Cassiterite
Collection:
Cornish Mineral Heritage
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Fact sheet

Cassiterite

Deposits of cassiterite (tin oxide) are found in other parts of the world apart from Cornwall.  This sizeable boulder of water-worn cassiterite was brought to Cornwall from Malaysia in 1910 by Redruth businessman James Wickett.

In 1891 Wickett attended a local lecture on the tin deposits of Malaysia given by a Cornishman who was employed as a mine inspector there. He was quick to spot an investment opportunity and persuaded ten investors in Cornish mines to fund a new mining venture in the under-developed mines of Malaysia. The Gopeng Tin Mining Co. was registered at the Redruth Mining Exchange in 1891, the first of several Cornish-funded Malaysian tin-mining companies. The tin deposits in Malaysia were alluvial, that is contained within river sediments. They required very different mining techniques from those used in Cornwall. Nevertheless, Cornish money, contacts and engineering knowledge were very much in demand in this new tin-mining frontier. In the years to come, cheaply produced tin from Malaysia would contribute significantly to the continuing demise of tin mining in Cornwall.

Chemical Formula: SnO2

Specimen no. TRURI: 1903.1.851
Location: Kinta, Malaysia

Mindat http://www.mindat.org/min-917.html

Additional images
 
  • Cassiterite 18 cm across
  • Label showing donor: James Wickett
  • Cassiterite field of view 9 cm across
  • Cassiterite 18 cm across
  • Cassiterite 18 cm across
Map
 
4.505238, 101.282959
About this collection
 
Cornish Mineral Heritage

This Collection focuses on Cornwall and West Devon’s mineralogical and mining heritage.  The specimens it features are drawn from the collection of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (RIC) held at the Royal Cornwall Museum (RCM). 

This collaborative project involving the RCM, the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site and The Open University explores how access to the RIC’s mineral collection and the stories it can tell can be widened using digital technology.  It includes radioactive minerals from Cornwall that would otherwise be inaccessible to the public for health and safety reasons.

Sample details

Collection: Cornish Mineral Heritage
Type
mineral
Category
primary
Category guide  
Category Guide
Title
Refers to any word or phrase that appears in the individual rock names. Names are generally descriptive; they allow users to search for broad terms like ‘granite’ as well as more specific names such as ‘breccia’. However, the adjacent descriptions of the specimens captures a wider range of general words and phrases and is a more powerful search tool.
Description
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Accessory minerals
Minerals that occur in very low abundance in a rock. They are usually not visible with the naked eye and contribute perhapssver, they often dominate the rare elements such as platinum group metals.
Rock-forming minerals
Minerals that make up the bulk of all rock samples and are also the ones used in rock classi?cation.
Timescale
Selecting one or more period, for example 'Jurassic'.
Theme
A term used to group together related samples that are not already gathered into a single Collection. For instance, there is a ‘SW England granites’ theme that includes such rock types as granite, hydrothermal breccia, skarn and vein samples.
Category
A general term used to label a rock sample. It is a useful way of grouping similar samples throughout a collection. Category names are often, but not exclusively, common rock names (e.g. granite, basalt, dolerite, gabbro, greisen, skarn, gneiss, amphibolite, limestone, sandstone).
Owner
The owner of the sample that appears in the collection. For example, NASA owns all the samples that appear in the Moon Rocks collection
We would like to thank the following for the use of this sample:

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Cornish Mineral Heritage