Why US-China Tensions Are Reviving an Ancient British Industry 

Strabo, the Greek Geographer, states that there was a highly lucrative Phoenician trade with Britain for tin via the Cassiterides, whose location is unknown but may have been off the northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The Phoenicians brought their alphabet to Europe, and Latin alphabet is derived from this.

...But it is Sn: not that precious and not that globally significant surely?

Que demands for cornish independence 😂.

@@brybish You are way behind that curve 👍

The Romans also wanted the Great Orme Copper mine in Wales but it was pretty much played out by the time they got it.

they need time to set up the companies that will make the profits

@@thatguy363 too difficult they only do that with industries reliant on the taxpayer

They will probably raise taxes too. The UK love nothing more than undermining its own interests. Probably to suit the masters in the US. A bit like how they have taxed North Sea gas to death so we can import Old Biden’s LPG.

We've got the same problems here in Canada. Vast mineral resources but we cannot seem to get any initiative going because of various government roadblocks. They are getting in their own way.

@@chubeye1187 tax 😂 peasant war of words

Don't let the corrupt tories get there hands on it as they will sell it off to a foreign goverment.

Couldn’t agree more. Recent government’s lack of political will and planning for the future has messed the UK up on many fronts

TBF rather than simply subsidising these businesses maybe it would be best to take a share in them? Not the market economy way of course but rather than lining the pockets of rich investors.

Why don't these private companies raise their own funds for investment instead of expecting the government to pay for it? Any money from the government should be in return for a share in the business, including the power to limit dividends and salaries to senior management.

Hear hear. Our gutless government is nothing more than caretakers. Can drive a ship but have no care or clue of its destination as long as they can jump off with pockets filled with cash before it crashes

👍

Exactly what I was thinking.

The 'tailings' piles they showed were the waste from the china clay industry not tin mining. However they are considering the extraction of lithium which is found in these tailings.

I was thinking this. Although depending how long they've been there, significant portions of the lithium may have leached into the surround area, making extraction quite difficult and disruptive.

Modern minerals processing techniques would likely get tin out of those tailings.

I think many would, but the mining industry didn't disappear of it own doing. If the government does get involved, I'd start dialing those hopes back to something more acheivable.. like just simply not embarrassing the entire nation (achievable, but far from an easy job for our politicians)

Along with the steam engine, the world owes Britain for all it has given. The industrial revolution, electricity, end of institutional slavery worldwide, and ultimately the Magna Carta with English Common Law, just to name a few.

@@aBRUSHforCONFUCIUSPenicillin and antibiotics, vaccines… all have saved hundreds of millions of lives

​​@@aBRUSHforCONFUCIUS"end of institutional slavery" thing. Hmmm, doesn't it count if you enslave the local population in place after colonisation?

@@aBRUSHforCONFUCIUSactually mate it was the welsh

@@TheAwillz You realise Wales is part of Britain?

Government and ability ?. They will sell the the mines to themselves for nothing then sell them to the next despot with a wedge of cash.

Lease will be given to some suspicious foreign companies likely.

@@Q_QQ_Q Chinese be like 🙃

Cornish miners often formed a large number of miners in the US as well historically.

😅

Maybe natural resources should be nationalised for use in the UK.

Then perhaps government should remove much of the red tape. I bet that back then it was, at best, sending letter to parliament, with something like "I want to open tin mine on land that is in my possession and thus I ask you for decree" and then they would send him given decree and operation would commence. Not to mention that mining back then was quite different and often it would be nothing more than drift mining of vein of given metal. Fairly inexpensive endeavour. Today mining in Europe, disregarding whether it is outside or inside fo the EU, is strained by plenty of environmental regulations, red tape and is much more expensive as mines are deeper and metals are extracted from crushed rocks in form of dust particle rather than from veins. For example opening of one of the largest lithium mines in Europe (in Ore mountains), that will most likely produce tin and other metals as well, will take several more years due to all red tape. Immense gold deposits in Slovakia are not mined due to all the red tape and it would be perhaps open pit mining, so it is little bit problematic. That is the main issue I would say, regulations are preventing mining operations from starting without loans and subsidies.

