Drag to turn the globe

Mines/United Kingdom

Big Pit coal mine, Blaenavon

Big Pit coal mine, Blaenavon, United Kingdom. Heritage site, underground, mining coal, iron ore.

Why Big Pit coal mine, Blaenavon is famous

ICOMOS says the first shaft was sunk in 1860 or about 1860 by the Blaenavon Company and the colliery, the last substantial working colliery of the area, closed in 1980. It opened as a mining museum in 1983 and visitors descend the 1860 shaft in a cage.1,2

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 21 October 1966Aberfan disaster3

Big Pit coal mine, Blaenavon today

Where iron ore is mined todayMining in United Kingdom

Where next

Events

Led toAberfan disasterRead what happened near Big Pit coal mine, Blaenavon: Aberfan disaster.1

Places

Located inBlaenavonBig Pit coal mine, Blaenavon sits at Blaenavon.1Located inAberfanBig Pit coal mine, Blaenavon is about 19 km from Aberfan.1

Sources

  1. Blaenavon, evaluation No 984 UNESCO World Heritage Centre / ICOMOS advisory body evaluation
  2. Wikidata item Q104427389 (Big Pit coal mine) Wikidata (CC0)
  3. The Aberfan Tribunal Glamorgan Archives

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

History of miningIron, steel and the Pilbara1856-2025History of miningThe cost underground: mining disasters and the laws they forced1887-2020Lessons from historySocial licence: when a mine loses trust1842-2020The Kiruna iron ore mine drawn in 3D: the ore body dipping under the town, its levels and shafts, at the moment of the nightly blastData storyA day in the life of a mine3D · Kiruna, Sweden

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Pictures: Kirunavaara gruva, Kiruna., Fotograf okänd, / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Mijnramp Bois du Caizier, Marcinelle, België. Schacht, Rossem, Wim van / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); NASA's ASTER Shows Brazilian City After Dam Disaster, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).