Mining in the United Kingdom Castle in Cheshire is evidence of bronze production during the Bronze Age. Later, lead and copper attracted the Romans to Britain. The Romans introduced iron tools and used local slaves to mine galena, an important lead ore mineral, from which they refined lead, tin and silver. These metals were used locally and also transported by ship throughout the Roman Empire. Galena was mined from deep mines located in Scotland and Wales. The widespread availability of coal and iron was a significant factor in Europe's Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Although less coal and iron ore
Broken Hill ore deposit hornblende schists. The ore consists of massive, recrystallised sphalerite-rich, galena-sphalerite and galena-rich sulfide lenses in folded horizons, known as No. 2 Lens Formation and No.3 Lens Formation. Both have distinctive metal ratios and gangue minerals. The ore boundaries are parallel to the bedding planes. According to Gustafson, "There is evidence that the ore has been introduced into an old, already folded, rock and has replaced certain favourable layers of that rock, particle by particle, with large tonnages of garnet, rhodonite, fluorite, marmatite (and wurtzite), galena, and other minerals that constitute the orebodies." The Potosi-Footwall Gneiss is found on both sides