Wheal Edward

Overview

Wheal Edward, on the cliffs at Botallack beside West Wheal Owles, worked copper and tin from an incline shaft running out under the sea — and, decades after closing, gave up a mineral nobody was originally looking for: pitchblende, some of it sent to Marie Curie herself, and later mined in earnest for uranium by the Atomic Energy Authority.

History

Wheal Edward worked copper and tin lodes on the cliffs at Botallack from an incline shaft extending out under the sea, driven through notably hard greenstone bedrock. First returns date from 1821, and the mine was reopened in 1863; between 1821 and 1856 it produced only 2 tons of black tin but 955 tons of 9% copper ore. An engine house built around 1870 housed a rotating beam engine that drove the Wheal Edward stamps, crushing ore with 32 heads by the 1880s. In 1893, following the flooding disaster at the neighbouring West Wheal Owles, Wheal Edward was closed too — its workings were directly linked underground to Wheal Owles and the flooded Wheal Drea, and could not safely continue once that inundation occurred (see Disasters, below). The site's mineral specimens later proved unexpectedly significant: pitchblende from Wheal Edward was sent to Marie Curie, and between 1957 and 1959 the Atomic Energy Authority extracted 19 tons of uraniferous ore from the Wheal Edward cliff lode.

Geology

The mine worked copper and tin lodes within the St Just mining district of west Cornwall, part of the same hydrothermal, granite-related Cornubian orefield worked across Penwith; the same lodes also carried pitchblende, an unusual secondary mineralisation for the district.

Geological setting: Hydrothermal Deposits (well documented example), Veins and Lodes (well documented example)

Workings

An incline shaft extended the workings out under the sea through hard greenstone bedrock; an engine house built around 1870 housed a rotating beam engine driving the Wheal Edward stamps, which crushed ore with 32 heads by the 1880s.

Closure

The mine closed in 1893 after the flooding disaster at the neighbouring West Wheal Owles, to which its own workings were directly linked underground.

What remains

The engine house and associated mine remains survive on the cliffs at Botallack, within a few metres of the West Wheal Owles engine house.

Abandoned workings can be dangerous — unstable ground, uncapped shafts, flooding and bad air are common even where a site looks safe from the surface. This entry describes history and general location only; it is not an access guide.

Disasters & major incidents

• Wheal Owles flooding disaster
  10 January 1893 · Flooding / Inundation · 20 fatalities
  Miners broke through into the flooded, long-abandoned workings of Wheal Drea, trapping and drowning twenty men and boys underground.

Recorded claims

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

• Between 1821 and 1856 the mine produced only 2 tons of black tin but 955 tons of 9% copper ore; by the 1880s its stamps were crushing ore with 32 heads. ^1,2
• Pitchblende from Wheal Edward was sent to Marie Curie, and between 1957 and 1959 the Atomic Energy Authority extracted 19 tons of uraniferous ore from the Wheal Edward cliff lode. ¹

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) Wheal Edward, Botallack, St Just, Cornwall, England, UK — Albion Fire and Ice
2. (primary) Wheal Edward - Northern Mine Research Society — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) Vertical Longitudinal Section Wheal Drea & Wheal Edward (BGS Mine Plans Catalogue) — British Geological Survey / Pendeen Community Heritage

Record created: 23 August 2026 · Last researched: 23 August 2026