Wheal Andrew

Overview

A Gwennap copper mine, also recorded as Friendship Mines, absorbed into the wider United Mines group before closing around 1870 as part of Clifford Amalgamated Mines.

History

Wheal Andrew, also recorded in some sources as Friendship Mines, was eventually incorporated into the expanded United Mines group, alongside Wheal Clifford, Wheal Squire, Wheal Britannia and Wheal Moor -- itself founded around 1780 from the amalgamation of Ale and Cakes Mine, Wheal Cupboard and Poldory. In the early 1820s the mining engineer John Taylor acquired the lease of the largely abandoned United Mines workings and rebuilt them into profitability, striking what was at the time the richest copper lode in the world; the mines were well in profit by 1822. At its 19th-century peak the United Mines group's underground workings extended some 80 miles, driven by 22 operating engines; between 1815 and 1861 the group as a whole raised 347,500 tons of 7.5%-grade copper ore, alongside 250 tons of black tin, 158 tons of arsenic, 1,290 tons of pyrite and 271 tons of zinc ore. United Mines merged with the neighbouring Consolidated Mines in 1857 to form Clifford Amalgamated Mines, which continued operating, increasingly unprofitably, until closure around 1870 as metals discovered elsewhere in the world depressed global prices. The Wheal Andrew lodes were not quite finished with in 1870. During the 1920s three brothers named Wellington worked them close to surface in a small way, carting the ore to a Cornish stamps down the valley for its tin, until a crush put their shaft out of action; in 1935 Mount Wellington Ltd acquired the rights over United and Consolidated Mines, Wheal Clifford and Wheal Andrew, and the ground passed into the Mount Wellington sett.

Geology

Copper in the United Mines ground at Gwennap; the lode is not named on the record.

Workings

One of the mines absorbed into the wider United Mines group, whose combined 19th-century workings extended some 80 miles underground and were served by 22 operating engines.

Closure

Closed around 1870 as part of Clifford Amalgamated Mines, following declining global metal prices. The lodes were reworked near surface in the 1920s and passed to Mount Wellington Ltd in 1935.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Mount Wellington Mine — Mount Wellington Ltd acquired the rights over Wheal Andrew in 1935, and the brothers who gave that mine its name had worked the Wheal Andrew lodes in the 1920s.
• United Mines — Absorbed into the wider United Mines group in the 19th century.
• Wheal Clifford — Both became part of United Mines and passed together to Mount Wellington Ltd in 1935.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Wheal Andrew, also recorded in some sources as Friendship Mines, was eventually incorporated into the expanded United Mines group, alongside Wheal Clifford, Wheal Squire, Wheal Britannia and Wheal Moor. ¹
• In the early 1820s John Taylor rebuilt the largely abandoned United Mines workings into profitability; between 1815 and 1861 the group raised 347,500 tons of 7.5%-grade copper ore alongside black tin, arsenic, pyrite and zinc ore, before merging into Clifford Amalgamated Mines in 1857 and closing around 1870. ²
• The British Geological Survey's mine plan catalogue holds a plan catalogued simply as 'Wheal Andrew' (MP23669, scanned), two 'Fredericks and North Wheal Andrew project' sections at 3250E and 3300E (MP25540 and MP25541), and the Clifford Amalgamated group's copper-ore abandonment plan (OMR103), which lists Wheal Andrew among the setts it covers. ^3,4
• During the 1920s three brothers named Wellington worked the old Wheal Andrew lodes close to surface in a small way, taking ore to a Cornish stamps down the valley; Captain Josiah Paull reported the ore yielding an average of 30 lb of black tin per ton before a crush put their shaft out of action. In 1935 Mount Wellington Ltd, backed by the British Non-Ferrous Mining Corporation, acquired the rights on United and Consolidated Mines, Wheal Clifford and Wheal Andrew. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) United Mines, Gwennap Cornwall — Cornwall Calling
2. (secondary) United Mines — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
3. (primary) Mine plan: Clifford Amalgamated Consolidated and United ... Wheal Fortune ... (abandonment plan, Copper Ore, 1870) — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue
4. (primary) Mine plans: Wheal Andrew (MP23669); Fredericks and North Wheal Andrew project sections (MP25540, MP25541) (BGS Mine Plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey
5. (secondary) Mount Wellington Tin Mine — Wikipedia

Record created: 30 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026