Just outside the southern boundary of the 2005 Upland survey study area are the very ruinous remains of the Brynyrafr mine complex. Brynyrafr was one of the last mines to be successfully worked in this district. A group of Liverpool businessmen invested in opening the mine in 1879 and a fine lode of ore was soon discovered (Bick, D, 1988, The Old Metal Mines of Mid-Wales, Part 3 p. 52). One interesting aspect of the development of this mine is that the initial phase of activity saw the old dressing floors of the neighbouring South Cambrian mine reused, NPRN 402029, until a new dressing floor could be added at Brynyrafr. The mine ceased working in 1912.

In 1896, under the ownership of John Mitchell's company Mid-Wales Mines Ltd., there were 32 men working underground and 18 on the surface, producing lead and zinc ores.

The mine has been almost wholly destroyed due to most of its surface features being submerged under the waters of Nantymoch reservoir. Some minor features of the mine complex remain above water level and a few were recorded by this project. These include the leats that supplied the complex (e.g. NPRNs 285702 & 285848). The lengthy Taylor's leat (NPRNs 285501-02) was tapped into at some point in the development of Brynyrafr and a concrete sluice system (NPRN 285712-13) added to control water flow.

Mention must be made of a nearby reservoir (NPRN 285517), dam (NPRN 285515) and leat (NPRN 285846) that exploited the waters of the Camddwr Bach stream in the valley between Bryniau Rhyddion and Cefnyresgair. The earthworks of these features survive, the reservoir now being a reed-filled bog as the dam has been breached. It is not clear when they were put in place, although they appear on the 1891 Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1885) and therefore may belong to the period of activity under the South Cambrian Mining Co. Alternatively, and perhaps more likely, they may reflect the investment into the neighbouring Brynyrafr mine after 1879. By 1884, Brynyrafr was a successful mine and had already reused the dressing floors abandoned when South Cambrian closed in 1881 or 1882.

R.P. Sambrook, Trysor, 15 January 2006