The End

In October 1985 there was a sudden collapse in the price of tin.  

The tin price dropped from around £10,000 per tonne to just £3,400, caused by the collapse of the International Tin Council which regulated tin prices. As tin prices dropped, the costs of mining tin began to outweigh the profits.The average price needed to break even was around £6500 a tonne. Without financial assistance no Cornish tin producer could survive such a price drop.

To try and survive the crash in the price of tin, the miners took a pay cut and worked ten Saturdays without pay. Also, the men worked longer shifts for the same pay to produce more tin.

Cornish mining companies began to go out of business one by one, Geevor and other mines looked to the Department of Trade and Industry for financial support. The Department’s offer was not enough to save Geevor. The miners presented petitions to Downing Street and marched in London and held public collections, but despite their efforts, Geevor closed in April in a blaze of publicity, and raw emotion. Around 380 jobs were lost.

Photograph reproduced with the kind permission of the Geevor Archive