Blue Hills Cornish Tin
If you want to see how rock is turned into tin, don't go to
Tolgus Tin, come here and see it done for real.
This is a small commercial enterprise and now the only place in the UK where they turn lumps of rock into shiny tin.
The different kinds of tin-bearing rocks are explained. You can then you see the whole process in action. A waterwheel powers the hammers that pulverise the rock; the tin-bearing slurry is separated on a vibrating table and the tin-bearing particles are heated to liberate the tin (though they don't actually smelt during the summer: elf & safety). Some of the rock comes from the hills, some from the beach - the sea having "mined" tin-bearing rocks out of the cliffs. Very interesting. |map| |nearby attraction|