Cell Fechan
| Location | SH614164 (Area map showing location.) |
| Parish | Llanaber |
| Geology | The ore bed is about .25m thick, is interbedded with Harlech grits and imediately underlain by a 50mm bed of shaly sandstone containing numerous large cubes of iron pyrites. The whole series dips east at about 70°. The ore consists mostly of carbonate of manganese with hydrated black oxide coating it where exposed to the weather. Associated with the ore are many veins of quartz which sometimes contain copper pyrites. Large botryoidal lumps of manganese also occur. [Dewey & Bromehead 1915: 51] |
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| Agents |
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| Recorded output |
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(tons) | Manpower
underground surface |
| 1899 | 28 | | |
| 1900 | 277 | | |
| 1901 | 150 | | |
| 1902 | 80 | | |
| 1903 | 120 | | |
| 1904 | 90 | | |
| 1905 | 50 | | |
| 1906 | 100 | | |
| 1907 | 41 | | |
| 1908 | 40 | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 867 | |
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| Transport | There is a network of tracks cut into the slope or on stone embankments which possibly served the workings. |
| Remains | A series of shallow depressions and grassed-over waste tips with two underground workings at SH615167. The workings continue northwards across a ravine (with stream) as Cell Fechan mine and southwards as Barmouth mine. (December 2001) |
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| There are remains of a leat at SH617167 associated with a boggy depression SH618167 which may be the site of an old reservoir. However, it is not known if this was associated with the mine. |
Dewey & Bromehead [1915: 51] reporting on Cell Fechan and Hafotty about this time describe the mines as “abandoned” with the levels flooded and overgrown but with a good deal of ore remaining.
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Entrance
Entrance to worked out chamber at SH615167.
This entrance faces north and is the more northerly of the two underground workings referred to above. The other working has a south facing entrance and is a few metres to the south of this entrance, roughly aligned with it on the other side of a knoll.
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