Pikedaw Calamine Caverns on Malham Moor
© Copyright Mick Melvin and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Malham was never an important mining area, but lead was won from veins on the limestone hills near the Tarn. At Pikedaw, on the footpath to Settle, there are shafts which produced lead, but they are famed for the Calamine* which was discovered infilling a series of natural caverns. This mineral, which was for brass making, was said to be particularly pure and, for a few years, kept the Malham mines open.
The calamine was found in the late 1790s and moderate tonnages of it were raised in the next ten years or so. It was cleaned and then roasted in a furnace at Town Head at Malham to remove excess water and reduced carriage costs.
The chimney of a former smelt mill still stands on Dean Moor.
Some copper ore (Malachite = Copper Carbonate, Cu2CO3(OH)2) was also found in the veins, but no copper appears to have been produced from it.
*Calamine is the miners’ name for what geologists now call Smithsonite = Zinc Carbonate, ZnCO3
For further details please see:
British Mining No 97 – Mines of the Malham Area by M Squirrell & MC Gill – 2014
