EAST CORNWALL, SOUTH DEVON AND DARTMOOR

The geology between

Bodmin Moor and
Dartmoor, including part
of South Devon
comprises Carboniferous
and Middle Devonian
metasediments of
sandstones, mudstones,
black shales, cherts and
volcanics, all of which
have been subjected to
thrusting. Into these has been intruded the Bodmin and Dartmoor mass, as well as
satellite stocks of Kit Hill, Hingston/Gunnislake in Cornwall and Hemerdon in Devon.
Within these sediments lie stratiform manganese silicate and carbonate deposits as
well as indications of lead-zinc-copper volcanic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits. The
setting is similar to the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) in southern Spain and Portugal. Skarn
deposits with mixed copper, zinc and arsenic sulphides, and one of which has tin
silicates, have formed from the same volcano-sedimentary sequences and lie on the
northern edge of the Dartmoor granite near Okehampton, inside the metamorphic
aureole. The granite related main-stage mineralization ranges from large copper
deposits on the south-eastern corner of the Bodmin granite around Minions to a
tungsten-tin stockworks at Hemerdon to the southwest of the main Dartmoor mass; to
tin, tin-iron progressing eastwards into iron deposits on Dartmoor as well as placer
deposits of cassiterite and woframite on Bodmin Moor. On the East side of Datmoor in
the Teign Valley occurs Pb,Zn, Ba, Ag, low temperature crosscourse mineralization.
On the south coast of Devon near Torquay lies the epithermal gold-palladium
occurrence at Hope’s Nose, hosted in Devonian limestones.

East Cornwall (Bodmin Moor to Gunnislake)

The geology of this area ranges from
the granites of Bodmin Moor and the
small outcrops of Kit Hill and Hingston
Down/Gunnislake to Devonian and
Carboniferous metasediments and
volcanics. Mineralization styles vary
from Devonian/Carboniferous volcanic
related stratiform manganese and
lead/zinc mineralization and to granite
related early greisen tin and tungsten
to main stage tin, copper, arsenic
mineralization; and later Tertiary Age
lead, zinc and silver mineralization,
mainly in the Tamar Valley near
Calstock. Placer deposits of both
eluvial and alluvial tin and tungsten
deposits have been worked on
Bodmin Moor.
Minions Cu/Sn/W Mineralization
To the northwest of Caradon Hill, near Minions lies Phoenix Mine
under the Cheesewring quarry. The mine initially worked cassiterite
from the gossans and later enriched areas of copper ores were
discovered below, all hosted in the Bodmin Granite. The interesting
feature of this mine was the great depth of oxidation of the
mineralization in the northeast section of the mine near the cross-
course. It must be assumed that oxidizing meteoric water was able
to penetrate to that depth, presumably via the cross-course fault or
associated fractures. The mine was famous not only for cuprite, but
also phosphates of copper minerals such as chalcosiderite,
andrewsite and libethenite.

Phoenix Mine

Chalcosiderite

Cheesewring Quarry

The Cheesewring Tor

On the high ground above Phoenix mine from the vantage point of the Cheesewring Tor there is
abundant evidence of early eluvial tin mining extending to small opencast mining of shallow ore at
Witheybrook. Lower ground to the north had been worked for placer alluvial tin ores at Witheybrook
Marsh.

Eluvial mine workings for tin at Witheybrook Witheybrook Marsh

Around the fringe of the Bodmin Moor Granite near
the contact are small areas of mineralization,
predominantly of sheeted greisen veins with
cassiterite and wolframite, sometimes altering to
scheelite. At Hawks Wood mine these were
exploited by adit mining, elsewhere the
predominantly tungsten rich eluvial/alluvial deposits
had been exploited by placer mining. At Trewint,
now a small sand and gravel operation, both
minerals were extracted as a by-product in the past.

