Underground operations

Watersaw Mine

Ore was extracted from Watersaw Mine from beneath Longstone Edge, under Arthurton West open pit and to the west of Arthurton West Extension. The company employed a sub level mining method with subsidence of the ground immediately above the mine. Six men worked in the mine and produced up to 30,000 tonnes of calcium fluoride (CaF2) per annum. Waste limestone from the mine heading is stocked for subsequent placement in subsidence hollows.  The mine is currently on a care maintenance programme as underground mine development has been transferred to Milldam Mine.

Milldam Mine

Milldam Mine was designed to allow the extraction of vein minerals from the Hucklow Edge vein system.  An adit, declining at 1 in 8 allows the use of larger rubber tyred machinery thereby improving the economic viability of mining.  In the early 20th Century fluorspar was first sought, and it was the demand for a higher quality material, which lead to the re-opening of the old Glebe Lead Mine in the village of Eyam.

From 1936 until 1979 the mine workings steadily extended north to join with the old Ladywash Lead Mine. The workings continued 2km west under Hucklow Edge along the vein system, until production limitations around using a 222 metre deep shaft and narrow gauge underground rail haulage meant that the mine became uneconomic.

Production from Milldam Mine began in 1991, at the point where work had ceased within the Ladywash Mine in 1979, and continued until the closure of Laporte Minerals in 1999.  Glebe Mines retained the mine infrastructure on a care maintenance programme since 1999.

Glebe is now implementing its plans to re-develop the mine by reconnecting the mains power supply, refurbishing the surface and underground mine infrastructure and re-establishing its underground vein mineral production during 2009.