Red Dragon mine was begun in 1852, apparently initially as a lead mine. By 1853 a waterwheel and blowing machine (NPRN 527410) had been erected to ventilate an adit, and a carpenter's and blacksmith's shop had been erected (nprn 527412). These surface structures have survived beside the adit (nprn 527407) and its spoil tips (nprn 527408, 527409). Above the structures is a small reservoir (nprn 527405) fed by a leat (nprn 527406) from a stream. Other features that might belong to this initial phase of working are a trial working high up on the slopes of Bwlch Siglen (nprn 527415), and another lower down the valley that is outside of the present survey area. The discovery of black gossan changed the nature of the enterprise because it was discovered to be a gold-bearing mineral and henceforth the mine operated as a gold mine. In 1854 a Perks? Gold Reduction and Amalgamating Machine was purchased and erected in a new water-powered mill. It appears that it was the limitations of the Perks machinery, which was a very large investment for a small mine, caused the company to fail. Work ceased there by 1856 (Bick 1978, 18-19; ). The location of this mill is uncertain and seems to have been at some distance from the mine itself as there is no archaeological evidence for a processing mill next to the adit.
D. Bick, The Old Metal Mines of Mid Wales, v (1978), 18-19.
G.W. Hall, The Gold Mines if Merioneth (1988), 81.
Recorded as part of RCAHMW Uplands Initiative Project, R Hayman, H&H, 07/01/2013.