Pembrey Copper Works was the last copperworks to be established in the region. It occupies a site beside the dock at Burry Port and was erected by the Birmingham firm of Mason & Elkington in 1849. A lead and silverworks were added to the north in 1853. The works was closed in 1912 and the building was later used by a chemical company. The building is constructed of copper slag, stone and brick and is externally almost unaltered.
The Copper Works had doubled in size between 1880 and 1907 but it closed in 1911, to be sold the following year. It was dismantled, but the buildings were acquired in 1923 by Frickers Metal co. Ltd., zinc oxide manufacturers. Many of the original buildings had gone by 1953.
A gasometer was marked on the 1880 OS map only. The gas would have been used to light the works with gas. They were shown as dismantled by the 1905 OS map.
Sources:
A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of the Swansea Region", Association for Industrial Archaeology, 2nd Edition, 1989
Cambria Archaeology report: 'BURRY PORT SOUTHERN DISTRIBUTOR ROAD, CARMARTHENSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION, 2004' - Neil Ludlow, 2005
RCAHMW, 8 September 2011