Masterplan presentation v13

The following is an adaptation of a presentation which charts the development of the Wheal Jane Masterplan. The

Masterplan or Development Framework was adopted by Cornwall Council in December 2011 and establishes a

planning framework which enables us to secure the future of the site through an innovative post-mining remediation

project.

The plan delivers a balanced mix of remediation and development which makes best use of the site’s assets. Whilst

returning the site once again to an economic employment asset for Cornwall, it also sees much of the site progressively remediated and integrated into the surrounding countryside.

INDEX

Part 1 – Wheal Jane: The site

Part 2 – Wheal Jane Mine: A Short History

Part 3 – The Wheal Jane Group 1998 – 2013

Part 4 – The Masterplan Vision, Conception and Development

Part 5 – Progress to Date

WWW.WHEAL-JANE.CO.UK - 01872 560 200 – 01872 562000 – OLD MINE OFFICES, WHEAL JANE, BALDHU, TRURO, CORNWALL, TR3 6EE

This view of the site looking roughly northwards and features Truro and its Cathedral a short distance beyond. The main A30 is just off the picture to the left, and the former Mount Wellington Mine in the immediate foreground. Despite being over 170 acres and only three miles from the centre of Truro, the site is remarkably well screened from local views, a significant feature which has been utilised in the development plans for the site.



Wheal Jane Mine: A Short History

The mine was developed and reached full production between 1969 and 1972 following a period of exploration during the mid 1960s.

South Crofty Mine, the other remaining operating mine, by then owned by the same company but with lower costs and higher grade, managed to continue operations for a further seven years after the closure of Wheal Jane. However, again in the absence of any significant recovery in tin price, this also closed in 1998. Investment in the Wheal Jane processing plant which had taken place during the 1980s for the purpose of treating ore from both mines at the same plant meant that, between 1991 and 1998, apart from water treatment the only activity at the Wheal Jane site was the processing of South Crofty ore. With the closure of South Crofty in 1998, the Wheal Jane site therefore was essentially abandoned.

With little signs of a recovery in the tin price following the crash in 1985, and despite huge efforts to keep the operation running by diversification, cost reductions and efficiencies, the mine was forced to close in 1991.

The mine operated successfully and profitably until 1985 when the famous tin price crash threw much of the tin mining industry and particularly operations in Cornwall into turmoil when the price fell from £10,000 per tonne to around £3,000 per tonne overnight.

Despite the closure being carried out in accordance with all statutory requirements, when the mine system eventually flooded to surface, an adit plug failure released a huge quantity of mineral laden mine water into the local river system, causing a major pollution incident.


The official opening day in 1971, captured in this photograph of the celebration marquee positioned in one of the carparks above the headworks area.


The headworks area nearing completion with the processing plant top right. Construction is almost complete with the exception of the stores building in the centre foreground which has yet to be clad. The picture shows the two shafts, Clemows and No. 2, the headworks buildings arrangement and crusher house centre rear, and conveyor system up the hill to the processing plant.


An aerial shot taken at roughly the same time as the previous picture, but with the marquee missing from the carparking area on the extreme left.


This picture features the processing plant shortly after completion, and in the foreground the open old mine working known as the ‘coffin’ which has, due to its inaccessible nature, become home for a range of wildlife including birds of prey, and has been protected and preserved within our long-term plans for the site.

A brief summary of the Wheal Jane Group

The Wheal Jane Group was formed in 1998 following the closure of South Crofty mine which brought to an end to mining in Cornwall and virtually all activity on the Wheal Jane site. A management buyout secured the operating subsidiary companies which had been formed as part of the Wheal Jane and South Crofty mining operations. These include the following companies:



Wheal Jane Ltd is the Group’s holding company, and carries out all activities related to the Wheal Jane site and its operation and development.

http://www.wheal-jane.co.uk/


Carnon Contracting was a company formed to market the mining skills developed within the Cornish mines to other industries and sectors. Apart from those skills which the company still retains, including tunnelling, drilling, etc, the company has expanded its activities into more conventional civil engineering, renewable energy installations and other specialist contracting services.

http://www.carnon-contracting.co.uk/


Contracting Services

Commercial Scale Solar PV Ground Mount Systems

Tunnelling

Site Investigations

Rock Anchoring and Soil Nailing

Mining Remediation Ground Source Heat Pump Systems

Concrete Drilling and Cutting

Mini Piling and Underpinning Foundations

Specialist Drilling

Marine Works – Quays and Jetties

Retaining Walls


Wheal Jane Consultancy

In the same way as Carnon Contracting was formed to market the physical skills developed in the mines, Wheal Jane Consultancy was developed to utilise the historical information and archive material held by the mines and collected over more than a hundred years. This archive includes historical mine plans in many formats which together represent a unique archive of historical mining information covering Cornwall and Devon. The archive has been supplemented over the subsequent years, maintaining its unique nature.