@@Litany_of_Fury Isn't there any way how to declare that all minerals belongs to the crown as is common in continental Europe? (Wit the small difference that the crown was replaced by state in republics)

@@MrToradragon Ultimate landownership and resource ownership is with the State. The State gives out licenses to mine specific resources.

Yeah mate, because leaving key industries to die without subsidies has worked out great hasn't it.

China labour isn't that cheap anymore. But they are becoming way advanced on processing technologies as well as full upstream/downstream chain integration. It's not hundreds of thousands workers with picks and shovels anymore.

Belgium is the only country in the list of top producers that has a more expensive labour than China Peru, Bolivia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia all have cheaper labour. Although the differences aren't as big as they are in the manufacturing industry they still exist

​@@abdiganiadengood joke 😂 us refining rare earth tech is 1970's based.

@@abdiganiaden how far? The gap is less than 10 years tech and China has 6 month ahead in Ai tech a bit more for 5g. 😂

Well atleast we bought , from your dearest friends the Americans 😅😅....

What’s wrong with that..tiny bit racist perhaps?

all the UK automobile production companies went bankrupt except perhaps specialty companies like morgan.

@@ronblack7870 …and was rescued by gov’t, then sold off after getting back to profitability.

Not as funny as the Greater London authority getting kicked out of their purpose-built city hall because they couldn’t afford the rent to the Saudi owners. They had only moved into that one because they’d already sold off the grand old hall too. PFI what a bargain

As an American who voted for Biden, you’re welcome. Consider this an apology for not helping you in the Falklands ;)

Isn't that a parochial point-of-view?

Welsh and Scots were proud miners too. I come from a family of Coal Miners in West Lothian, Scotland. This is great news for Cornwall, and the economy.

@@armac8158 So many old mining communities all over the UK mine used to be coal miners in Lancashire. shows how these old industries where once widespread

@@SuperStandin used to be the length and breadth of Britain mate👍🏻🇬🇧

Most of the money investing in re-opening the mine is going to be coming outside of Cornwall since Cornwall is not going to be able to invest in the equipment and other paraphanalia from its own resources. I am sure most of the miners will be living in Cornwall spending their wages there though, and the level of skill required in modern mining is going to mean they are very well paid.

All the processing is still done in China for the most part no matter where the minerals are mined.

@@Firebreak420 This is why all other countries are meeting the fictious levels and now they are saying China produces more than anyone else. It's always China's fault nowadays, or Russia's. Diversion Tactics

"Always will" is obviously wrong since we live in a finite world. Now if we start off-world resource extraction or gain enough energy abundance to synthesize new materials that could be something.

This sounds like a view point of the WEF, or is this a forecast from the Dr Who series.@@CausticLemons7

@@Firebreak420 the onshoring is real. I believe covid was a wakeup call to many to shorten the supply lines and work closer with partners.

Government subsidies are just the opening step in the re construction of globalisation as we know it Open trade that is based on fairness and trust When both of these disappear / Don't exist any longer the world is changing naturally more trade is consolidated inward and among country blocks who still support the same fundamental idea. That means two things for our economy A) inflation Things can be as cheap as before when we source them from more expensive places B) a revivement of some industries we've exported abroad decades ago And the domestic changes that come with it Higher salaries (for some !) Changes in areas that didn't have the same opportunities before this change

Very poorly researched piece. Lazy journalism that really said nothing of any significance.

@@grahamcook9289 agreed. Also the EU legalisation requiring tin for solder on circuit boards had a far bigger impact. But it’s only a footnote because of …. The B word.

Well its a recycling station for Tin. Aurubis Beerse has no economies of scale, very unreliable supplier as you can imagine you cannot forecast future recycling output/reserves. In essence, there is no production.

@@RRaymer okay, but why is it on the list in the first place?

That's not mining, just some recycling.

They won't...

Only if it benefits them in some way.

They still won't there lazy and incompetent.

Let's hope our resources are mined by the Brits and not sold of to some foreign company, as so many of our resources have by successive Governments !!

