The Royal Cornwall Museum is re-opening its mineral gallery which showcases 3,500 years of mining history

The redevelopment is part of £476,000 from Truro’s Town Deal Board and Cornwall Council

The Royal Cornwall Museum has reopened its Mineral Gallery as part of a £476,000 redevelopment plan.

The Mineral Gallery makeover was made possible by part funding from Truro’s Town Deal Board and Cornwall Council and shares 3,500 years of Cornwall’s mining history.

The reopened exhibition houses over one million artefacts, including the globally significant collection of over 12,000 mineral samples.

Louis Gardner, Cornwall Council’s cabinet portfolio holder for the economy, said: “It’s great to see the results of the Town Deal funding come to fruition with the opening of the transformed gallery which brings Cornwall’s history to life and looks forward to an exciting future. The Town Deal’s investment in such an innovative cultural asset will promote our rich and unique heritage to visitors, as well as supporting a thriving cultural heritage sector and the wider city economy.”

Closed from January 2024 for redevelopment, the reimagined space was designed in consultation with museum visitors with the vision of bringing the story of the specimens to life.

With a unique geology, Cornwall has more varieties of minerals than anywhere else in Britain, which have been mined and used for centuries, the most important minerals for industry being tin and copper. The exploitation of these minerals led to the discovery of others with practical uses, beautiful forms or scientific value, and by the 1700s, through trade, Cornish minerals had spread widely across the globe.

Cornwall is re-emerging as a major player in mineral extraction with the lithium industry.

Frances Wall, Professor of Applied Mineralogy at Camborne School of Mines, said: “Minerals are the building blocks of the earth, Cornwall’s unique geology and minerals have shaped the history of this region.

“We probably don’t think much about minerals and yet everything we do, every day is based on minerals. Humans do two things – we grow plants and feed animals, and every other material we use comes from minerals in the earth. Phones, gadgets, high-tech renewable energy devices, cars, trains, cars – they’re all based on minerals, so we should care a lot about them.”

Bryony Robins, artistic director of the museum, said: “The Mineral Gallery is the first exhibition space in the museum to undergo an upgrade as part of our transformation project and we are delighted to be reopening the doors. This gallery holds a special place in many people’s hearts, in part not just because so many of the minerals are beautiful, but also because it is an important collection for understanding mining and minerals in Cornwall and the role that mining continues to play plays in Cornwall. Our goal is to ensure these improvements protect our collections and the institution so that future generations can continue to learn, explore and visit us for another 200 years.”

Miners often kept exceptional specimens for collectors, which eventually found their way to the museum. The fame of Cornwall’s mines and minerals attracted many collectors, Philip Rashleigh being one of the most significant, and the Royal Cornwall Museum the caretakers of its 250-year-old collection, containing some minerals that were the first of their kind to be officially identified.

Dr Eva Marquis, Postdoctoral Researcher at Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, commented: “Cornwall has had a recent renaissance in its mining history. Since around 2016, we’ve had an influx of companies looking for essential minerals for applications including lithium-ion batteries and solder for electronics. Royal Cornwall Museum’s impressive collection not only provides a rich understanding of the processes that shaped our planet, but also how we use those minerals to help us with our climate change ambitions.”

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