March Cornish Mining Sundowner: some good and some not so good news from Cornwall

A very average turnout for last night's mining sundowner at Falmouth's Chain Locker, but it was good to welcome two visitors from the Czech Republic, Jan Vrba and Martin Fiser. They represent Asekol, a major environmental organisation based in the Czech Republic that focuses on recycling electronic waste. It is a non-profit "compliance scheme" that represents manufacturers and importers of electrical and electronic equipment, its main job being to help companies meet legal requirements for collecting and recycling old electronics.

Jan and Vrba are in Cornwall to talk to Gravity Mining, one of MEI's Physical Separation '26 sponsors, about Multi-Gravity Separators, and Holman-Wilfley about shaking tables, for the recycling of WEE to recover precious metals. Left to right in the photo are Dave Goldburn, of Holman-Wilfley, Martin, Treve Mildren, of Gravity Mining, and Jan.  Dave Goldburn is also involved with Physical Separation '26 and will be co-chairing the first session at the conference.

There was some disheartening Cornish Mining news a few weeks ago.  British Lithium has been extracting lithium from the decomposed granite at a china clay pit, owned by Imerys, a French multinational company, which, in 2023, acquired an 80% stake in British Lithium. The transaction brought together Imerys’ expertise in mining, R&D and process development capabilities, as well as its lithium mineral resources, with British Lithium’s bespoke technology and state-of-the-art lithium pilot plant, which in 2024 began producing battery-grade lithium carbonate. Sadly Imerys recently announced a strategic decision to place Imerys British Lithium (IBL) into a care and maintenance phase, suspending active development for the foreseeable future. The decision was driven by capital allocation constraints and the need to find a long-term partner to support the project at this time.

Some good news, however, that Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL) has commenced electricity generation at its United Downs Deep Geothermal Power Project near Truro, marking the first commercial deep geothermal power production in the United Kingdom.

The plant is designed to deliver approximately 3 MW of continuous, renewable baseload electricity, sufficient to supply around 10,000 homes. Electricity generated at the site is being supplied to the grid under a long-term power purchase agreement with Octopus Energy.

The United Downs facility utilises geothermal water from depths of more than 5 km beneath the surface. In addition to electricity generation, the project is also progressing lithium recovery from geothermal brines, creating a combined renewable energy and critical minerals operation (see also posting of 18 September 2020).

The start of generation represents a significant milestone for GEL and for the development of geothermal energy in Cornwall and the wider UK.

And finally, it is always good to hear of my past CSM students being awarded for their endeavours. Dave Meadows is Chief Technology Officer with Bechtel Mining and Minerals, USA. He graduated from Camborne in 1985 with an honours degree in Mineral Processing Technology. After 12 years in South Africa he moved to the USA with Bechtel, and then had 10 years with Freeport McMoRan and FLSmidth before settling with Bechtel in 2015, I missed the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City last month, where Dave was named a Fellow of the SME. Well done Dave!

Dave with Mary Korpi, SME President

The next Cornish Mining Sundowner is at Falmouth's Chain Locker on Thursday April 16th, from 5.30pm.

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