Good point well made.
A lot of fuss was always made about how wet Jane was. What is incredible to learn is not only were they pumping out United to a ridiculous level, that extended right through Squire Woods into Ting Tang. The water was also down in Consols, I also imagine it was partially down through Wheal Jewel and right through out towards West Damsel. No wonder it was wet, they were pretty much pumping out the whole of Gwennap. That's without considering the parallel Wheal Sperries as well as Old Jane and Basset Graze etc, etc.
I remember hearing stories about how Wellington were quite keen on driving a sub level out towards Killifreth. Realistically, since they had already tackled a lot of the dewatering, the back of it was broken.
Gwennap fascinates me and has been the centre of my poking around for a number of years, it strikes me that sadly, anyone resuming mining in the area (perhaps continuing the Maid Decline Project) will be thwarted by epic and considerable interlinked drainage problems. I think it was utterly tragic the maid decline project was halted. Despite the good values found under Whiteworks and the associated parallel lodes, the whole area is saturated with almost infinite water.
I think Trounson hit the nail on the head pretty square and there are most certainly numerous prospects which are very real things to open and in due course, will open (unless we wean ourselves from the nipple of consumption). However, I think the psychology of the people involved needs to change (which is probably backed up by HSE and all the other crap) Half of the suggestions are not appropriate to the "think big" mining we currently enjoy.
I suppose you have big scale Hemerdon, big scale Cligga Head (if they can put it past the yoghurt weavers) Big Scale Crofty, and that's pretty much it. If I recall correctly, apart from some hugely watered and interlinked stuff around the Tregurtha Downs area, there are very few deposits suited to large scales and monster mills.
I am very much of the opinion that the size of mines against time will appear like a bell curve. This is totally obvious, whilst luckily, mill efficiency will hopefully continue improving.
I think it was trounson who posed the idea of having small scale mines being linked to a large central mill.
My point about Yoghurt Weavers putting spanners in the works is from a period when I mucked about with analytical chemistry at a university. I rubbed shoulders with a lot of yoghurt weavers, both with academic posts and students. Needless to say, one of the key gripes with modern education is that it is often devoid of context, particularly economic context. In the old days, people had enough of a "comprehensive" education and the ability to think which allowed them to pitch the output of their studies at a sensible level. I firmly believe (from talking and working with a fair old sample of them) that this is not the case.
We have a situation where PPMs are dangerous and unacceptable and sadly "No, you cannot de-water that mine" when in the old days, they would have just got on with it. I did enough Environmental Chemistry to allow me to teach it at A' Level and at no point did I note anything referring to toxicology. However, there were plenty of "EU rule 873/B/65-h says "No more than 200PPM allowed"". What the first thing a chemist would say to you is "What form is the stuff in?" Clearly, all stuff is not present in the same manner and it poses different levels of threats to the environment.
I really do hope that toxicological studies have been very clearly done and then the results of that applied and tested in the field, and that the people undertaking the tests were not exhibiting any bias in their judgement and then, when the potential economic benefit is noted, how we balance the potential environmental impact in the larger context of similar environments. Clearly, the Environment Act has all the acronyms and procedures in order to achieve this (and I've forgotten what they are now).
Sadly, we have way too many people on this island and they need a country with lots of money to keep the quality of life up. Clearly, if spending is not under control, the whole thing spectacularly leaves the rails and hits the wall. It is of vital importance that yoghurt weavers and left wing luddites do not prevent actual real economic wealth creation by using a few frogs and a few PPMs to halt a potential operation.
I really would like to believe that the mineral authority would exercise some sense, but given the hopeless climate we are in and the total and utter incapacity of anyone in charge, you can absolutely guarantee that it will never happen.
I hope I am proved wrong, because what I think, largely based upon what Trounson had to say, as well as some post war Ministry of Supply reports, is that Cornwall has quite a rosy future of mineral production. (perhaps not for a few decades yet).
Anyway.....