Published: December 17, 2019 |

[Click image to enlarge]

About 200 jobs could be created if the new owner of Plymouth’s tungsten mine reopens it — with some former staff already working at the site.

Tungsten West Ltd has bought the Drakelands mine, at Hemerdon, near Plympton, for £2.8 million in cash and hopes to restart production.

The mine shut when previous owner Wolf Minerals Ltd ceased trading, having lost £100 million on the venture, in late 2018.

It meant the firm, which owed £70 million to creditors, made about 200 staff redundant overnight.

But now Tungsten West, bankrolled by wealthy Channel Islands-registered investment company Baker Steel Resources Trust, is looking into the possibility of restarting production at what is the largest tungsten mine in the UK and the third largest reserve in the world.

Tungsten West Director Mark Thompson said that a full-scale reopening is likely to mean the mine being staffed with a full complement of workers.

He said efforts are being made to contact employees who lost their jobs when Wolf went belly up, and some had already been re-employed to carry out the feasibility study work.

“We are undertaking studies into the commercial feasibility of reopening the mine,” he said. “We would eventually expect a similar number of jobs to what Wolf had, about 200 jobs.

“We have already re-employed some people that were employed by Wolf. They will assist with the feasibility study we are undertaking.”

He said conversations had also begun with “stakeholders” including people living near the open cast mine, various councils, and the Environment Agency.

Mr. Thompson is a highly experienced trader, investor and entrepreneur in the natural resources sector, and has founded several companies in addition to working for major trading, hedge fund and private equity groups.

He was portfolio manager and chief investment officer at a large metals focused hedge fund, a partner at one of the world’s largest private equity houses, and founded several mineral exploration companies.

He lives in London but said: “I will spend half my time in Devon over the next 12 months.”

The mine only began production in 2015 but just over three years later closed with Australia’s Wolf Minerals going under.

That was because it failed to produce enough metal, saw global prices tumble and was saddled with enormous debts.

There were fears the Drakelands mine could close as early as 2016, and so when Wolf finally went into administration on October 10, 2018 it seemed like the inevitable conclusion to a doomed venture.

Wolf Minerals wound up having to tell the London Stock Exchange it was no longer in a position to meet its short term working capital requirements and ceased trading immediately, sending home more than 200 workers.

Now Tungsten West has bought the land and some infrastructure from a firm called Drakelands Restoration Ltd, part of the North East’s Hargreaves Services Plc, which took over the vast site in 2019. Hargreaves Services lost £8 million in the doomed Wolf Minerals venture.

Tungsten West’s largest shareholder is Guernsey-headquartered Baker Steel Resources Trust, part of a group of Baker Steel investment businesses, specializes in mining and minerals and has a global portfolio, mainly in equities, of 15 predominately unlisted natural resources companies.

Source:  Plymouth Herald

To stop by Tungsten West’s website, CLICK HERE

Be in-the-know when you’re on-the-go!