Gold & Other Minerals
Gold
Since 1620 there has been very little gold mining although a
number of local lead miners supplemented their wages by searching
for gold. Gold can still be found at Wanlockhead and many part time
prospectors hope to strike it rich.
Silver
The lead ores of south-west Scotland often contain silver.
Significant amounts of the precious metal have been obtained as a
by-product of lead mining.
Silver is recovered from lead in a special refining process known
as cupellation. The smelt mills at Wanlockhead and Woodhead both
had silver refining hearths. Each ton of lead at Woodhead contained
510 g (18 ounces) of silver.
Copper
Copper ores have been worked near Girvan and at a number of places
along the Galloway coast. Most of the mines were small affairs and
nearly all the copper was taken by sea to Wales for smelting. The
main period of working was in the 1820s although the Enrick mine at
Gatehouse-of-Fleet reopened in 1912.
Zinc
Zinc is often found with lead and many of the region's lead mines
were reworked for this mineral during and just after the First
World War. Between 1916 and 1922 the firm of Ore Supply Limited
reopened the Newton Stewart mines and built a special processing
plant at Wood of Cree mine to recover zinc.
Baryte
Baryte is found at Auchencairn in Galloway and at Glen Sannox on
Arran. Used as a filler in paint and as a heavy mud in the drilling
industry, baryte has only been mined on a commercial scale since
the mid twentieth century.