This resource has enabled the company to provide mining searches for the conveyancing industry in particular. The company has again expanded its range of services to meet the demands of the planning system and the needs of developers, and now includes a range of support services, including site investigations and surveys, land and water quality surveys, and geotechnical and geo-environmental investigations.



Consultancy Services

Mine Searches

Geotechnical and Geo-Environmental Investigation

Mineralogical Surveys and Watching Briefs

Mundic Analysis

Footings Inspections Site Investigations

Water Quality

Land Quality

Underground Work

Flood Risk


Wheal Jane Laboratory

http://whealjanelaboratory.co.uk/

Wheal Jane laboratory began life as the processing plant laboratory for the mine. Following the management buyout, the laboratory was re-equipped in order to broaden its range of services, and has steadily grown to become a respected lab within the industry, serving local and international clients, and providing analysis for projects all over the world.

The company has continually invested in equipment and the latest analytical techniques, and whilst now able to provide a range of services related to water, contaminated soils and minerals, 85% of the laboratory’s work is once again mining and minerals related.

The lab specialises in rapid turnaround and close cooperation with its clients.



Laboratory Services

Mining and Environmental Analysis

Mundic

Laboratory Consultancy and Audits

Fast Turnaround for all batch sizes

Min Pro Analytical Process Control Analysis Full Sample Preparation facilities

Mining

Trade Services Concentrate Analysis

Direct Client liaison

Wheal Jane Water Treatment Plant

PBET for Arsenic


Analytical Methods

Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS)

Wet Chemistry

Spectrophotometer – De Lang Xion 500

Inductive Coupled Plasma (ICP)

X – Ray Flourescence (XRF) Spectro Fitonmeter

South Crofty Collection Cornish Tin Jewellery and GiftsWWW.WHEAL-JANE.CO.UK - 01872 560 200 – 01872 562000 – OLD MINE OFFICES, WHEAL JANE, BALDHU, TRURO, CORNWALL, TR3 6EE

The South Crofty Collection is a company formed in 1988 to produce items in Cornish tin for marketing, locally and worldwide. The idea was to produce items and keepsakes from the very metal that had become so significant to the history and development of Cornwall, but which was virtually impossible to find.

Technicians within the mines perfected the means to smelt Cornish tin concentrate produced locally, and then refine the metal to make it available in its pure form for the local production of jewellery and gift items.

The company has been able to continue since the closure of South Crofty using a stockpile of concentrate which was reserved at the time.



Wheal Jane and the Wheal Jane Group 1998 - 2013The Wheal Jane Group was formed in 1998 following the closure of South Crofty Mine and the end of mining in Cornwall, for the time being at least.

At the request of Cornwall Council, the first draft of a Masterplan for the Wheal Jane site was produced in 2001, and discussions with the Council began in order to establish an agreed long-term future for the site.

The two main constraints which influenced the Masterplan were; firstly, existing and new planning conditions applied by the Council in 2000 under the Review of Mineral Permissions legislation; and secondly, the existence and need for the retention of the water treatment plant set up by the National Rivers Authority, later to become the Environment Agency, for the purpose of the post-closure mine water treatment. The mine water treatment plant required the use of at least one of the shafts, an area for the processing plant and the retention of the tailings dam for the storage of the residue from the plant.

The Masterplan strategy for the site is based around a simple principle, striking a balance between use and development of parts of the site in order to provide an economic development asset, and funding for the progressive rehabilitation and restoration of the rest of the site, referred to by planners as ‘enabling development’. The plan was then further developed in consultation with the Council and other stakeholders.

Due to numerous reviews of the local planning setup, little progress was made for the following seven years, although a number of aspects of the plan continued to progress funded at the company’s own risk.

Cornwall switched from district councils to a single unitary authority in 2009, and with this change came the formation of the Natural Resources Planning Team at Cornwall Council which provided a focus on just the sort of development proposed at Wheal Jane. Good progress was made in conjunction with this focused department, and the Masterplan, which by this time included a strong, sustainable theme and the inclusion of potentially five different renewable energy generating schemes, was adopted as Council policy in December 2011.


Wheal Jane and the Wheal Jane Group 1998 - 2013

This aerial photograph was taken in 2006 and shows a considerable improvement and greening of the site which had taken place between 1998 and 2006, and most notably the removal of the huge processing plant in the right foreground, the area later to be occupied by the solar farm which is now in place. The picture also shows the treatment of the tailings dam walls, a process of progressively covering down and re-profiling the engineered faces of the external embankments and their landscaping to blend the structure into the local landscape.


