Digging Deeper into Mining

Year 5 had a fascinating visit from Exploration Geologist, Ben Clitherow, from Cornish Metals.

During his talk, Ben explained the importance of mining to the Cornish economy and challenged the children to name a material they could think of that hadn’t been either grown or mined. It turns out that this is almost impossible, as this covers pretty much all materials; various answers from the children were suggested and explored, such as plastic (oil, mined), glass (sand, mined), wood (grown) and fabric (grown).

Ben then switched the focus to tin and its various uses, which include soldering, electronics and even glass manufacturing. Did you know that molten glass is actually floated on molten tin to produce smooth, flat sheets of glass?

He linked back to the recent Year 5 trip to King Edward mine, while exploring more recent technology in mining, from aircraft that can sense possible mining sites, to plans to use a robotic dog to identify new underground mining sites.

Ben’s slides also gave the children an unmissable opportunity to ‘go underground’ with him, from his video showing his journey whizzing down the mine shaft on the lift, to their favourite clip of his colleagues setting off a controlled, remote explosion underground.

He also had a fantastic clip, which took the children through all the mining processes at South Crofty. From blasting, mucking and smelting the tin, it was exciting for our pupils to see this in action as it featured several of the separating processes they had previously seen at King Edward mine.

The children were highly engaged in his presentation and asked some fantastic questions, which helped to develop their depth of learning. A huge thank you to Ben for taking the time to share his knowledge with our lucky pupils.