Tin and copper have been mined from the general area of Geevor since the late 18th century. It was originally a small enterprise known as "Wheal an Giver", "a piece of ground occupied by goats". The area was worked under the name of East Levant Mine until 1840 and then as North Levant from 1851 to 1891 when it closed. During the 1880s as many as 176 workers were employed at the mine, but in the ten years after North Levant's closure the site saw only intermittent activity by a few miners.