--- title: Cornish Mine Closed Since 1892 Found to Hold £1.15 Billion in Critical Minerals description: The Redmoor project in Cornwall has been valued at £1.15 billion after a new resource estimate revealed 17.4 million tonnes of tungsten, tin, copper and silver. Tungsten prices have surged 557% since China imposed export controls. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-03-26T21:45:32.964Z updated: 2026-03-26T21:46:25.663Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/cornish-mine-redmoor-billion-critical-minerals image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/redmoor-cornwall-drilling-site.webp categories: Supply Chains content_type: News region: United Kingdom publication: Sovereign Magazine about: - type: Organization name: Strategic Minerals description: Strategic Minerals PLC is an AIM-listed mining company focused on the Redmoor tungsten, tin, copper and silver project in Cornwall, UK. The company also operates the Cobre magnetite mine in New Mexico. Its Redmoor project is described as the highest-grade undeveloped tungsten resource in Europe, with a 2026 mineral resource estimate of 17.4 million tonnes and a base-case NPV of £1.15 billion. url: https://www.strategicminerals.net/ industry: Mining sameAs: - https://www.linkedin.com/company/strategic-minerals-plc/ - https://www.lse.co.uk/SharePrice.html?shareprice=SML --- A mine in southeast Cornwall that last produced ore in 1892 is now sitting on minerals worth an estimated £1.15 billion, according to a new resource estimate published today by Strategic Minerals PLC. The Redmoor project, located between Kelly Bray and Callington in the Tamar Valley, has been upgraded from 11.7 million tonnes to 17.4 million tonnes of tungsten, tin, copper and silver. That is a 49% increase on the previous 2019 estimate, driven by a 2025 drilling campaign that uncovered a previously unknown deposit called the North Tin Zone. The updated economic analysis puts the project's after-tax net present value at £1.15 billion (US$1.54 billion), with a 40% internal rate of return and pre-production capital expenditure of just £82 million. At a planned production rate of 600,000 tonnes per year, the mine could operate for 29 years. Strategic Minerals describes Redmoor as "the highest-grade undeveloped tungsten resource in Europe." ## Tungsten Prices Up 557% and Still Climbing Tungsten prices have surged up to 557% since China imposed export controls on the metal in February 2025. European benchmark prices for ammonium paratungstate (APT) are now testing record highs above £1,570 per metric tonne unit, and analysts expect the tightness to persist throughout 2026. China produces more than 80% of the world's tungsten. There is no viable substitute for the metal in most of its applications, which span defence, aerospace, electronics, industrial tooling and drilling. When Beijing added tungsten to its export control list as part of an escalating trade dispute with Washington, it exposed just how dependent Western economies had become on a single supplier. Strategic Minerals noted in today's announcement that current market prices "materially exceed" those used in the base-case NPV calculation. In other words, the £1.15 billion figure could be conservative. ## 4,000 Years of Mining The Tamar Valley supplied much of the world's copper and tin for substantial periods over the last four millennia. The biggest boom came during the 18th and 19th centuries, when the Holmbush Mine near Kelly Bray produced 42,900 tonnes of copper, 1,689 tonnes of lead, 20,092 ounces of silver and more than 10,000 tonnes of arsenic between 1822 and 1892. When global tin prices collapsed in the late 19th century, the mines closed. They stayed closed for more than 130 years. What changed was not geology but geopolitics. Tungsten, once a curiosity, is now classified as a critical mineral by the UK, the EU and the United States. The metal that was always in the ground beneath Kelly Bray suddenly became strategically important. ## Cornwall's Mining Renaissance Redmoor is not the only project stirring in Cornwall. Tungsten West is preparing to restart the Hemerdon Mine near Plymouth, which holds the world's second-largest tungsten deposit and has EU Strategic Project status. Cornish Metals is working to reopen South Crofty, Europe's only primary tin mine, backed by a £28.6 million investment from the National Wealth Fund. And Cornish Lithium has approval to extract one million tonnes of lithium over 20 years at its Trelavour site, with production expected by the end of 2026. Cornwall is projected to produce £360 million per year in lithium, tin and tungsten within five years, creating at least 800 operational jobs across the county. The UK government's Vision 2035 critical minerals strategy, published earlier this year, targets 30% domestic supply of critical minerals by 2035, up from roughly 6% today. Cornwall is specifically named as strategically important. ## A £104 Million Company Sitting on a £1.15 Billion Asset Strategic Minerals trades on AIM under the ticker SML, with a market capitalisation of approximately £104 million. The company also operates the Cobre magnetite mine in New Mexico, which provides near-term revenue. The Redmoor project is held through Cornwall Resources Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary. Executive Chairman Charles Manners, the company's largest shareholder with a 4.8% stake, joined from a career in investment banking at Nomura International. Executive Director Mark Burnett previously ran mining investments at RAB Capital. The next steps for Redmoor are a prefeasibility study and an infill drilling programme designed to upgrade the resource classification from Inferred to Indicated or Measured, which would bring the project closer to a formal mining decision. With tungsten prices at levels that the company itself says exceed its own projections, the question is no longer whether the minerals are there. It is whether they can be extracted before the window closes. ## FAQ **Q: Why is Cornwall so mineral rich?** Cornwall sits on a geological formation where granite intrusions created mineral-rich veins of tin, copper, tungsten and lithium over millions of years. The county was one of the world's leading mining regions for centuries, and modern surveys have confirmed that significant deposits remain underground. **Q: Do they still mine in Cornwall?** Not at scale, but that is changing. Several major projects are in development, including Redmoor (tungsten and tin), Hemerdon (tungsten), South Crofty (tin) and Trelavour (lithium). Cornwall is projected to produce £360 million per year in critical minerals within five years. **Q: What does the military use tungsten for?** Tungsten's extreme density and heat resistance make it essential for armour-piercing projectiles, missile components, jet engine parts and radiation shielding. There is no viable substitute in most defence applications, which is why Western governments classify it as a critical mineral. **Q: Why doesn't the US mine tungsten?** The US has tungsten deposits but closed its last primary tungsten mine decades ago because cheaper Chinese imports made domestic production uneconomical. With China now restricting exports, there is renewed interest in Western tungsten mining, though restarting operations takes years.