Dedicated to the rich history and future of minerals and mining in Cornwall, the new gallery is an exploration of Cornwall's mining heritage, featuring rare mineral specimens, interactive displays, and fascinating historical artefacts. Highlighting the geological wonders of the region and the pivotal role that mining has played in shaping Cornwall's industrial and cultural landscape, the new gallery is a major milestone in the institution’s history.
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00:00Minerals form in all kinds of different ways, some form deep within the earth at real furnace
00:28like temperatures, they can form at the earth's surface when lava from a volcano crystallizes,
00:34or they can form in real everyday conditions. Minerals are forming now in and on the earth.
00:44There's such a huge range of minerals that have formed in Cornwall and as a result it was a hot
00:50spot for mining which created a huge number of jobs for Cornish people and in turn that meant
00:55that it shaped culture and it shaped identity. There were people who knew the underground
01:02landscape as well as they knew the town that they lived in. We've been doing this here for
01:06thousands of years, it's just a really important factor into who we are and how we live.
01:13Minerals can be really beautiful materials with lovely crystal forms and of course they can have
01:21very beautiful colours as well. But as a scientist I also really like minerals because of the stories
01:28that they can reveal about how the earth has formed and all of the earth's processes and how they work.
01:36Minerals are really the building block of everything, if you don't grow it you have to
01:41mine it and what we mine is minerals. In Cornwall we have elements such as lithium, tin and tungsten
01:48and all of these metals are currently undergoing a resurgence in exploration for them. Most of the
01:53time they're processed into the metals and compounds that we use in various technologies
01:58like wind turbines and solar panels and everything we need for the green transition.
02:02I think the exciting thing about Cornwall is that there is so much history and so much data
02:10associated with that history. We found maps that haven't been seen for hundreds of years
02:15and we can take the data from those maps, put them into modern technology, see them in three
02:20dimensions. It was never possible before. It's a continuum from the past right through to
02:26the future. We need to go out and find the metals and minerals that contain those elements that we
02:31need to have for renewable energy technologies. We probably don't think about them very much
02:37every day and yet everything we do every day relies on minerals. It's also about the people
02:42that went underground and they brought them out. It's about Cornish culture and Cornish
02:46distinctiveness. It's about Cornish landscape and biodiversity and there's just so much there
02:52to learn and be inspired by.