The owner of Cornwall’s South Crofty mine says there is likely to be more tin than expected under the ground.
Canada-headquartered Cornish Metals, formerly known as Strongbow, has been and has been seeking funding to pump water out of the shaft with a view to starting to dig for tin and copper.
During the past few years the business has carried out a series of drilling tests in and around the area to assay the mine’s production value in terms of both quantity and quality of tin.
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Following the latest test results, Cornish Metals chief executive Richard Williams, said: “We are very pleased with the outcome of this new Mineral Resource Estimate, which shows a material increase in both tonnage and contained tin in the ground at South Crofty.
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“Following on from our successful surface drilling campaign in 2020, where we intersected high-grade tin mineralisation below the historical workings, this new Mineral Resource Estimate confirms our belief in the resource expansion potential at South Crofty.”
South Crofty closed on March 6, 1998, after 400 years of operation. It was Europe’s last tin mine to close. At the time, the price of one tonne of tin was less than £4,200. Now it stands at £20,000 a tonne.
The latest tests at South Crofty showed reserves of about 5,000 tonnes of tin in the upper parts of South Crofty mine and 32,000 tonnes in the deeper parts of the mine.
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Mr Williams added: “Coming at a time when governments around the world are increasingly focussed on reducing carbon emissions, enhancing security of supply of critical minerals, investing in technology and developing the green economy, this is a further demonstration that Cornwall has the potential to become a significant tin producer once again and make a valuable contribution to providing the responsibly sourced technology metals that we need to meet our climate change goals.”
In February 2021, Cornish Metals raised more than £8m from investors to advance its operations at the United Downs copper and tin mine, also in Cornwall.
Cornish Metals, which has its main offices in Vancouver, is hoping to drill a series of holes totalling 8,000m, each 150m to 450m in depth, at United Downs to see the extent of the metal deposit zone for precious metals such as tin, copper and lithium, all of which are used in new technologies from electric cars and batteries to electronics, robotics, 5G and renewable energy.
The company holds extensive mineral rights in a highly prospective historic mining area covering about 15,000 hectares around United Downs, Redruth and Camborne.
The United Downs Project is a near surface, high-grade copper-tin discovery and is located immediately adjacent to four former producing copper and tin mines: Consolidated Mines and United Mines to the north and south, respectively; and the Mount Wellington and Wheal Jane mines to the east.