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Material World
Place

Cornwall

A peninsula in south-west Britain, one of the ancient world's principal sources of tin.

Cornwall's granite intrusions carry tin and copper mineralisation, and its cassiterite was recoverable from stream gravels by simple washing long before any deep mining. That accessibility made it significant far out of proportion to its size.

Classical writers refer to tin coming from islands off north-west Europe, and while the identification is debated in detail, Cornish tin was reaching the Mediterranean world in antiquity. Deep mining continued into the twentieth century; the last working tin mine closed in 1998.

Economic significance

Cornwall was among the world's leading producers of both tin and copper during the industrial revolution, and Cornish mining technology — particularly the high-pressure steam engines developed to pump deep mines — was exported worldwide.

Medium confidence Weak evidence

How we know: checked recently · only one source, so there is nothing to cross-check it against · stated directly by the source.

How this connects

Where a connection has been confirmed by an outside reference, that reference is named beside it.

is a source of

produces

  • Tin — element · from antiquity until 1998

Sources

  • Material World
    Our own writing

Where it comes from, and what it becomes

Follow Cornwall back to what it starts as, and forward into what it becomes. Each step is a documented one — a real route material takes, not a chain of inference.

Upstream — what it comes from

  • Cornwall → produces (from antiquity until 1998) → Tin → is produced by (reduced from cassiterite at relatively low temperature) → Smelting → takes as input (as the element removed, not added) → Oxygen → is produced by (the largest output by tonnage, and the reason air separation units sit beside steelworks) → Air separation → takes as input (the feedstock, and an unusual one in being free, unlimited and available anywhere — the cost is entirely the energy to liquefy it) → Air
  • Cornwall → produces (from antiquity until 1998) → Tin → is extracted from (the only tin ore of economic importance) → Cassiterite
  • Cornwall → produces (from antiquity until 1998) → Tin → is produced by (reduced from cassiterite at relatively low temperature) → Smelting → takes as input (roasted to drive off sulfur, then reduced to copper) → Chalcopyrite
  • Cornwall → produces (from antiquity until 1998) → Tin → is produced by (reduced from cassiterite at relatively low temperature) → Smelting → takes as input (reduced with carbon to metallic tin) → Cassiterite
  • Cornwall → produces (from antiquity until 1998) → Tin → is produced by (reduced from cassiterite at relatively low temperature) → Smelting → takes as input (reduced with coke in a blast furnace) → Hematite
  • Cornwall → produces (from antiquity until 1998) → Tin → is produced by (reduced from cassiterite at relatively low temperature) → Smelting → takes as input (the phosphate rock charged to the electric furnace, with coke to reduce it and silica to take up the calcium) → Apatite

These are the most distinct paths back. Cornwall can be traced through others besides.