It was reported this week that South Crofty tin mine in Corwall is reopening after being closed for a decade. When South Crofty closed, it was no longer viable to extract tin from the ground in Western Europe.
However, since 1997, the price of tin has increased by three and a half times and South Crofty has become viable again. For some reason there is a bit of back-story about Cornwall County Council thinking the mine is unviable and attempting to block the restart but none the less, South Crofty mine is restarting…
…which leads to an interesting problem. In order to restart, they obviously have to recruit miners. Unfortunately, not much mining of any note has been going on in Cornwall for those 10 years since South Crofty closed so the only real option is to recall the original employees who are, of course, advancing a little in years. Quite where you recruit people to work down tin-mines in 2007 is anybody’s guess, perhaps a change in the UK economy could make that viable too.
South Crofty hope to be extracting 2,400 tonnes of tin in 2008. The mine could produce tin for up to 80 years to come.
Tags: cornwall, mining, south crofty, tin mine
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