Trewint gravel operations

Wolframite from Hawks Wood Mine

Eluvial/alluvial cassiterite from Trewint

Eluvial/alluvial wolframite from Trewint

Greystones Quarry Pb/Zn Mineralization

The quarry exposes
mudstones of the
South Devon Basin of
Devonian and
Carboniferous Age, into
which has been
intruded basic igneous
rock of both extrusive
and intrusive in type in
the form of sill like
bodies. The Devonian
sediments of are grey
slates with the
Carboniferous
sediments of dark grey
to black siliceous
slates, cherts,
sandstones, pillow
breccias and lavas
(dolerite). Manganese
exhalative mineralization produced during the time of volcanicity has been found in the quarry
converted by metamorphism into rhodonite and other manganese minerals. The rocks in the quarry
have been cut by at least four thrusts, which has produced an inverted geological sequence. A lead-
bearing vein striking east-west is exposed in the southern wall of the quarry which extends to west the
to an old 18th century mine of North Tamar. The vein appears to be a series of ‘en echelon’ type
structures in a fault zone. Cu bearing quartz veins striking NE-SW and NNE-SSW and are intersected
by the lead lode and other NNE-SSW quartz veins with sphalerite, aragonite and copper-antimony
minerals. It is possible that the lead lode may represent metamorphic remobilisation of exhalative
mineralization as it does not conform to the NNE-SSW basinal brine derived mineralization seen
elsewhere if the Conubian Orefield. Supergene oxidation has produced a great variety of mineral
species, some rare, from this location.
 Lead mineralization Manganese mineralization Copper Mineralization

Hingston Down Quarry Sn/Cu/W/ Mo Mineralization

Hingston Down granite, 3 km east of the small
granite stock of Kit Hill and just west of the
Gunnislake granite near the border with the
two counties, has faulted contacts. The
granite is classed as a fine-grained
microgranite and is dated at 282Ma. The
mass is cut by later granitic veins and aplites.
The quarry as it has advanced into the hillside
has intersected mineralised lode structures of
Hingston Down Consols. The granite is also
mineralized with sulphide pods of
arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrite and quartz
+/- sphalerite, stannite, wolframite, scheelite
and fluorite and is occasionally molybdenum
rich. The mineralization appears to be joint
controlled

Hingston Down quarry Molybdenite

Dartmoor
There has been extensive placer mining for casiterite over
the entire Moor and periphery and substantial tonnages
were recovered. It was during the medieval period that the
area was the largest producer of tin ore in the British Isles.
The depth of mineralization on the Moor itself is not
considerable and it may be supposed that the mineralization
represents the ‘roots’ of mineral deposits long eroded away
leaving the heavy resistate cassiterite on the surface. Across
the Moor some form of zoning is evident with Sn in the west,
Sn and Fe in the centre and Fe mineralization in the east. A
small satellite granite stock to the south west of the Moor
hosts a sheeted-vein deposit of tin and tungsten and around
the northwest the immediate aureole rocks host skarn
deposits of base copper, metal suphides and tin. On the
eastern edge of Dartmoor lies the crosscourse mineralization
of Pb, Zn,Ag and Ba in the Teign Valley.

Central Dartmoor Sn Mineralization

The mining district is situated approximately slightly to
the east of the middle of Dartmoor where a swarm of
cassiterite-bearing hydrothermal veins have been
exploited for their tin content from prehistory. Evidence
of early mining takes the form of both placer and
eluvial mining followed by open workings on the
subcrop of the hydrothermal veins after they were
exposed most probably in medieval times. Later
mining went underground and the last mining
operations on the Birch Tor, Vitfer and Golden Dagger
ceased in about 1930. The hydrothermal veins are
hosted in coarse megacrystic granite and are steeply
dipping fissure veins. Early tin mineralization may
have been associated with tourmalinized breccias and
later lower temperature fluids are responsible for specular hematite infilling after re-brecciation due to
subsequent reactivation. The mineralization is simple in type of cassiterite, hematite, tourmaline and
chlorite with an almost total absence of sulphides.