Wait until our Government starts selling off the mines to some private corporation like that Maggie Thatcher did

Half of london was built on west country mine profits and will continue to be so.

Fully agree, beautiful region cornwall and devon is! would be quite funny to see an "its cornwall's tin" movement similar to scotland's "its scotland's oil"😅

Well said, the profits taken from mining areas are not reinvested in the area, if they are it’s just a token gesture, same with the mining areas in South Wales, apparently £4 trillion was taken out in profits, this does not include the profits made from the steel/tin/copper industries of the past, we have wind, water and geothermal energy in spades, we export more energy the we use here, but what’s reinvested, not a great deal, I live in one of the South Wales Valley’s, very similar to the Camborne/Redruth area

Those who invested the money into the mine restart will get the largest chunk of the profits, that's how capitalism works.

And I hope stupid parchocialism doesn't blind people to the fact that Britain's regions are co-dependent and nation states should support their poorer regions when they require it. Britain is a small enough island as it is and we don't need wee nationalists breaking it into even tinier fragments and tell their compatriots in less well off regions to fk themselves because they in a period of being less prosperous. Its not like Cornwall hasn't needed support from tax generated in wealthier regions in recent years. @@jaydowg1914

Geothermal is about the only renewable that full proof (even hydropower is dependent on the weather) I'd be surprised if NZ doesn't tap into geo thermal more with a declared nuclear policy

The Earths core will cool down eventually in billions of years, so it’s technically renewable for now.

@@roman648 The Sun will turn into a Red Giant and destroy itself in billions of years, all of our energy ultimately comes from the Sun, so technically all energy is only renewable 'for now'. However, I think we won't be worrying about how renewable geothermal is in a few billion years, we'll either be extinct or multiplanetary by then. If we're still on Earth at that point, then the the renewability of life will be our bigger issue.

@roman648 actually all of the water is reinjected down too the sorce, that's definitely why we do this because of taking too much water was becoming a problem, because it's the steam only no the water, thats separated. At first it was definitely a problem, strangely enough originally it was only for production of heavy water for the British nuclear power and bomb. Go figure right.

@vinniechan sadly our government just signed up to Blackrock, for 2 billion dollars for ocean wind farms, now that's definitely a extremely worrying place, the lasted new Geothermal station starts very soon,

go figure how bad the rivers are in countries with less environmental standards

That's because your legacy sewer system doesn't segregate sewage from rainwater.

@@ralph7349 which nearby country has lower standards?

​@@gregorymalchuk272According to a recent FT article, 80% of sewage overflows are caused by underinvestment and not Victorian era infrastructure as water companies and Tory politicians try to tell us. Less than 12 per cent of the sewage network in England and Wales was built in the 19th century

Check a report called 'Task 3 Occurrence of storm water overflows in the EU.' It breaks down sewers and storm drains in countries in Europe that have combined sewers and separate sewers.

The process is still not proven commercially, it's just pilot scale. Australian lithium production does not come from brines, but from hard rock.

That was when there were resources to mine. Those resources have now either been exhausted or not worth the expense to mine them anymore.

so you talk of this indecisive thing they shout and campaign to get thousands of people move almost middle of nowhere, have and build a family and life and house and then at any whim(joy of green things) all mines and life can end overnight and all was for nothing... probably cant get much selling house either, so loans are left. Did people die when thatcher was pressuring mine workers, ie army was sent to disband riots? back in 70s and 80s when they were harsh.

Doesnt matter there wont be any other choice

why can't cornwall function economically without getting special treatment from the national govt? this sounds like typical rural whining, and it goes on all over the world.

​@@perfectallycromulentCornwall's geography works against it. It's a peninsula that leads nowhere. Locating a business there will typically add additional transportation costs. Tourism brings in money but also comes with second home ownership being an issue, making it hard for the locals. Basically a high cost of living paired with low wages. It's worse than the north of England that always seems to be getting special treatment.

@@perfectallycromulent City people get more spent on them per head

If the government was serious about a strategic resource they should nationalise any restart efforts. Why should Cornish Tin and their ilk get all that help now suddenly Tin et al are booming and are now potentially economically viable in Cornwall again. No, get investment on the back of returns given the mineral price predictions or appeal to the government for investment/nationalisation. I’m sick of privatising the profits and nationalising the losses.

