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As early as the Bronze Age, copper mining took place around the Great Orme and Cwmystwyth, possibly also at Llanymynech. From the eighteenth century, both Anglesey and Swansea were important centres for copper mining and smelting respectively. Until the 1770s the majority of home-produced ores had come from Cornwall and until the nineteenth century imports were relatively small. In the 1770s, however, more Anglesey ores became available and in 1779 intense competition broke out which continued until the sharing of the market between Cornwall and Anglesey in 1785. In the eighteenth century Parys Mountain mine on Anglesey was the largest copper producer in the world and dominated the world's markets in the 1780s. Anglesey ore was exported through Amlwch, which consequently became a thriving port. The success of copper works in Swansea was associated with the exploitation of copper ore at Parys Mountain. From 1782 the Upper Bank works and others at Swansea were controlled from the north, though additional ore was obtained from outside Wales. Before 1785 there were eleven smelting companies purchasing ore in Cornwall, and in that year five of them entered into agreements to smelt on behalf of the Cornish Metal Company: three of the five were the Gnoll Company, Morris, Lockwood & Company and Freeman & Company which operated smelting works in south Wales. From 1787 until 1792 the Anglesey entrepreneur, Thomas Williams of Llanidan, took control of the Cornish Metal Company, and managed almost the whole British copper industry. From 1843 onwards, growing quantities of copper ore were imported from abroad, and there was a marked expansion in the copper industry, peaking between 1860 and 1875, just before the entry of the USA into the market.

 

www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/Copper1729.html

www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/CMN/Lloyd3.html

www.page-net.com/swansea.localhistory/llansamlet/pages/swanseavalley.htm