Members of The Cornish Chamber of Mines & Minerals (CCMM) have defined the Terms of Reference for a review of the adopted Cornwall Mineral Safeguarding Development Plan Document (2018). This aims to identify alternative or additional information needed to enable the next version of the Plan to reflect modern mineral interests and current development pressures in Cornwall and also provide advice on the application of safeguarding in the interim period before the Plan is reviewed and a new Plan adopted.
The review is being prepared by BPP Consulting LLP and financed by the Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) ‘Geo-Resources Sector Strengthening Project’. The SPF project is being led by the University of Exeter with The CCMM as Delivery Partner. The CCMM has coordinated feedback from industry and regulatory stakeholders in order to shape the scope of this work to ensure and help the outcomes meet current and evolving challenges faced by the sector, within an established planning policy framework.
Since the adoption of the current Cornwall Mineral Safeguarding Plan in 2018, the Government has published the UK Critical Mineral Strategy (2022), which seeks to improve the resilience of critical mineral supply chains and increase the security of their supply by boosting domestic potential. A mineral is considered ‘critical’ if it is vital to modern society or the transition to net zero, but finite in nature and cannot be substituted by anything else. Many Critical Minerals occur in Cornwall, and it is hoped that a suitable approach to mineral safeguarding can be identified to further protect these strategic resources from being sterilised by other types of development. To achieve this, it is envisaged that the review will make recommendations for the sector to compile an updated portfolio of known and potential mineral targets, based on the results of recent exploration and modelling of new resources of lithium and tin, for example.
The adopted Mineral Safeguarding Plan includes infrastructure needed to transport mineral products around and out of the county, such as existing rail links and docks. To carry out all the activities needed to produce a mineral product, it is also necessary to locate key facilities and plant close to the resource, but without limiting access to it. Therefore, additional areas that might need protecting to be able to work Cornish minerals now, and for future generations, also need to be considered.
BPP’s report making recommendations for an updated approach to mineral safeguarding in Cornwall will be published online in March by the University of Exeter and the CCMM.
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