Silly question, but just how did the people of that time A. Know what was in the mine and what it could do with its bounty. B. Just how did a primitive people mine?

Wheal Jane.

yea yea.... UK will never allow dirty industry to refine those raw materials. It is a dirty job which no western country is willing to allow

To process 1 tonne of lithium requires 2200 tonnes of fresh water, where do you propose they get it from?

​@@rjones6219clouds.....

@@rjones6219 In England? It falls out of the sky quite often.

Your life will be so expensive you think they shipping to China because they love China? Funny

The 'free market' would abandon high-wage Britain and focus almost exclusively on mining raw materials in poor countries where labour and regulations are cheaper. If we want to be more self-suffient and less reliant on sketchy countries for our essential raw materials that supply our industries then we need government intervention. Free Marketism is why we are now a predominantly service economy and not a manufacturing one.

...and your point is?

​@@nigelleyland166point is, let's get back on the charts

@@nigelleyland166 the point is is to prompt the question where will this Cornwall mine put UK on the chart ???

@@tweedy4sgthe U.K. has 10% of known world reserves

@@canzukcommonwealth7309who says?

They will have no choice.

For an experienced op that only needs testing, no training, CPCS costs are around £500 per test/licence, but adding training onto that would be too great a variable to give an exact figure on, but would add £300-2500 depending on the amount of training days and the type of machine (there is no such thing as 'general' training). Initial 'trained' licence lasts for 2yrs, competent licence lasts for 5yrs, after both you must be retested. 'Average training time' is not a thing. Some people never get it, some people were born capable, and all ability levels between. Every machine requires an individual 'trained' licence, however similar machine competent licences can be obtained together with 1 test, for example, a wheeled excavator and tracked excavator require separate training tests, however, to achieve full competency on both, I was only assessed on the tracked. In addition to machine licences, you also need licences for slung loads, working in confined spaces, working with hand tools, being a supervisor, etc, etc. Basically you can't do anything, operate anything or even enter some sites without one.

It's before the water table, half the time they're under the ocean in these mines

Cornwall is very wet. And is on the ocean.

The polyhalite mine will never get off the ground, there isn't enough market out there for the product which they want to produce. South Crofty and the coal mine in Cumbria are real projects though

@@AK-74K the polyhalite mine in North Yorkshire is well on the way to starting production, so how can you say it will never get off the ground. Polyhalite is a more environmentally substitute for potash and there is already a world market for it. You need to do your research better, before making comments.

It has to be commercially viable though. If its cheaper to extract in foreign countries and import then it won't get off the ground.@@alanhindmarch4483

Where did you get that from? I've heard a few origins of the word Britain, not one of them relates to tin.

@@wc8246 The name “Britain” comes from the Phoenician name “Baratanac”, meaning “Land of Tin”

UK government just providing a very small piece. Vast majority is privately funded

Free marketism is why Britain is now almost entirely a service economy based in the south east of England and reliant on foreign suppliers for manufactured products and raw materials. This is a strategic liability that forces us to depend on hostile foreign powers like Russia, China and sketchy theocracies like the Middle East for oil. Fk the free market and lassaize faire capitalism. It is why Britain has been comprehensively de-industrialised and overdependent on foreign resources.

Dump it on some Black and Brown people.

@@1MrAngel1 No, they have to pay for it.

@@billedifier8584 Oh , they will ! You know they will .

Yes. Mining for lithium, cobalt, aluminum and Uranium are DEFINITELY GOING TO STOP GLOBAL BOILING and are ABSOLUTELY SAFE AND ECO FRIENDLY

Those mines in Ireland can easily be opened when need be. It is a horrible idea for the likes of Ireland to be supply the global markets. When the world order is reorganised Ireland will be supplying its own industries partnered with the UK. The UK is not opening those mines to supply global demand but ding it for security economic reasons.

well you won't find any in Cornwall.

If mineral exploitation today is commercially viable in Cornwall, then no government action at all is needed.