Sorry H, I have gone blank, I don't recognise it from the Gwydir area, and I cannot recall if it was from a past quiz....help
AHH Senior moment ....Klondyke mill.... your silver clue helped, now I remember, this idiot used second hand gold refining equipment to separate the silver, and ended up poisoning the lake by sluicing water contaminated with high amounts of lead, you will notice very little grows there now,
Klondyke Mill was an ore processing mill on the edge of the Gwydir Forest, near Trefriw, north Wales.
Constructed in 1900,[1] the mill was built to receive lead ore (and some zinc ore) from Pandora mine, some 2 miles away - with which its history is inextricably linked - this ore travelling along a tramway which followed the eastern shore of Llyn Geirionydd. The mill saw little usage; Pandora mine was never profitable after construction of the mill, and the mine ceased operation in 1905. Klondyke mill itself closed in 1911 after having a short succession of optimistic owners.
In the 1920s, the mill achieved notoriety as the scene of an elaborate money-making scam, when investors were sought for the Klondyke mine, which was allegedly rich in silver. It is this scam which gives the mill its current name; during its years of operation it was initially known as Geirionydd Mill, then as the New Pandora Lead Works.[1]
Today the mill lies in a ruined state, a tribute to the false optimism of the time, and is believed to be the largest upstanding building associated with lead mining in north Wales.[2] It is a registered ancient monument [3][4] and, despite its state of disrepair, is under the guardianship of Cadw, the only mine structure in the Gwydir Forest to be so designated.[1]
