500-YEAR-OLD MINE.
Three miles from Fourstoues, near Hexham, is mined one of the world’s few supplies of wltherite, barium carbonate in its natural state. The mine lies on the side of a bank at Settlingstones, with hills around and the miners’ cottages nestling in the valley below. From the top it looks like an ordinary coal mire, with shaft, the usual pit-head gear, en-gine-house and tramways for the tubs, It has 100 employees.
Witherite resembles marble, and is very heavy. It is worth about £3 per ton. It is blown from the face hy dynamite, and is exported to all parts of the world in the state in which is comes out of the pit.
“ All sorts of thing* are made out oi it,'’an official recently said. “Perhaps tiie marble clocks you buy are really made of witherite, with a thin coat of marble on top. This mine has been worked lor about 500 years.”
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 20969, 7 March 1930, Page 3
Word Count
155500-YEAR-OLD MINE. Otago Daily Times, Issue 20969, 7 March 1930, Page 3
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