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. Since the mine water treatment plant operation, we have maintained a robust water monitoring programme. Anticipated improvement in the Red River water quality directly downstream of the Roscroggan portal discharge point, was confirmed during 2024 Red River improvement assessment and reported to the Environment Agency. 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 disclosure of our operational greenhouse gas emissions performance.
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:
- Full compliance with our Environmental Permit
- Developing an Integrated Management System for the South Crofty water treatment plant
- Up to 20% of the electricity required to operate the plant is generated through a hydro-turbine, thereby reducing grid power consumption
- 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 to be the chosen supplier of secure and responsible tin for a sustainable future.
