Metal mining in Cornwall, and Penwith in particular, has a long history.  The first bronze users in Britain were the Beaker People, who arrived in Britain from Europe sometime around 2300 B C.  The alluvial tin deposits of Cornwall were discovered shortly after this, and due to it's strategic importance as a constituent of bronze, an active trade in tin began with the bronze-using civilizations of the Mediterranean.   Trade was also established with the bronze-smiths in Ireland, and Irish gold passed through Cornwall on its way to Europe.

During the first millennium BC trade became more organised, firstly with the Phoenicians, who settled Gades (Cadiz) around 1100 BC, and later with the Greeks, who had settled Marsila (Marseilles) and Narbo (Narbonne) around 600 BC.  Smelted Cornish tin was collected at Ictis (St Michaels Mount) from where it was transported to the mouth of the Loire and then to Gades via the Loire and Rhone valley. 

The Celts arrived in Britain in 500-450 BC, and realising the importance of the tin deposits built fortified settlements, such as Chun Castle and Kenidjack Castle, to protect their smelters and mines.  The industry of the Celts here is testified by the fact that there are more Celtic remains in Cornwall, particularly west Cornwall, than anywhere else in Britain.  Flint digging implements are also found in this area.  The earliest account of the Cornish tin industry, subsequently used by other writers such as Pliny the Elder and Diodorus Siculus, was made by Pytheas of Marsila late in the fourth century BC after his circumnavigation of the British Isles.  Underground mining was described in this account although it cannot be determined when this started.

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Tin production continued through the period of the Roman occupation although output declined due to supplies brought in from the newly discovered deposits in Spain and Portugal.  Production picked up when supplies from these sources diminished, and reached a peak during the third century AD.  Tin mining survived both the Anglo-Saxon and Danish invasions, the latter nurturing the industry through the first miner's charter granted in 951 by Edmund Duke of Cornwall.  The first Stannary charter was granted by King John in 1201, although the appearance of Stannary customs seems to have predated this as the word 'Stannary' was in common usage some 800 years prior to this.

A second Stannary charter was granted in 1305 by Edward I when all stream works and mines were grouped into Stannaries, each with its own Stannary court.  These were four in Cornwall (Foweymore, Blackmore, Tywarnhayle and Penwith) and four in Devon covering the Dartmoor area, centred around the coinage towns (below).  A tax, known as 'coinage', was paid on all smelted tin until abolished by Cromwell, but reintroduced later by Charles II.  Coinage became more elaborate and complicated over the years but was not finally abolished (in favour of excise duty) untilas late as 1838. 

Coinage was payable at 'coinage towns': Lostwithiel, Liskeard, Truro, Helston, Bodmin (briefly) and Penzance in Cornwall and Tavistock, Ashburton and Chagford in Devon.  Lidford (as well as Lostwithiel) also had a Stannary prison, with such a dubious reputation it was said they would hang a man first and then find him innocent.  The loss of Bodmin and gain of Penzance demonstrated the relative importance of vest Cornwall in the tin trade.

When copper first began to be mined in Cornwall is not known, but the practice was certainly being carried out during the fifteenth century, and several mines were working this metal in the St Just-in-Penwith and Camborne-Redruth districts at this time, although little is known concerning their operations.  Carew, writing in 1602, stated 'Copper is found in sundrie places, but to what gain to the searchers I have not been curious to enquire nor they hasty to reveal'.  Tin continued to be more important for another two centuries however.
 

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The coming of copper mining to Cornwall was important in that it broadened the scale of mining operations tremendously.  Prior to this tin mining was carried out on a very small scale, either shallow underground mining or streaming.  Deep copper mining required technical advances to cope with hath the depth of workings and the greater output, which in turn benefited tin mining when it staged a comeback in the mid 1800's.  This resulted, for example, in the development of the Cornish beam engine, originally designed by Newcomen in the 1690s, and subsequently modified by Watt, Trevithick and Woolf.  This enabled mines to follow lodes deep down, Dolcoath for example reaching an ultimate depth of 550fms below adit although this was quite exceptional, the average being less than half of this.

Cornish copper mining was at its peak in the latter half of the 18th century (c 1860), but declined quite quickly due to the discovery of large cheaply worked deposits in various parts of the New World, and was virtually extinct as an industry by 1880.  Peak production was in the region of 15,000 tons per annum, down to perhaps 200 per annum at the turn of the century.  Production of tin, partly due to some copper mines finding tin at depth, rose from the 1840s and reached a peak in the 1880s, with output having dropped by 50% over the following 20 years.  Peak output seems to have been about 12,000 tons per annum (about half the world's production) in 1870, down to 4,000 tons 40 years later.

Over 200 mines were operating in Cornwall during the 1870s, falling to 100 in 1900, 30 in 1918, and only 4 in 1938.  Wheal Jane at Baldhu closed in late 1990, and with the extraction of stope pillars was presumably not thought a viable future proposition.  Geevor mine at Pendeen was suspended in 1986 and abandoned shortly after, while the last working mine, South Crofty, finally closed in March 1998.   Despite proposals for various different schemes to use the site nothing has come to fruition and concerns are now being expressed concerning the security of some of the more important buildings on the site.

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