 In the eighteenth century minerals had been extracted in the area around Llanelly, and smelting of metals was taking place locally well before the end of that century.Conveyance of heavy minerals over the primitive roads of the day was an expensive and difficult business.Alexander Raby purchased mineral-bearing lands about 1795 and constructed tramways to bring the minerals to a smelting plant he owned at Furnace, near Llanelly.