Strongbow Exploration has successfully completed water treatment trials at its South Crofty tin project in Cornwall, the UK, and is now working on an application to the the Environment Agency for a mine waste permit, the Canadian miner said Friday.
The application was expected to be filed within one month, and permits were anticipated to be issued before the end of the summer, the company said, adding that once it receives a mine waste permit with water discharge consent, the South Crofty project will be fully permitted.
South Crofty -- the last operating tin mine in Cornwall, which began large-scale production in the mid-17th century -- closed in 1998 and the mine was allowed to flood. In its last full year of operation, 1997, the mine produced 181,320 mt of ore grading 1.42% Sn.
The mine waste permit application envisages an initial pumping/treatment rate of 25,000 cu m/ day over an 18-24 month period.
After dewatering the mine is complete and then during production, a steady-state dewatering program of 5,500-6,500 cu m/day will be maintained, subject to annual precipitation variations, Strongbow said.
The installation and operation of a permanent water treatment plant for the South Crofty project "will provide a material improvement to the current status of the local environment which currently has untreated, contaminated mine water discharging into the Red River", the company said.
The cost to construct the permanent water treatment facility is included as part of the $118.7 million pre-production capital cost outlined in the preliminary economic assessment of the project released in February.
The PEA indicated the project was "potentially economically viable and technically feasible", Strongbow said at the time.
The successful completion of the water treatment trials "marks a key milestone in the redevelopment of the South Crofty tin mine", brokerage SP Angel said Friday in a research note.
"Much work can be done in terms of preparing the site, the plant, the mine plan, the upper mining levels and the mine financing before the mine is fully dewatered and we wonder if it is theoretically possible for South Crofty to get a significant proportion of its work done by the time the mine is fully drained," it said.
