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Kaim Mine [West (shaft 4)]

Kame Farm, N of Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire.

Copper Mine (19th Century).

"At West Kaim, three shafts, two adits and surface workings are recorded. The most easterly shaft [location of given coordinates] was sunk to 20 m, south of the dyke, and cross cuts were driven north for up to 16.5 m to intersect several veins." [NERC]

Two additional shafts appear on the Geological Survey map of 1926.

Alternative Names: None recorded.

Notes: The additional shafts are on the edge of the survey so it is possible they are part of a separate mining venture.

Given coordinates based on pit shaft location shown on Geological Survey 6" map. Original coordinates suggest mine is E of Kaim Bridge (refers to trial pit).

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Excerpt from NERC report:

"the New Statistical Account for Scotland (1845) record the presence of copper carbonate and baryte in surface outcrops associated with a dyke at Kaim but no attempt had been made to work the ore. In places the concentration of copper was so high as to inhibit growth of vegetation. It seems that mining started about 1848, continued intermittently until 1877 (Houston, 1912) and is reputed to have finally ended when the City of Glasgow Banking Company crashed in 1878. A prospectus issued by the West Kaim Copper Mining Co. (Ltd) in 1862 indicates that earlier abandoned workings were cleared out and that considerable development of new shafts, levels and dressing plant was carried out at this time. Over 72 tons of hand-dressed ore were cleared from the old workings and sold at E5 6s to E9 1s per ton in Swansea to help to pay for the operations. Houston (1912) records an output of 800 tons in eight months in 1861.

The copper occurs with baryte, quartz (often amethystine) and calcite in veins extending for 800 m on the southern margin of a 20 m-wide quartz-dolerite dyke trending E 10 degrees N through amygdaloidal mugearite. Shaft debris suggests that the mugearite is underlain by a Markle basalt. The dyke is altered and vesicular in the vicinity of the veins, and both dyke and country rock are permeated by the copper mineralisation. Several subparallel veins are recorded in places, dipping south at 60 to 70'. The largest vein (No. 2 Lode) was 2 to 3 m wide and was proved horizontally for up to 550 m. Records refer to 'grey sulphuret of copper' and chalcocite (Houston, 1912), but more recent examinations suggest that the main assemblage is malachite with bornite and chalcopyrite. Much malachite is present as green stains on joints, as disseminated irregular patches, as thin veinlets, and as fibrous crystals with quartz or calcite in vugs and amygdales.

The veins were worked by two separate companies, Lochwinnoch Consols Co. at East Kaim and from 1861 The West Kaim Copper Mining Co. (Ltd) at West Kaim."