Cornwall Council grants Cornish Tin Mine New Life
The Mount Wellington Mine site in the Bissoe Valley took another significant step towards its transition into a low-carbon manufacturing facility today when Cornwall Council granted planning consent for a change of use of one of the buildings to the manufacture of Wave Buoy's and other marine renewable devices. Mount Wellington is the only modern Cornish Tin Mine that Cornwall Council have so far encouraged to diversify away from mining.
The massive building - formally used as a Mill to process tin ore - is one of Cornwall's largest, and will now be preserved instead of demolished. The new owners of the lease, Ocean Fabrication Ltd, plan to take full advantage of the announcement by South West Regional Development Agency of a massive £100m of funding for the low-carbon sector in the South West.
"We have already pumped a goodly proportion of the planned £1 million investment into the site," stated Ocean's Managing Director John Henderson. "We have replaced the huge 40 tonne, 18 metre wide beam crane that was removed when the mine closed in 1991 with a brand new modern version. This internal crane is essential for the future use of the building as we can now lift anything that is "lorryable", including very large lumps of wave buoy or other offshore structures as these industries develop in the coming years."
The massive beam crane had to be lifted into place using a specialist engineering team of twenty people, and was watched by ex Mount Wellington miner John Kellow. "Having spent many years working here I was very sad when the mine closed in 1991, and it's such a shame that the site was left derelict for nearly 20 years. I am absolutely delighted that Ocean have found a really great use for this amazing building that clearly has a modern use whilst retaining some of our mining heritage."
Ocean's other Director Richard Freeborn is very pleased with progress. "This is the only tin concentrator building in Cornwall that has been retained and an alternative use found. There are hardly any green collar manufacturing jobs in the whole of the South West, and its great to see that the private sector can deliver prosperity right here in the heart of Cornwall in the middle of the worst recession for a generation or more. The re-use of this brown-field site is much, much better than chewing into the green belt around Cornwall's towns. Ocean are co-located on this site with the award-winning Kensa Heat Pumps â EURO " and I expect that Ocean will be every bit as successful as Kensa in breaking into new markets for new low-carbon technologies."