Minera Lead Mine

Damian admiring the Calcite Formation beneath Cabin Shaft

Me, Damian, Pete and James met Tom who arranged this trip on this freezing cold rainy morning. Kitting up was bad enough in the weather, and we couldn't help but imagine what it would be like getting changed afterwards when we would be even colder and wetter after the trip! We walked over to Cabin Shaft which Tom rigged with a rope to abseil down, I think its about 30ft deep from what I remember. Once underground we were all suitably impressed by the huge calcite formation, which has been very well preserved considering its location near to the entrance shaft.

We all followed our knowledgable leader Tom who reassured us he has been down Minera many time, he told us the goal was to get down to the 'lake'. We all agreed that the mines passages are reminiscent of caving, and this is certainly not the easiest mine to navigate with many twisting turns and slopes that look very similar to each other. We all enjoyed some good fun bits of scrambling and climbing, especially James who I am sure loved every second of this trip :)


Calcite Formation Close Up

It took us about an hour and a half getting to the top of the deep stope at the bottom of which Tom told us was the lake. Tom and Pete rigged this to abseil about 50ft or so I think to the top of a big pile of stone that has fallen down and built up over the years. The descent itself is straightforward, but getting onto the rope involved clipping on cowstails and walking along a scaffold bar out to where the rope drops. This was not so fun as the drop below was hard to ignore whilst threading my stop to descend. The lake was bigger than I expected but I did not expect it to be yellow and it did whiff abit!

Back at Cabin Shaft and considering our options...