The Environment


This aerial photograph shows nicely the separation of what is proposed as the development area within the Masterplan, i.e., the built facilities and the Earth Science Park which is all contained within the tennis racquet shape on the right hand side of the picture, including the entrance, the entrance building, the weighbridge facilities and the headworks area which retains all the development areas within the former footprint of the mining operation. The tailings dam and its immediate surroundings are essentially all part of the long-term remediation and restoration plan which will run alongside the water treatment plant operation for as long as that continues.


Project No 1 - Lobby’s scrap yard and the coffin in the 1980sThis picture, taken in the 1980s, shows the area immediately to the south of the headworks area which was substantially disturbed by the development and operations of the mine. As can be seen from the earlier aerial photographs, this area has now been completely re-landscaped, and a bund created along the southern edge of the headworks area which has recently been planted to provide additional visual screening.


Lobby’s Yard 1990This picture was taken around 1990 of the same area but from the opposite direction, looking south. Again, it shows the area known as Lobby’s Yard to the south of the headworks area which has been largely restored. It also shows the northwest embankment of the tailings dam which has already been covered down and re-landscaped.


Lobby’s Yard and Explosives StoresThis photograph shows Lobby’s Yard and the former explosives stores area. The reprofiling has concealed the northwest embankment of the tailings dam and shows the area which has been re-landscaped. The hillside in the centre of the picture was formally home to the explosives magazines for the mine. These have now been removed and the area is progressively regenerating naturally.


Lobby’s Yard – Re-profiling and Shaft ProtectionA further view of the landscaping work in this area.


The Coffin – Bunding and PlantingThis picture was taken in 2006 of the coffin featured in the aerial photographs earlier. The bund has been created to further protect the feature, and has been planted with hawthorn which is now well established.

View north west from gate – pre demolitionThis picture is the first in a series of pictures taken from the site entrance to show the progressive demolition of the processing plant during 2006 and 2007.


Project No 2


Three months later The building certainly represented the most significant and in fact probably the only serious visual intrusion presented by the site, and its removal was a huge environmental gain within the Masterplan proposals.


Three months later

The steel recovered from the demolition was shipped from the Wharf in Truro to Spain for recycling, and the site is now home to the Wheal Jane Solar PV Farm.


Ore shed removed prior to the start of the main demolition

The following photographs show features of the processing plant and the process of its demolition.


Phase 1 of demolition – south elevation


Silos – western side of mill


Post demolition


Northern elevation – pre demolition


Post demolition

Employment


Wheal Jane Earth Science Cluster employment1998 to 2013

Wheal Jane Group was formed in 1998 and returned to take over and reoccupy the site with 25 employees within its group of small businesses. The Group now employs over fifty people and continues to expand steadily.

SGS Minerals is an international company employing 53,000 people operating over 350 laboratories around the world. The group is a major player in quality assurance and has a substantial mining and minerals division. Wheal Jane became home to its European and North African operations in 2006, and the company has continued to grow steadily during its time at Wheal Jane and now has ambitious plans for expansion of its business and presence at Wheal Jane, serving its clients in Europe and Africa in particular. The company first took office space in 2006 with just two employees, and now employs over 18 and has plans to double its workforce here over the next 2-3 years.

Wardell Armstrong International first came to the site in 2008 with 18 employees, and now employs over 45. It too has substantial expansion plans, and the Wheal Jane Group as part of the Masterplan has invested with EU funding assistance in a £1.6m office extension which is currently under construction at the entrance to the site. Wardell Armstrong is an international mining, minerals and renewable energy consultancy with offices in various countries around the world. Wheal Jane is home to its mining and minerals and renewable energy divisions.

Wheal Jane Earth Science Cluster employment1998 to 2013


The mine water treatment plant at Wheal Jane has been operated for some years by the Environment Agency, but its stewardship has recently passed to the Coal Authority. Veolia Ltd operate the plant on behalf of the Coal Authority, and the Wheal Jane Group provides a number of support services. The plant employs three people.

All the companies on site by virtue of their presence here and through the rents paid are effectively supporting the business development on the site and in turn the progressive restoration and remediation of the site.

The site currently, from a low point in 1998 when it supported just two people employed on the water treatment plant, now provides jobs for approximately 150 within the various companies and activities based here, of whom a significant proportion, probably c. 40%, are graduates.


Headworks development area – Earth Science ParkThis close-up of the headworks area shows clearly the area for development of the Earth Science Park. The main building cluster to the left is being progressively restored and the buildings upgraded to high energy efficiency standards, and will remain home to laboratories, pilot plant facilities, etc. The area to the right, which includes the crusher house on the extreme right, is identified in the Masterplan proposals for new development of offices, workshops, etc. This area is currently let to Fugro Seacore, an offshore drilling company based in Falmouth, operating worldwide, who use this area for storage, maintenance and transit of their heavy equipment. The area will provide some 6,000m² of new employment space which will potentially take the employment on site from its current level of 150 to somewhere between 250 and 300.


