There is also a short video of the mine site on the link below....

There is also a short video of the mine site on the link below.



WORK has started at Plymouth’s £123 million tungsten mine – and the first ore is expected to be out of the ground by next year.

Politicians and bosses from Australian-based speciality metals firm Wolf Minerals Limited carried out a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony at what is now being called Drakelands mine, at Hemerdon, near Plympton.

But earth-moving diggers and huge trucks are already in action at the site and have stripped off a huge area of top-soil ready for construction to begin on a £75million processing plant by next March.

Already 100 construction workers are on the site and this number will double as Wolf aims to have the open-cast mine in full production by July 2015.

When it is fully operational the mine will employ 200 people, in what are being described as “quality” jobs.

“When you spend this sort of money you have got to get a return as quickly as possible,” said Wolf’s UK operations manager Jeff Harrison.

“It’s taken years of preparation and we want to make it happen.”

Wolf managing director Russell Clark said the start of construction was the result of a lot of hard work by the firm’s Plymouth-based team, and “stakeholders”, and said: “This is the beginning of a new mine and 200 jobs.

“A lot of people thought this day would never come.”

The Hemerdon tungsten deposit it the third largest in the world.

When production is in full flow the mine will produce 5,000 tonnes of tungsten concentrate annually, about 3.5 per cent of forecast global demand, and some tin.

The mine will feature a 850metre by 450metre pit, which will be 200metres deep, a processing plant and mine waste facility.

The disused former Hemerdon mine building and four houses have been demolished, but another 11 houses – all of which were compulsory purchased – will be used as either stores and offices, or mothballed, and could be sold when the mine is closed after about a decade.

The area will then be landscaped, and although trees have already been felled, work starts soon to plant 40,000 trees around the site.

The mining project is likely to put a large slice of anticipated £70million annual sales into the Plymouth economy and create jobs ranging from geologists, engineers and mining surveyors to truck drivers.

Gary Streeter, Tory MP for Devon South West, said: “This will be a massive boost to the local economy bringing 200 quality jobs, mainly for local people.”

Cllr Tudor Evans, Labour leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “This is a global facility and an example of everyone working together for the benefit of the sub-region. It brings a great number of jobs.

“And I was delighted to hear the commitment from Wolf that they are operating this site to the highest environmental standards.”

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Work-starts-multi-million-pound-Plymouth/story-20812821-detail/story.html


Good luck to all that hold WLF