South Crofty: Work begins to remove water from tin mine

Owners hope South Crofty will be back in production by 2026

Work is under way to pump millions of litres of floodwater out of a former tin mine in Cornwall.

Owners of South Crofty, Cornish Metals said the mine had eight million cubic metres (283 million cubic feet) of void space, much of which was flooded.

Water pumped from the mine will be cleaned at the company's newly-built £7m treatment plant.

It will then be released into the Red River, which meets the sea at Godrevy in St Ives Bay.

The company said it would pump, treat and release 25,000 cubic metres (882,866 cubic feet) of water a day.

The dewatering process, which is expected to take 18 months to complete, is part of work to make the tin and copper mine, which closed in 1998, operational again.

'Premier tin resources'

Cornish Metals said the work would allow access to deeper levels within the mine, necessary to complete its feasibility study, expected at the end of 2024.

The company hopes to get South Crofty back into production as early as 2026.

Richard Williams, CEO of Cornish Metals said he hoped the mine would become one of the world's premier tin resources once more.

He said: "It's the fourth highest grade tin resource in the world right now and we think that Cornwall has a big role to play in supplying the UK with its tin requirements."

He added that once in production, the mine was expected to directly employ 275-300 people.