Hemerdon is pretty much entirely granite, there is a mix of what is being termed "Soft Granite", which I can only imagine is Kaolinised granite, bearing in mind the proximity to Lee Moor China Clay pit and Hard granite, which is how the mine has ended up with such a simple processing system, which is closer to Crofty's mill design than Wheal Jane's.

The first stage is a densse media seperation, followed by conventional gravity means. I would imagine there is also a froth flotation circuit for recovering the fines.

Thanks, all open cast or some underground ?

Lozz.

Is this going to be an opencastoperation or a traditional underground operation?

Current reserves are for open-pit down to 200m I think - the orebody has been deliniated to 400m depth which will need to be UG. Or there are reports of Sn in the killas so may be economical to go beyond 200m OP. Not sure.

But current plans are for a large open pit.

Any info on what sort of diameter the opencast is likely to be?

Have any opencasts previously gone that deep in the south west? From what I've seen of photos of china clay pits, none look as though they approach 200m.

The pit dimensions are 800m long x 450m widw x 230m deep. The big clay pits (Littlejohns and Melbur) are around 130m deep

Here's some guff on the mineralization etc.

http://www.southhams.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=5644&p=0 

Lozz.

As I have posted previously, we have in the U.K. some of the biggest mining companies in the world.
New mines will only be set up if the ore reserves are present, and this is the only criteria which motivates them.
Health and safety criteria would not influence them, indeed they do not need negative comments on safety issues.
All of our extractive companies I am sure are fully aware of the way B.P. has been taken to the cleaners over Gulf compensation claims, and so would be extremely careful.

Ahaaa, back on a working computer.

My cynicism was borne out of my time working alongside metallurgists and at the lab. Not putting too fine a point on it, bags of all sorts would come in, as well as half-cores. People would inspect the stuff like mineral collectors, looking at the material, it would go through a variety of crushers, screens, tables, froth and heavy liquids, etc, etc. The results would come back from the lab and it would be possible to piece together the order of size of things and how significant they are.

I remember reading another report from the 60s about "one of the Cornish projects (not that one, or that one) and the grades were outstanding. Really outstanding. It was almost a no-brainer.

What saddens me is that Cornwall has totally lost it. You read about diamond drilling rigs appearing all around Cornwall in the 60s, people clearing shafts and then onto people actually having a go at opening the mine. I read an article about Wheal Jane in 73 and how it was the 2nd largest underground tin mine in the world. You read the first paragraph of Wheal Concord (the book) and it's inspiring stuff. They went out, opened some shafts up, did a load of drilling and actually did something. They produced stuff out of a hole!

Prices have gone up and up and up and there are no drilling rigs (doing anything apart form heat/water bore holes, or doing mining investigations). There are no headgears and everything is pretty much grinding to a halt.

I was right there sorting through a load of phosphate samples for screening and the TV were interviewing "this chap" about "his project". Shortly afterwards, there was hell up. Utter hell up. The lentilists were wetting the bed over the through of what this chap was proposing. They didn't read the report, they didn't understand anything about what was proposed, all they thought was some greedy capitalist was going to tear up the environment and all the cuddly bunnies and fishy-wishies were going to snuff it. There are millions of pounds waiting to be harvested and it gets killed by some nonsense.

I also have a chum who is "something to do with" the other project. There is talk of them "never being allowed to do anything, because of 101 environmental reasons". Then you hear about Crofty never being allowed to pump and it's shameful.

I had a chat to the metallurgists/mining geologists about this and the likely direction of mining/milling tech is towards bigger machines digging out bigger amounts of low grade stuff and automated everything and improved milling technology being the likely direction. It seems that HSE with their apparent stuff regarding airleg/hand drilling is the next nail in the coffin.

My comment about employment was due to ratio of diggers to men and the virtual automation of the mill.

I've read the Jack Trounson books and I had total faith in his belief in the Cornish deposits and the men who could work them. It was there in the 60's and later.

It seems that recent legislation for the (over) protection of everyone has meant that no-one in their right mind would bother. There are the excited mutterings of people saying "When hermerdon has opened up, it'll be the catalyst, you'll have all sorts of people opening allsorts". I don't think it will.

I was looking for information of Wheal Squire (carharrack) on the internet and bizarrely, I bumped into the chap from Cornwall Mining Services and his mad crew of swashbuckling, speculating pirates who were looking at tin in Outer Wood. I wondered what those laddered shafts and stagings were from...they were clearly different to Wheal Jane's techniques.

Hemerdon is going to be a bloody big hole, Treliver might get to be a not-so-big hole, if it has blessing from god with planning and the eco-people. If crofty breaks another rock, I will eat my own beard and marine minerals are more of a non-starter than an 80's skoda.

I am aware of 2 separate groups of people (apart from the Duchy and those sat on Redmoor) who are very very keen to establish who owns what mineral rights and increasing their portfolios. It certainly looks to me like they are aiming on speculating, rather than actually doing any mining. It all looks a bit like people hoping someone will come along and offer them millions and millions for their little collection of rights and flooded holes.

It's a shame, you look at the subject matter of geology, mineralogy, chemistry as well as engineering and firsts and Cornwall is there, it was a nation apart, hard working wirey men with a unique culture making firsts, being instrumental in humanity's progress, the whole topic is littered with the most incredible historical record and to participate in it is to truly belong. It's a part of the Cornish identity and it's a part of the reason miners are like a brotherhood.

I've met a fair few chaps who would like their jobs back and many more with a fond regard for past times, when people gained worth by something other than tourism. They'd like to see locals have some pride and identity, rather than grovelling at the bottom of the food chain for emmets pennies. I've worked with the drillers who would like to get back coring, rather than doing bloody heat pump holes.

Behind the scenes, there are things going on and Hemerdon appears to be different, in that it has permission to actually go ahead, unlike others in our glorious tourist museum of Kernow. (Wind your windows up through hayle)

A few years ago i was a director of a business park company that was attempting to inject new life in a particularly run down area of Walsall, an era with above average level of unemployment.
Tesco had purchased a large area of derelict land, land which had been used for fly tipping, was overgrown, and basically a rat infested eyesore.
Their proposed development would create up to 450 jobs and they were prepared to put a tidy sum of their own money into improvements in the towns road infrastructure so as to cope with the increased traffic to their superstore.
It went to local appeal where it came out that an environmental group whom I shall not name were the chief opponents to the development. They has a representative at the enquiry and Tescos solicitor questioned this gentleman about how and when the decision was taken to oppose the scheme.
It transpired that this was done at a meeting with about 8 or 10 attendees.

The tails that wag the dog?

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I hope Hemerdon comes off ok but I still have a nagging doubt in the back of my head as to it's full term survival, looking at Wolf's website on the subject a lot of it seems to be based on old reports to me at least.

All the main tin has gone I think, if what's left was worth getting out they would be doing it for sure, deep underground hardrock mining is an expensive business, unless the reserves are there and the grades are up I can't see a lot happening.

The current interest and revival is nothing new, seen it all before, "could create umpteen £££'s, could create umpteen jobs" could also go tits up which is what usually happens.

Lozz.

Could save a few bob if they set newly qualified CSM leavers on no-pay internships like the government supports?:confused:

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Could save a few bob if they set newly qualified CSM leavers on no-pay internships like the government supports?:confused:

Woooooo ! politics 😉

I thought they were looking to mine tungsten ?

I thought they were looking to mine tungsten ?

My apologies, second para of my last post was referring to tin mining in Cornwall.

Lozz.