South Crofty Mine on the Brink

South Crofty appeals for subsidised survival.

This report is on one of the oldest working mines in Britain, South Crofty in Cornwall. In October 1985 the price of tin dropped on the world market forcing a crisis and closures in the industry. A call for subsidies to the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher led to a rationalisation programme but the mine extracted its last ore in 1998. There have been viability studies to reopen the mine with Australian and Canadian firms interested, the mining lease expires in 2071.

South Crofty was once called Penhellick Vean and copper was commercially extracted by Francis Bassett in 1710. Many mines closed around 1780 but East Wheal Crofty was opened in the 1820s at the discovery of new copper ore seams or lodes and a railway line to Portreath on the North Cornish coast was built. The technological advances of the industrial revolution made deeper extraction possible. In 1863 the mine was sold and renamed South Wheal Crofty. South Crofty is one of ten areas of a UNESCO World Heritage Site for mining. In 2014 Australian Wolf Minerals began working an open cast mine on the edge of Dartmoor near Plymouth. Drakelands is extracting tungsten for use in light bulbs, x-rays and mobile phones.