General view looking SE Birch Tor and Vitfer Area Open cast mining for cassiterite
 Wallrock alteration Specular hematite Quartz tourmaline

East Dartmoor Fe and Base Metal & Barite Mineralization

Fe Mineralization
It seems that the Dartmoor Granite provided a special
environment for the formation of deposits dominated by oxides
and silicates. The evidence suggests that the hematite
mineralization at the eastern margin of the Dartmoor Granite
represents the highest and coolest level of activity of a
hydrothermal system, which probably extends deep into the
pluton. The type of mineralization seen at Birch Tor in central
Dartmoor represents a deeper level of hydrothermal activity that
has been exposed by erosion and removal of the higher parts of
the system. This model could account for the presence of placer
tin deposits over wide areas of western Dartmoor in which
cassiterite-bearing veins have not been recorded. Tourmaline
and then cassiterite were precipitated from highly saline fluids at
between 250oC and 400oC, while the specular and micaceous
hematite mineralisation resulted from fluids of low salinity, with
temperatures in the range 160oC to 200oC. The hematite worked
for use in paint consists of steel-grey plates in the size range 10
to 200 microns, occurring as felted masses within the veins,
together with variable amounts of coarser hematite and, at Great
Rock, minor amounts of quartz, tourmaline, pyrite, sericite and
kaolinite. Great Rock only closed in the 1960s.

Specularite veins in Great Rock Mine Lode section in Great Rock Mine Specular hematite ore

At Great Rock the hematite veins cut through, and therefore post-date, the coarse granite and the later
aplite sheets. Typically, a lode comprises a swarm of veins and veinlets, which are mostly parallel or
subparallel, but in places coalesce. The vein zones may be several metres in width, with components
varying from millimetre-scale stringers to workable orebodies up to 1.2m wide.
Pb/Zn and Ba Mineralization

Wheal Exmouth Mine Dumps Wheal Exmouth Mine Wheal Exmouth ore

The general geology of the Teign Valley is one of Upper Devonian mudstones and Lower
Carboniferous shales, cherts and volcanics with manganiferous horizons. A zone some 8 km long and
200 wide, which parallels the granite contact hosts NNW-SSE trending cross-course mineralization of
Pb.Zn. Ag, Ba with minor Sb. The main gangue minerals are chalcedonic quartz and barite, minor
calcite and fluorite, which would indicate, low temperature epithermal mineralization. The width of these
lodes varies from less than 0.6m to 15 m. One of the major mines was Wheal Exmouth, which
produced not only lead but also substantial amounts of silver, as the galena was silver rich. The mine
has a distinctive hexagonal chimney. Metals were probably derived from the expulsion of brines from
sedimentary Permo-Triassic sedimentary basins. Fluid inclusion data from material from the Teign
Valley indicates temperatures in the range of 110-160oC. Brines were circulated by gravity driven
mechanisms after subsidence in the sedimentary basins caused by extensional faulting. Part of the
metal deposited in the mineralised belt may have been derived in part from stratiform mineralization
enrichments in Lower Carboniferous host rocks.

Hemerdon Sn/W Mineralization

This deposit at Hemerdon Ball was extensively
explored during late 1970’s to early 1980’s by AMAX
Exploration as a potential resource of tungsten. The
deposit is a stockwork/sheeted greisen vein deposit
hosted in a dyke-like granite body some 120m long
and dipping steeply eastwards surrounded by
metasediments. Early mining had taken place during
both the First and Second World Wars as tungsten
was a strategic metal. The southern and western area
of the granitoid body are only slightly altered but the
NNE part is highly kaolinized and greisenized. The
mineralised area extends for some 600X400m within
the granite although the greisenization extends into
the metasediments. Two veins are discernable, one of
quartz veins without greisen borders and stockwork in
type with minor mineralization and greisen bordered
veins, often sheeted in sub-parallel sets. The main
mineralization is of wolframite with arsenopyrite and
minor cassiterite. Due to surface weathering by
meteoric waters the arsenopyrite has been oxidized
and the iron and arsenic remobilised to form scorodite,
an iron arsenate mineral, in the upper part of the
resource. The argillic (clay) alteration extends down to
a depth of some 50m. Drilling had revealed a potential
resource of some 50 million tonnes at 0.7% WO3 and
0.025% Sn to a depth of some 200m with
mineralization continuing down to c.400m.
 View of part Hemerdon open pit Greisen veins in rock face Greisen veins and alteration

