Copper Cliff

Copper Cliff is one of the largest copper mines in the Iron Hills, and was abandoned during the Great War. Unlike iron and gold mines, it was not considered a major strategic target due to the relatively limited strategic value of copper and thus was not subjected to major efforts of sabotage. However, due to the general evacuation of civilians in the Iron Hills roughly forty years ago, it is still severely damaged. Open air portions of the mine are partially overgrown and wooden supports have begun to succumb to rot.

Layout

The Copper Cliff mine was built into an ore body found at the base of a steep cliff in the south of the Iron Hills, and is a combination of surface strip mining and underground cave mining. The underground part of the mine began with adits dug into the cliff face, and was joined by the strip mining operation when ore above the base of the cliff had been removed. This has had the result of creating a large depression in the ground that enters into a series of low tunnels and caverns, many of which end in piles of broken rock or vertical shafts leading up into large arched chambers.

Natural reclamation

Much of the strip mine has had time for ground cover and small shrubs to grow - a hodge podge of mosses and lichens, grasses, heather, and juniper, and deeper portions have flooded to form ponds which drain down into the underground portions of the mine. Timber supports within the mine have begun to suffer from the increased moisture, and several tunnels have collapsed, making the mine a dangerous maze of unpredictable, poorly supported passages, which have become home to an array of beasts.

Type

Mine