Tools used by Mr Rosevear, a cooper. As a cooper, he made barrels for packing arsenic, buckets, and drinking-water kegs used by miners.

Slickenside sphalerite. From Dolcoath Mine, Camborne, Cornwall. “Slickenside” rocks have been polished smooth through natural processes where fractured rock surfaces (faults) grind across one another (friction). This was given to the museum by Mine Captain Charles Thomas in 1851.

Tallow dipped candles used by miners.

Copper. From Tresavean, Gwennap. This sample is a piece of a larger lump that weighed 42.5 lbs. It was given to the museum by the great-grandnephew of Mine Captain Pryor.

Cassiterite. From Kit Hill Mine, Callington, Cornwall. Collected by Mine Captain J Richards. Richard Barstow collection.

Cornish wrestling group at the Transvaal miner’s sports clubhouse, Randfontein, Transvaal, South Africa, around 1900. Jack and Sydney Chapman, from a well-known family of Cornish wrestlers from around St Columb, are sitting second and third from left in the front row. Many Cornish people migrated to South Africa to work the mines there. Protection of these miners and mines was one of the excuses given for the Boer Wars. This further devastated black African populations, who had been forced from their homes and barred from accessing resources since Dutch colonisers arrived in 1652.

Gold with quartz and chalcopyrite. From Dolgellau, Gwynedd, Wales. Given to the museum by Mine Captain Robert Northey.

Granite core. From Tresavean Mine, Gwennap, Cornwall. They used a Holman Diamond Drill to bore holes in the 395 fathom level of the mine in 1926. Mine Captain J. Faull gave the core to the museum in 1932. Yellow/grey granite core from Diamond Drill Boring in the 395 fathom level, drilling horizontally North, Tresavean Mines, Gwennap, Cornwall, 1926. This specimen was found by Captain J Faull at Tresavean Mine and appears to have been broken and repaired about half way along.

Magnetite grains. From somewhere in South Pacific Oceania. Given to Philip Rashleigh by a captain of a “South Sea” whaling ship who thought the yellow particles might be gold. It was found to be a strongly magnetic example of the iron oxide, magnetite.

A felt hat used by a miner. The hats were soaked in resin to make them hard. Lumps of clay were used to stick candles to hats, later replaced by metal clasps.