A very rich small locality specimen featuring massive cuprite var. tile ore throughout the matrix. Minor malachite/oxidisation present at the matrix boundaries, plus some quartz in the matrix. From Wheal Buller, Wheal Buller and Beauchamp, Redruth, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, it measures approximately 41x31x24 mm at its widest points and weighs 42.39 g.

Please note: this particular item is small and is classed as a small miniature specimen (3-4.5 cm).

Wheal Buller was formed out of the neighbouring workings of Trewirgie Downs and Wheal Beauchamp, enabling underground access to one mile of some of the richest copper lodes in Cornwall. The mine commenced work in 1819 when it produced 11 tons of ore and by 1825 had achieved its maximum ore production level of 6,230 tons. By 1836 production had fallen so low that further work was abandoned and the mine closed. In 1848, the mine reopened with new workings to the north and west and by 1853 its monthly profits had risen to £5,170. Up until this time the ore had been raised by horse whim, but during 1851 a steam-powered winding engine was installed with two more engines the following year, one being purchased from Harvey's of Hayle. By 1856 Wheal Buller was able to pay the highest dividend to its shareholders of any mine in the county. This was however short-lived since the dramatic rise in production levels of 1853 was matched by an equally dramatic decline in 1868. Between 1862 and 1868 an attempt was made to avert this decline with the sinking of two new shafts, concentrating on the production of tin ore from 1859 to 1875. Failure to locate sufficiently rich new reserves forced the sale of the mine's equipment and it ceased operation in 1875. A subsequent reworking of Hocking's Shaft between 1928 and 1930, during which it was deepened by a further one thousand feet, proved unsuccessful and Wheal Buller was once again abandoned. Between 1819 and 1875 Wheal Buller produced 141,707 tons of copper ore and between 1859 and 1875, 1,373 tons of black tin. The site was surveyed by Cornwall Archaeological Unit in 1997-98 in advance of a shaft capping scheme by Kerrier District Council. Extant features included remains of a probable engine house wall at Davey's Shaft, an arched tunnel which possibly carried water from here to processing areas downslope, and walling at Whitford's Shaft associated with flat-rods coming from Davey's Shaft, forming part of the flat-rod angle-bob pit.

Tile ore is a brick-red massive variety of cuprite, usually found with malachite or other secondary copper minerals (eg. atacamite).

Cuprite (an oxide) is an oxide mineral composed of cuprous oxide and is a minor ore of copper. The colour can be dark red to conchineal red, sometimes almost black. Its dark crystals with red internal reflections are in the isometric system hexoctahedral class, appearing as cubic, octahedral, or dodecahedral forms, or in combinations, but also as hairlike capillary forms, earthy, compact granular and massive. In spite of its nice colour, it is rarely used for jewellery because of its low Mohs hardness. The chalcotrichite ("plush copper ore") variety typically shows greatly elongated capillary or needle like crystals forms. Cuprite is a secondary mineral which forms in the oxidised zone of copper sulphide deposits. It frequently occurs in association with native copper, azurite, chrysocolla, malachite, tenorite and a variety of iron oxide minerals. It is known as “ruby copper” due to its distinctive red colour. Cuprite was first described by Austrian mineralogist Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger in 1845 and the name derives from the Latin “cuprum” for its copper content. Mohs hardness 3.5-4.

Malachite (a carbonate) is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral. This opaque, green banded mineral crystallises in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses, in fractures and spaces, deep underground, where the water table and hydrothermal fluids provide the means for chemical precipitation. Individual crystals are rare, but do occur as slender to acicular prisms. Pseudomorphs after more tabular or blocky azurite crystals also occur. Malachite often results from the weathering of copper ores, and is often found together with azurite, goethite, and calcite. Except for its vibrant green colour, the properties of malachite are similar to those of azurite and aggregates of the two minerals occur frequently. Malachite is more common than azurite and is typically associated with copper deposits around limestones, the source of the carbonate. In ancient Egypt the colour green (wadj) was associated with death and the power of resurrection as well as new life and fertility. It was believed that the afterlife contained an eternal paradise which resembled the lives of people, but with no pain or suffering. They referred to this place as the “Field of Malachite”. Mohs hardness 3.5-4.

Quartz (a tectosilicate) composed of silicon and oxygen (silicon dioxide), is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones, and since antiquity varieties of quartz have been the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewellery. The word quartz is derived from the German word ‘quarz’, which had the same form in the first half of the 14th century in Middle High German and in East Central German and which came from the Polish dialect term ‘kwardy’, which corresponds to the Czech term ‘tvrdý’ (hard). The Ancient Greeks referred to quartz as κρύσταλλος (‘krustallos’) derived from the Ancient Greek κρύος (‘kruos’) meaning icy cold, because some philosophers (including Theophrastus, successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school) apparently believed the mineral to be a form of supercooled ice. Today, the term rock crystal is sometimes used as an alternative name for the purest form of quartz. Mohs hardness 7.