Environment

We are committed to protecting the environment in which we work and consider compliance with applicable environmental laws, regulations and permits as a minimum standard. We have a good understanding of our local environment from monitoring conducted during South Crofty’s former operational and closure years, supplemented by studies during the 2017 permitting process for mine dewatering and water treatment. We conduct compliance monitoring as required and, with our mine water treatment plant now in operation, we are collecting and analysing water samples from several locations to measure the anticipated improvement in the Red River water quality directly downstream of the Roscroggan portal discharge point. Looking ahead, we plan to progress our work towards implementing a site-wide environmental management system.

We recognise the importance of our role in an energy-intensive sector and are developing our approach for addressing climate-related governance, including working towards future public disclosure of our operational greenhouse gas emissions performance.

                    Cornish Metals' employees perform dust sampling at the South Crofty Mine                     Cornish Metals' employee monitors Red River water

We are actively seeking solutions to ensure responsible use of resources, minimise our impacts and, where practicable, achieve positive benefits to the environment. A selection of initiatives recently implemented, under investigation or identified for the future include:

• Addition of a hydro-turbine ahead of the mine water treatment plant discharge point that is generating up to 20% of the electricity required to operate the plant, thereby reducing grid power consumption.
• Operating under a power supply contract for the guaranteed provision of 100% renewably generated power.
• Designing for safe paste backfilling of all mineral processing tailings underground, thereby eliminating the need for a surface impoundment.
• Designing for the use of modern ore-sorting technology which will reduce energy consumption during subsequent mineral processing of mined ore.
• Exploring opportunities for energy efficiency, renewable power generation and low-carbon fuel use where feasible. 
• Exploring opportunities to utilise the geothermal heat from pumped mine water to heat company and, potentially, local buildings. 
• Exploring the potential for sale of mined non-mineralised rock as aggregate if not stored underground.

Our vision is for South Crofty to be a modern mine with robust environmental protection controls and procedures appropriate to each stage of the mine life.

Hydro-turbine generating electricity from the mine water treatment plant discharge