: Found occasionaly associated with Barite References: |
| ⓘ Calcite Formula: CaCO3 Habit: Scalenohedral Colour: Clear to white to milky Description: Found in varying crystal forms. Quartz and scalenohedral calcite are sometimes found lining vuggy slate specimens. Other specimens show rhombohedral blade like crystals often associated with massive quartz and sulfide. References: |
| ⓘ Chalcocite Formula: Cu2S References: |
| ⓘ Chalcopyrite Formula: CuFeS2 Habit: Modified crystals Colour: Gold Description: Crystals are rare but common in massive form usually associated with massive quartz and barite. References: |
| ⓘ 'Chlorite Group' Colour: Green Description: Occasionally found as spongy green masses associated with quartz or else as inclusions in quartz crystals. References: |
| ⓘ Clinochlore Formula: Mg5Al(AlSi3O10)(OH)8 References: |
| ⓘ Dolomite Formula: CaMg(CO3)2 Habit: Rhombohedral Colour: Brown Description: Seldom found unoxidised. Hard to distinguish from siderite, often accompanies massive quartz. Chalky brown texture when found in spoil. References: |
| ⓘ Ferrimolybdite Formula: Fe2(MoO4)3 · nH2O Habit: None Colour: Yellow encrustations Description: Yellow powdery coating on molybdenite |
| ⓘ Galena Formula: PbS |
| ⓘ Gypsum Formula: CaSO4 · 2H2O Habit: Needle-like Colour: Colourless Description: Found as post mining coatings on sulfide material. References: |
| ⓘ Hematite Formula: Fe2O3 Colour: Brown Description: Micaceous hematite is abundant throughout the spoil heap and often associated with white massive baryte or quartz. References: |
| ✪ Hematite var. Specularite Formula: Fe2O3 Habit: Bladed crystals in ball form Colour: Black Description: Usually found as micro rosettes on quartz crystals, often times in the presence of tetrahedrite.
Larger masses of bladed/rosette crystals are nearly always very badly oxidised. References: |
| ⓘ 'Limonite' Description: Found in association with oxidised sulfide material. References: |
| ⓘ Magnetite Formula: Fe2+Fe3+2O4 Description: Trace mineral, found during thin section ore microscopy. |
| ⓘ Malachite Formula: Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 Habit: Mammilations Colour: Green Description: Post mining staining on sulfide material due to spoil heap oxidation. Occasionally mammilated. References: |
| ⓘ Marcasite Formula: FeS2 Habit: Bi-Pyrimidal Colour: Tin White on fresh break and dark metallic white (very dark nearly greyish but not quite) on tarnish (spoil heap form). Description: Poor quality material showing small damaged bi-pyrimidal crystals enclosed by host rock. References: |
| ⓘ Molybdenite Formula: MoS2 Habit: None Colour: Grey Description: Found in massive form, always oxidised. References: |
| ⓘ Native Bismuth Formula: Bi Description: Identified by thin-section ore microscopy |
| ⓘ Native Gold Formula: Au Description: Detected by thin-section ore microscopy. |
| ⓘ Pyrite Formula: FeS2 Habit: Modified crystals Colour: Tarnished when found on the spoil heap but can be easily reversed with an acid wash Description: Crystals are rarely found and tend to be oxidised. References: |
| ✪ Quartz Formula: SiO2 Habit: Prismatic Colour: Clear to milky Description: Primary gangue mineral. It should be noted that most of the crystallized sulfides are hosted in quartz vugs. Crystallization varies significantly. It is often times found lining cavities in the country rock as small but pretty druses of crystals. Much more commonly however it is found associated with massive quartz vein material.
References: |
| ⓘ Quartz var. Smoky Quartz Formula: SiO2 Habit: Prismatic Colour: Black Description: Found as small prisms. Easily mistaken for chlorite included quartz. References: |
| ✪ Siderite Formula: FeCO3 Habit: Rhombohedral Colour: Brown-White-Clear Description: Generally found as earthy-brown oxidised material in quartz. Occasionally well formed saddle-shaped crystals and rhombs are found albeit oxidised to a brown colour. References: |
| ✪ 'Tetrahedrite Subgroup' Formula: Cu6(Cu4C2+2)Sb4S12S Habit: Tetrahedral Colour: Green tarnish when oxidised. Metallic grey when fresh or cleaned with acid Description: Tetrahedrite was the primary ore mined and can be found as oxidised lumps on the spoil heap. Occasionally found as well formed tetrahedral crystals and assemblages of crystals.
References: |
Gallery:
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
| Group 1 - Elements | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ⓘ | Native Gold | 1.AA.05 | Au |
| ⓘ | Native Bismuth | 1.CA.05 | Bi |
| Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts | |||
| ⓘ | Chalcocite | 2.BA.05 | Cu2S |
| ⓘ | Bornite | 2.BA.15 | Cu5FeS4 |
| ⓘ | Chalcopyrite | 2.CB.10a | CuFeS2 |
| ⓘ | Galena | 2.CD.10 | PbS |
| ⓘ | Bismuthinite | 2.DB.05 | Bi2S3 |
| ⓘ | Molybdenite | 2.EA.30 | MoS2 |
| ⓘ | Pyrite | 2.EB.05a | FeS2 |
| ⓘ | Marcasite | 2.EB.10a | FeS2 |
| ⓘ | Arsenopyrite ? | 2.EB.20 | FeAsS |
| ⓘ | 'Tetrahedrite Subgroup' | 2.GB.05 | Cu6(Cu4C2+2)Sb4S12S |
| Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides | |||
| ⓘ | Quartz | 4.00.05 | SiO2 |
| ⓘ | var. Smoky Quartz | 4.00.05 | SiO2 |
| ⓘ | Magnetite | 4.BB.05 | Fe2+Fe3+2O4 |
| ⓘ | Hematite | 4.CB.05 | Fe2O3 |
| ⓘ | var. Specularite | 4.CB.05 | Fe2O3 |
| Group 5 - Nitrates and Carbonates | |||
| ⓘ | Calcite | 5.AB.05 | CaCO3 |
| ⓘ | Siderite | 5.AB.05 | FeCO3 |
| ⓘ | Dolomite | 5.AB.10 | CaMg(CO3)2 |
| ⓘ | Azurite | 5.BA.05 | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| ⓘ | Malachite | 5.BA.10 | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| Group 7 - Sulphates, Chromates, Molybdates and Tungstates | |||
| ⓘ | Baryte | 7.AD.35 | BaSO4 |
| ⓘ | Gypsum | 7.CD.40 | CaSO4 · 2H2O |
| ⓘ | Ferrimolybdite | 7.GB.30 | Fe2(MoO4)3 · nH2O |
| Group 9 - Silicates | |||
| ⓘ | Clinochlore | 9.EC.55 | Mg5Al(AlSi3O10)(OH)8 |
| Unclassified | |||
| ⓘ | 'Chlorite Group' | - | |
| ⓘ | 'Limonite' | - | |
List of minerals for each chemical element
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
- Rheno-Hercynian BeltOrogenic Belt
Ballycummisk Mine, Audley Mines, Ballydehob, Mizen Peninsula, Cork County, Munster, Ireland