Cornwall hopes for tin mining revival as metals firm lands £56m injection
After the belts whirred to a halt and workers left Cornwall’s last operating tin mine for a final time in March 1998, a question was painted on its outer wall:
“Cornish lads are fishermen and Cornish lads are miners too. But when the fish and tin are gone, what are the Cornish boys to do?”
The closure of South Crofty in Pool, at the centre of Cornwall’s old industrial heartland, ended centuries of mining in the county and rang the death knell for an industry that once brought thousands of jobs to the region.
But after life as a tourist attraction and a series of failed attempts to restart production, hopes are growing that the old mine could soon kick back into life.
Cornish Metals, a Canadian firm listed on the London Stock Exchange, yesterday announced a £56m fundraise led by the government’s National Wealth Fund that will look to “de-risk” the mine and prepare it for operational use.
“This is huge for us,” Cornish Metals chief, Don Turvey, told Morning Wire.
“We’re going to repay the loans from [major shareholder] Vision Blue. We’re going to start with detailed engineering work on all the other aspects of the project.
“There’s some land that we need to purchase. And obviously, we’ve got, currently about 80 people on site. There’s a lot going on.”
Tin mining revival
While Cornish Metals has owned the site since 2016, its flooded mine shaft has proved an obstacle in restarting commercial operations. It was forced into a drilling hiatus before Vision Blue injected £25m to the project in 2022.
Turvey said the new investment would now allow it to renew efforts to ‘dewater’ the entire mine and refurbish the shaft, with the fresh capital injection expected to see it through to 2026. Under its current plans, it is expecting to begin commercial production in 2027.
Cornish Metals is among a host of firms looking to revive Europe’s largely dormant tin mining industry to tap into a surge in demand for the metal, driven by its use in everything from solar panels, to EVs and semiconductor chips. Tin prices have rocketed some 466 per cent in the past twenty years.
However, locally, there are hopes that South Crofty’s reopening could signal a return of opportunity and jobs to one of the poorest regions in the country.
“This is a landmark moment for Cornwall,” said John Brown, chief of Cornwall Chamber of Commerce.
“The investment into South Crofty represents not only the rejuvenation of an industry with a profound heritage but also a bold step into a regenerative future.
“Cornwall has long been synonymous with innovation, resilience and enterprise, and this funding signals a new chapter where our region plays a pivotal role in shaping an electrified future.”
Cornish Metals is expecting to create around 320 jobs at the site, with some 80 people already employed. Among those are 40 miners, many of them local, who work 24/7 to clear out the shaft, drain it of water and prepare it for use.
“All our winder operators are local, shift bosses, mine captain, they’re all local people. And so we trained them and deployed them underground,” Turvey added.
In a statement yesterday, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the investment would support both the “growth of the Cornish mining sector” and the creation of “high-quality jobs and opportunity for the region and beyond”.
Industrial renaissance
Cornish Metals is not alone in arousing that hope. A number of industrial firms have sprung up across the county to try and tap its natural resources for use in electric vehicles and new technology.
Cornish Lithium, which is looking to extract lithium from geothermal waters under Cornwall, hailed a “milestone” in October as it opened a demonstration plant it believes could produce 10,000 tonnes by 2027. It also now boasts a workforce of 100.
Where they can, Turvey said the two firms operate as “colleagues” with a shared vision to “build and grow businesses in Cornwall”
While obstacles remain in the form of planning red tape and energy and labour costs, Turvey says they are challenges worth tackling.
“I think the big opportunity here is that this is not a short life project,” he added. “This is a long life asset. That’s what we’re building. We think this business can be around for multiple decades.”
Hopes are growing that the question scrawled on the boundary wall of South Crofty may soon have an answer.