Christmas Cornish Mining Sundowner

Despite rail disruption and icy roads there was a good turn-out of around 25 at last night's ever popular Christmas sundowner at Tyacks Hotel in Camborne.

Christmas is always a time when departed friends are particularly missed, and this month our thoughts were particularly with the family of Tony Batchelor, who died in September and would certainly have been at the Tyacks sundowner. Tony had been at the heart of the geothermal industry for over 40 years both in the UK and internationally and was regarded as the ‘father of UK geothermal’ by many. There was some good news, however, as last month at the 9th UK Geothermal Symposium in London, Tony was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the industry, his passion, and his dedication, which was accepted on his behalf by his son James. Tony knew he was going to receive the award and he would have been delighted to discover that it contains cuttings from the deepest of the three Rosemanowes wells near Falmouth, that he was responsible for drilling in the 1980s.

And talking of drilling, the big news in UK mining this month is not from Cornwall, but from up country in Cumbria, where government approval has been granted for the first new UK coal mine in 30 years despite concern among Conservative MPs and experts about its climate impacts. The highly controversial mine will produce coking coal for steel production in the UK and across the world. Although the coal will not be used for power generation critics say the mine would undermine climate targets and the demand for coking coal is declining. However, supporters claim the mine will create jobs and reduce the need to import coal. British Steel, one of the country's remaining major steel producers, will not use the coal because of its high sulphur content, leaving only Tata Steel as a potential customer.

The fate of the West Cumbria Mining project had been hanging in the balance for two years after the local county council initially approved the mine in 2020 (see posting of 12 October 2020).

The next sundowner will be on Thursday January 19th, starting 5.30pm, at the County Arms, Truro. 

@barrywills