Botallack Mine is situated in the St Just Mining District, one of the most ancient hard-rock tin and copper mining areas in Cornwall. Here the majority of principal sites lie within a well-defined spectacular coastal belt 3.5 miles long by approximately 1.25 miles wide.

Copper and tin has been won here for countless generations and miners have even sunk shafts and driven levels out beneath the ocean bed. These are the world famous submarine mines.