Photographs taken by British photographer Annette Price while on a caving expedition in Wales document the abandoned mine which opened in the late 18th century. The images show the beautiful variety of coloured stones and tranquil clarity of underwater lakes left dormant miles underground.
Annette, 49, spent days crawling through the pitch black tunnels exploring and documenting the mine, most of which is completely underwater. Annette said: We worked in total darkness, the only light available is from our headlamps and sometimes we take hand torches too.
When we first entered the cave we sat on the ground and switched off all of our lights for a few minutes, explains Annette. This gives our eyes time to adjust to the darkness. It's really relaxing to experience true darkness, something we rarely do in our modern lit world, and sit and listen to the sounds of the cave, which can be an occasional drip of water falling rom the roof, water trickling down the wall, a waterfall or the sound of a raging underground river or just our own breathing.
Silica mining was very popular in the late eighteenth century and in the mid 1960s
The material is used to create 'fire bricks' which were used in the construction of kilns and furnaces for the copper, steel and iron industries
Going underground: negotiating one of the tunnels inside the mine
A significant part of the mine is underwater, as a photographer I love this, because of the clarity of the water and reflections.
With over a decade of caving experience, Annette (above) has had to navigate difficult and risky climbs as well as leaping over huge gaps in the dark to reach her goal. Annette doesn't plan to stop documenting caves and has already planned to explore a number of sulphur and disused slate mines across the UK.
Tight spot: one of the caving team attempts to squeeze through a gap in the rocks
The caving team outside the entrance to the silica mine in Wales
