Rogerley Fluorspar Mine, Weardale

[caiman]

A different Weardale fluorspar mine - and what is more it is still in operation. Visit and pics August 2008 but it will not have changed much.

Rogerley mine is unique in the UK as it is a commercial operation that mines mineral specimens for the collectors market. It is also the last working fluorspar mine in the Pennine orefield. It is worked in the summer only, usually starting in mid June and finishing at the end of August when the mineral specimens are shipped off to the USA.

The mine is located in the abandoned Rogerley limestone quarry between Frosterley and Stanhope. It was first opened in the 1970s by two local collectors but since 1999 has been owned by UK Mining Ventures which itself is an American company. During the summer, the mine is usually worked by two Americans collecting samples and a former Grove Rake miner (and, when I was there, his daughter) doing the actual mine development and maintenance work including drilling, mucking and timbering.

Rogerley is a very small mine in comparison with Grove Rake for example, but it uses tunnelling methods that were common in the district up until the end of large scale mining. The tunnels are developed by drilling and blasting using compressed air jackleg drills and the broken rock is loaded using an Eimco rocker shovel into a minecar which is trammed to surface using a battery loco. The tunnel is supported using timbers in the old style. Once a new area is opened up, the fluorspar crystals are collected by hand, usually as large pieces which are sawn up before cleaning and packing.


The mine entrance is half way up the side of the quarry.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu174/caiman27/Rogerley01.jpg

It would not be a real mine unless there was some scrap equipment lying around - including here two Eimco 12B rocker shovels.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu174/caiman27/Rogerley08.jpg

The surface working area is very small indeed: waste tip on the right, specimen cutting on the left.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu174/caiman27/Rogerley02.jpg

Entrance to the mine.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu174/caiman27/Rogerley03.jpg

Eimco 12B rocker shovel. This may be the last one in commercial use in the UK.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu174/caiman27/Rogerley04.jpg

Clayton battery locomotive.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu174/caiman27/Rogerley05.jpg

The mine is not particularly stable and so needs a lot of timbered support.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu174/caiman27/Rogerley06.jpg

Fluorspar crystals.

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu174/caiman27/Rogerley07.jpg

[Raddog]

Interesting post mate, do they like having visitors?

[caiman]

I emailed them and had no problem at all - very friendly.

The website is: www.ukminingventures.com where you will find some contact details. Jesse Fisher is the man you need. But I would leave it until the mine reopens - mid June.

[parkus.]

Good report, looks fascinating.

It's been on my to-do list for a while, but since it's in operation I don't want to be 'stepping' on anyones toes.
Would love to work there though :D

[xm657]

Thats a place I didn't know about, so thanks for sharing. How far in did/can you go in?

[Brick_Man]

ah fantastic, PROPER mining blokes. Looks like a sketchy set of rocks under there aswell, top marks to them for still working it :)

[caiman]

How far in did/can you go in?

I got round almost all of it, though decided to skip the chance to grovel in the mud which is everywhere.

The present mine is actually quite small - maybe 40 metres or a bit more to the end and all on one level. However, it is not just a single tunnel. The original level was driven in the 1980s by the Cumbria Mining and Mineral Co. on the Greenbank Vein, though more recently the Americans have been working some flat-lying mineralisation to the west of the vein. So, the mine plan basically consists of the original level from which a crosscut branches off to the west and loops around before linking up at the back of the mine. There are also several short side tunnels - used to store the loco battery charger, rock drills and so on.

There is a second (disused) level a little bit below the current one - you can see it in my first pic at the bottom of the wooden steps.

Looks like a sketchy set of rocks under there aswell, top marks to them for still working it

The ground conditions are quite bad, as you can see. They take support very seriously as they had a bad accident in 2004 which led to one of the Americans spending several weeks in hospital.

[teh_feckerer]

Awesome stuff mate, got myself there a while back. Came away with some beautiful specimens. Those Yanks are such an awesome bunch of guys. Really nice to see people still popping in.

Did they put you to work?

[caiman]

Did they put you to work?

They took one look at me and realised it would have been pointless!

I see that they are back for another summer season there.:cool:

[teh_feckerer]

Already? Might take a trip down and see them, got a friend who's practically salivating for that trip.

Me and a couple of mates were tasked with shipping two tons of Galena out to my old work place, after that they gave us a load of tools and said what ever we found we could keep! My mate knocked a lump of mud from the wall, removed some of the filth and said "is it ok if I take this?" the guys said yes, and when we washed it outside, it was a perfect cube! Probs worth a few hundred. The yanks looked like they'd regretted what they said :cool:

[cybergibbons]

I've not got the book with me to get the exact figure, but thousands of those rocker shovels were made in the UK, and they've mostly ended up buried or rusted to pieces. There's a preserved one at a railway museum up north somewhere.

[donald]

There seems to be lots of Flourspar mines in that area.
Frazers hush
Heights
Greenlaws
West pastures
Swinhopehead