New era beckons for Cornwall miners
- 12 November 2024
Cornwall Trade & Investment director Nicola Lloyd says one of Europe’s oldest mining districts is “naturally ready” to take its place in the region’s future critical minerals and metals supply chains.
Not just shovel-ready, in terms of the lithium, tin and other metals on Cornwall’s project register, but innately endowed with renewable energy reserves, mining heritage and geology.
“I think the strength and the breadth of Cornwall's opportunity, the deliverability, the fact that we have a track record … is unique,” Lloyd says.
“It’s a globally important opportunity not just because of the volumes of minerals that are in the ground, but the people and appetite [for responsible mining], the innovation and geo-resources.
“The link with the UK’s critical minerals strategy and central government policies and strategies in relation to net zero … Cornwall is fully equipped to lead the way in the UK in that respect.
“We're naturally ready for it and we're keen to see the investment trickle in to help us keep moving forward.”
It might be more than a trickle.
Cornwall Trade & Investment will host a strong Cornwall mining delegation at a dedicated pavilion at Resourcing Tomorrow 2024 in London. A wider Cornwall exploration and development cohort at the event will talk about more than US$630 million of lithium, tin, copper and tungsten projects in a district said to have yielded as much as $36 billion of minerals and metals in its storied mining past.
Also present at Resourcing Tomorrow will be students and research leaders from one of the world’s most famous mining schools, the 137-year-old Camborne School of Mines at Exeter, and other members of the Cornwall Mining Alliance.
Cornish Lithium CEO and founder Jeremy Wrathall said at the recent UK Mining Conference in Cornwall the region’s lack of modern exploration belied its ancient mining history. Exploration is now being fired by a growing list of domestic and international investors.
“This is our moment to drive the energy transition in Europe,” Wrathall said.
“Arguably the minerals we need for electric vehicles, power storage and the everyday electronic devices upon which many of us rely are only critical because, as a nation, we have failed to appreciate their importance in recent times. What is critical about these minerals now is how we develop them for the benefit of Cornwall and the UK in a responsible manner.”
Cornish Lithium already employs more than 100 people in the Cornwall area, years before its planned 2027 commercial hard-rock lithium production start at Trelavour among the kaolin (China clay) pits operated by French-owned Imerys in the middle of the county.
Cornish Lithium has outlined plans to invest circa-$300 million to build an operation producing an initial 10,000 tonnes per annum of lithium hydroxide, leveraging existing site infrastructure no longer used by the shrinking kaolin operation.
“Even more exciting than Trelavour is our lithium in geothermal water … because we believe that lithium in geothermal waters can extend from one end of Cornwall to the other, literally,” Wrathall has said. The company aims to produce lithium and provide decarbonised heating to homes and businesses in the area.
Tata’s new $5 billion Jaguar Land Rover electric vehicle battery plant in Somerset is expected to catalyse further investment in Cornwall’s minerals. The 40GW battery cell gigafactory is slated to start production in 2026.
Imerys British Lithium CEO Andrew Smith has said the company’s proposed 20,000tpa lithium carbonate-equivalent project in Cornwall could meet about half the feedstock needs of the Somerset gigafactory.
“The proximity of [the] new gigfactory in Somerset to our base in one of Cornwall’s mining heartlands is another big milestone in establishing an industry that will help achieve the government’s net zero goals,” he said last year.
Lloyd said Imerys’ investment last year in British Lithium and its potential 30-year Cornwall lithium oxide mine resource was connected with more active British government support for mining and mineral processing in England’s south-west, with Cornwall designated as a “High Potential Opportunity in Mining” by the UK Department for International Trade in 2021.
“The British brand is strong,” she said.
“I think a lot of mining-related companies like the prospect of operating in the UK without needing to look at huge amounts of infrastructure that may need to go in, like they may do in other parts of the world.
“It’s a safe and relatively easy place to operate.
“We feel like we can stand head and shoulders with every other strong opportunity in the world and attract that investment. We’ve seen that in terms of Imerys' continued investment in Cornwall and other sort of very significant global players in other industries turning their heads to Cornwall.
“And much to the surprise, I think, of some.
“They perhaps wouldn't expect that but we’ve got a really strong proposition now.”
Senior trade and investment manager at Cornwall Trade and Investment, Chloe Barnsley, said: “Having that kind of UK umbrella branding does really help us convey our core messages around the power of Cornwall to international audiences. It does open doors in terms of embassies and high commissions in different countries. It means that we'll get a lot more support on the ground.”
Lloyd said a projected 3000 or more direct and indirect skilled jobs connected to the current roster of proposed mines and downstream activities – equating to around £90 million gross value added, or GVA – could be “quite game changing for Cornwall”.
“Because of the heritage here there has always been a positive appetite for the industry to take off so I think those jobs will really be appealing to the local people,” she said.
“With a lack of operational mines outside of Imerys people have moved into other jobs locally or continued to relocate to other parts of the world.
“But, you know, Cornwall's got one of the biggest diaspora you can imagine.
“I think there’s something like two million people in America that consider themselves Cornish.
“We know that migration goes back, in some instances, many generations. But for some people it won't have been quite so long ago.
“So it will be interesting to see what happens there.”
