Cornish Metals is a London-listed mining company resuscitating South Crofty, near Redruth in Cornwall, which was Britain's last tin mine before it closed in 1998. The mine is scheduled to begin commercial operation in 2028 and will be the only mine in Europe that primarily extracts tin.
The tin at South Crofty is the third- or fourth-highest grade found anywhere in the world, thanks to the Cornubian batholith, a huge body of granite that runs through Cornwall. A preliminary economic assessment calculated that the mine would be profitable at $15,000 per tonne of tin—well below the record price of $56,600 per tonne hit in January 2026.
Cornish Metals was granted 29m ($36m) from the National Wealth Fund in January 2025 to support the project. The American Export-Import Bank may invest $225m in the mine to ensure a reliable supply of tin; the American government's interest reflects tin's inclusion in Britain's critical-mineral strategy, published in November 2025. Currently all of Britain's tin is imported. Nearly three-quarters of the global supply comes from China, Indonesia, Myanmar and Peru.
South Crofty may create 300 direct jobs and 1,000 indirect ones. North Redruth is in the 10% of most-deprived neighbourhoods in England. The area around Redruth was once referred to as "the richest square mile in the world".
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