Cardew’s Robin Walker attends the UK Mining Conference in Cornwall.

The UK mining conference in Cornwall is a truly special gathering and clearly becoming a firm favourite amongst the dedicated community of miners, explorers, financiers, geologists and engineers working on a renaissance of Cornish mining. This year’s attracted record numbers as projects that were just a vision when the conference was launched six years ago, progress towards reality and as global investors wake up to the need to secure critical minerals supply chains for the West.

My interest in mining was piqued when I travelled to Latin America and saw the great copper mines of Chile for the first time, I was struck then by the reach of UK, more specifically, Cornish miners into far flung places. Throughout the nineteenth Century and onwards Cornish mining engineers came to Chile, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Australia and brought their skills and knowledge to the exploration and development of nitrates, copper and precious metals. Now there is a rising hope that Cornish mining is coming home.

Cornwall has a mining tradition going back millennia and is a rare example in the UK of a region where there is cross-party political support for opening or reopening mines. As global supply chains have been disrupted, first by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, then by Trump tariffs and Chinese counter-measures, the case for extracting critical minerals closer to home has become more obvious and more urgent.  As the UK steers a course towards net zero, the need for the metals that enable it has never been stronger. As the FT recently highlighted and the Government’s own Strategic Defence Review confirms, critical mineral supply chains are also a crucial matter for defence.

When Cornish Lithium’s fundraising and Trelavour demonstration site and Cornish Metal’s South Crofty Mine secured investment from the National Wealth Fund or designation as nationally significant projects, it became apparent that something was shifting in the prospects for UK mining and for the Government’s recognition of critical minerals as a strategic priority. Other companies such as Cornish Tin and Cornish minerals are following close behind and Imerys British Lithium, now French-owned but firmly committed to Cornwall is progressing its own significant project nearby. Securing UK supplies of Lithium, as well as copper, tin and other key transition metals, has obvious advantages at a time when electronics are ever more prevalent in our daily lives. The high-powered batteries in everything from iPhones to electric cars, from laptops to drones rely on Lithium chemistry. Until recently it mainly came from far flung places such as the salars of Chile, Australia and China. Now rich Cornish deposits of lithium are being explored and brought closer to development, both in hard rock and in brines where their extraction can be combined with geothermal energy, creating opportunities for green renewable power and district heating. This year’s conference hosted the first UK Geothermal forum to explore the potential of that nascent industry.

It was exciting to hear from Jeremy Wrathall, the founder of Cornish Lithium about the progress of their project and industry heavyweights such as Mark Cutifani and Don Turvey about their interest in the region. Presentations from the London Stock Exchange on PISCES & Peel Hunt on the wider market showed the interest of financial markets in supporting this push and the politicians from local MP & former councillor from Falmouth, Jayne Kirkham to Perran Moon, MP for Cambourne and Redruth the chair of the Critical Minerals APPG made clear their strong & passionate support.

Equipment suppliers such as Cardew Group client LiuGong who already supply the UK quarrying and construction industry are expanding and developing their offer for mining and their presentation on net zero machinery, electrically powered excavators and mining trucks, was well received. Miners are aware that they have often been perceived as a dirty industry and the people pioneering critical minerals as part of the green transition are well-aware of the need to practice what they preach and build sustainability into every aspect of their operating model. Working in partnership with Academics from the Cambourne School of Mines, UCL, Aberdeen and Manchester they are making the case for a cleaner and greener form of mining. As for the shanties, that Falmouth is about to host the Sea Shanty Festival has been an added attraction for delegates and a source of entertainment at events. These traditional Cornish songs have their roots in the relationship between this County and the Sea, a relationship that from ancient times to modern has been reinforced by mining and the trade in resources across it.

Judging by the buzz at the UK Mining Conference, Cornwall could have plenty to sing about in the years to come.