Cassiterite

specimen number:
1655461

location:
Goonbarrow China Clay Pit, St. Austell, Cornwall, England, UK

description:
Semi lustrous crystals of cassiterite to 0.5 cm in size on matrix with minor topaz. In good condition. Goonbarrow China Clay Pit near Bugle in the St Austell district of Cornwall, England, is a large former open cast china clay (kaolin) mining area that grew through the 19th and 20th centuries by absorbing many smaller clay works around it. The pit was created to extract kaolinite from deeply kaolinised granite using wet mining methods, and over time it became one of the major china clay workings in Cornwall, with zones of tin and tungsten mineralisation also present in the area. Today the site is abandoned, but its extensive terraces and spoil heaps remain as part of the historic china clay landscape.

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