THE UK’s largest gold mine is set to reopen to meet the rising demand for Welsh gold. Clogau Gold is negotiating with the Crown Commission to reopen the nine-mile-long St David’s mine, at Bontddu, in Snowdonia.

The 150-year-old mine closed in 1998 as the costs of staying within health and safety laws became too onerous. At the time, bosses at the North Wales jewellery firm were confident they had mined enough gold to keep them going for decades.

But since then, despite the challenging trading conditions brought on by the credit crunch, demand for the firm’s product has rapidly increased. Globally the price of gold reached a record $1,000 an ounce for the first time in March this year amidst growing fears about a recession.

At current levels of demand supplies are expected to run out in seven years. This has left managing director Ben Roberts, whose North Wales family has owned the mine since 1988, facing a stark choice.

To keep the business afloat he must choose between further diluting existing supplies or investing up to £700,000 in reopening the mine. He said: “We are in talks with the Crown Commission to discuss the possibility of opening the mine, but it’s very expensive.

“Ultimately we have to make a decision within a year. In 1998 when we closed, it was based on the costs of keeping up with health and safety laws, but we’d found quite a lot of gold that year. We felt we had enough for a few years, but now the subject has arisen again and we’re starting to re-evaluate that.”

He said it would take two to three years to meet the various health and safety requirements before St David’s could again become a working gold mine.

“The mine is notoriously difficult for finding gold. Before we bought the mine it was declared exhausted. But we employed a few of the ex-miners who said they knew where the gold was, and they were right.

“We’d probably be looking at mining it on a very small basis. We wouldn’t be talking about employing hundreds of miners.

“It would be a small team of five miners in the most productive areas our records can guide us to.”

Though some of the extensive warren of tunnels are flooded, most of the productive areas are above the base water level and mineable. The new operation would see a small team of miners concentrating on the most productive seams.


Wales’ last working gold mine Gwynfynydd in Dolgellau, Gwynedd, was discovered in 1860. It has produced 62kg of Welsh gold since 1884.

For a time the mine was open to the public and provided guided tours, which included the opportunity to pan for gold. The mine closed due to problems finding a sufficiently rich lode or seam and because changing pollution control legislation would have made the owners liable for the quality of discharge into the River Mawddach.

Although the underground part of the mine closed in 1999, there is still thought to be plenty of gold left in the Welsh hills. All it needs to make it profitable again is an investor prepared to take the risk as Clogau are on the point of doing at Bontddu.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/01/welsh-gold-mine-behind-three-generations-royal-wedding-rings/