Pennance Consols sits just between Lanner and Redruth at the bottom of Carn Marth. Not a lot remains of this beauty whose origins date back as far as 1836. This mine was a pretty small working, employing only four people at its start, and not having an engine house built until 1866. Pennance Consols was originally known as Wheal Amelia, but this name was changed in 1850 to Pennance Consols, a name it worked under until it’s closure sometime before 1874. It was briefly reworked as part of the Wheal Buller sett during 1880-81 as East Wheal Buller.
The only thing left on the site is Baronet’s Engine house, a pumping engine built in 1866 for Baronet’s Engine shaft. This originally housed a 50″ engine, which was sold in 1874 along with the rest of the machinery at the mine. Its boiler house would have been on the north-west side and housed a ten ton Cornish boiler.
The mine had only three shafts: Baronet’s Engine, Amelia and William’s shafts.
Over it’s working period, the mine produced very little, especially compared to some of it’s neighbours. Between 1866 and 1872 it only raised 590 tons (599,468 kg) of 6% copper. It did attempt to start mining tin after the worldwide collapse in copper prices, but this was unsuccessful.
The site is free to access and right next to the southern path up Carn Marth. The engine was consolidated and made safe around 1997.
There is limited parking on Carn Marth.
Dines, H. G. (1956) The metalliferous mining regions of south-west England. British Geological Survey.
Nance, D. and Brown, K. (2014) A complete guide to the engine houses of West Cornwall. Gloucestershire: Lightmoor Press.
Schwartz, S. and Parker, R. H. (1998) Tin Mines and Miners of Lanner. Halsgrove Press.