Detail of greisen vein Detail of stockwork

Wolframite Woframite and cassiterite Scorodite

Red-a-Ven & Meldon Cu/Zn/As/Sn Mineralization

Around the northern edge of Dartmoor
lie siliceous and calcic rocks now
converted to skarns running in a belt
from just east of Sticklepath to just
southwest of Sourton, a distance of just
over 10 km. Within this belt lie bedded,
or stratiform, mineralised deposits of Cu
and Zn in the Lower Carboniferous
outcrop at or below the Meldon Chert.
The mineralization is primarily of
sulphides of pyrite, pyrrhotite,
arsenopyrite, loellingite, sphalerite,
chalcopyrite, rare scheelite, minor Ni
sulphides and occasionally additionally
as at Red-a-Ven, a complex tin silicate
(Malayite). Similarities have been drawn
with this area, which extends into N.E.
Cornwall with the Iberian Pyrite Belt. The
Meldon Chert Formation and the
Crackington Formation are geologically
comparable to lithologies in the Iberian
Pyrite Belt. VMS sulphide deposits of the Iberia are formed on, or close by, black smokers on the sea
floor venting metal rich solutions, other metal rich deposits can form from submarine exhalative metal-
bearing fluids during basin development, which was subjected to rifting. To the south of Dartmoor, in
Devonian rocks in the South Hams area, evidence has been found for exhalative mineralization. Here
massive pyrite and ankerite rock up to 25m in thickness associated with volcanics was intersected in
boreholes. Mineralization of this type is similar to the Rammelsberg ore deposit in Eastern Europe.
Either of these models, or a combination of the two, may fit for this region.

Adapted from Benham et al 2004

 Banded cherts Detail of banded cherts Mn & Cu mineralization

Red-A-Ven mine dumps Red-A-Ven sulphide exposure

Hope’s Nose Au/PGM Mineralization

Hope’s Nose is situated to the east of Torquay on a
small promontory. The headland area has been
quarried for limestone, which was exported by sea.
The geology of the headland is one of marine shales,
sandstones together with interbedded lavas and tuffs.
During the Middle Devonian extensive carbonate
platforms developed to form the Torbay reef complex.
Hope’s Nose is a part of this platform. Exposed on the
headland is a bedded fossiliferous limestone overlain
disconformibly by a thin, poorly bedded, dark grey and
shaley limestone with intercalations of tuffs horizons.
The massively bedded limestone is cut by calcite veins
striking NE-SW, some of which have been faulted.
Alteration of the wallrocks is of patchy hematization
and towards the centre of the vein white calcite occurs
with a ferroan dolomite with the borders of the veins
having sericite micas. These veins can contain gold
and palladian rich gold as well as arsenides and
nickel, cobalt, copper, silver, mercury, bismuth as
including gold selenides, with very minor amounts of
sulphides. Calcium chloride rich fluid inclusions
indicate a range of homogenisation temperatures from
65-120oC. The salinities are similar to Pb-Zn-F
mineralization in cross-courses found elsewhere in the
Cornubian Orefield being derived from basinal brines.
During rifting, substantial thicknesses of Permo-
Triassic sediments accumulated in basins. This
sedimentation was combined with volcanism and gave
rise to the Au and Pd enrichment in fluids in an
oxidising environment. The salinities of these fluids
indicate that highly oxidising conditions are required
for transportation and subsequent mixing in reducing
conditions are required for deposition with the Adapted from Stanley et al. 1990
presence of organics, possibly in the form of carbonaceous shales or being neutralized in-situ by
ponding or in contact with calcic brines. The fluids carrying and precipitating these metals would be
classed as epithermal in character.

Hope’s Nose location Hope’s Nose Quarry Geological section at Hope’s nose

Vein strike and dip Detail of vein. Gold and calcite

After Gleeson et al. 2001