Project No 3 New build office extension and site entrance for Wardell Armstrong InternationalThis photograph shows the site of the current construction project taking place to provide additional office accommodation for Wardell Armstrong International which will not only meet that company’s expansion needs, but at the same time provide a stunning gateway to the Wheal Jane Earth Science Park.


Project No 3 New build office extension and site entrancefor Wardell Armstrong International

Renewable Energy


Renewable energy generation potential at Wheal Jane

An early assessment of the renewable energy generation opportunities presented by the site has identified a number of opportunities. With plenty of land, good grid connection, and on site power and heat demand, the foundations were laid for what could become a unique renewable energy generating facility, with up to five different technologies operating on the same site.

A 1.4Mw solar PV array has already been built and has been operating for the past two years on the site of the former processing plant.

Planning permission was secured in early 2013 for a small hydroelectric scheme utilising the mine discharge water which currently exits from the site after falling some 40 metres. This plant will be sited in the wooded area to the south of the downstream embankment and provide c. 0.25Mw.

The site is suitable for a single wind turbine sited to the south of the headworks area which is currently within the planning system and rated at 1.5Mw.

A potential gas or biomass power generation plant is being considered for an area within the headworks site which could provide c. 2.5Mw of power and also heat which could be utilised in the nearby Earth Science Park development. There is also geothermal heart recovery potential from the water in the spare second shaft.

Renewable energy generation potential at Wheal Jane

There is also potential and evaluation currently underway for the establishment of a deep geothermal power generating plant within the site. The geology of Cornwall, particularly in this area, is known to be highly suited to deep geothermal power generation, and this technology alone could provide on site power generation in the region of 5Mw and again residual heat which could be put to use on or, potentially, off site.

The net effect of these projects is that the site could be a generator of c. 10Mw of power and heat, which would make the site entirely self-sufficient in both its power and heat requirements, and be a significant exporter of power to the grid.



Project No 4 Solar PV farm under construction June 2011


Solar PV array complete July 2011This aerial photograph shows the solar farm shortly after its completion and installation of the 5,600 solar panels. The inverters and export point can be seen beside the former mines reserve generator house in the centre of the picture. To the right, the weighbridge facilities retained, and to the left the open stope or ‘coffin’ preserved for its ecological value within the PV installation.

Sustainable building


Project No 5 – Headworks and engineering blocks extensions and upgradeThe main headworks and engineering buildings are the subject of our next substantial development project on which we hope to start work during the autumn of 2013. The project is in four phases, and includes the substantial extension for SGS Minerals to accommodate their growth and requirements for additional office and laboratory space, the refurbishment of the existing office facilities for the Wheal Jane Group, a first floor extension over a link building between the headworks and engineering blocks, and finally the refurbishment of the engineering block above, now the pilot plant facility for Wardell Armstrong International. This project will be completed over the course of the next two years.


Project No 5 - Headworks and engineering blocks extensions and upgradeCompletion of this project will see the entire headworks and engineering blocks refurbished and upgraded, insulated and re-clad to the European BREEAM standard for access and energy efficiency.

The Community


Community engagementThroughout the past twelve years, the company has endeavoured to engage with the

education sector, local community groups and other stakeholders.

Some very interesting ideas and concepts are arising from recent discussions with local universities, including Exeter University, Falmouth University and the Camborne School of Mines, based on the Earth Science Park concept. These will be taken forward.

The company has continued to engage with the local community through many presentations and site tours carried out over the past few years.

The company supports local activities and initiatives, such as those listed below.

One and All Cycling Academy – allowed use of the site for training.

Cornwall Field Target Club – allowed use of the site.

Carn Brea Storm Netball Club – sponsorship.

Cornwall Woodturners Association – use of workshops on site.

Royal Geological Society of Cornwall – given presentations and tours.

The Group was particularly pleased and proud to have been asked to provide the tin which was used to produce the Olympic Bronze medals for last year’s London Olympics!

The basics of the Masterplan are shown on this diagram which was confirmed in its final form in July 2010 and finally adopted by Cornwall Council in November 2011, and shows all the elements described in the presentation.



In summaryThe Wheal Jane Masterplan is an interesting and potentially classic example of a traditional industry, in this case a particularly Cornish industry, becoming very much a knowledge-based industry marketing the historically acquired skills and knowledge in mining and minerals to the world.

The Masterplan for Wheal Jane is certainly a unique combination of a specialised Earth Science business park with a number of renewable energy projects contributing to its sustainability.

The scheme is an excellent example of the re-use of industrial and previously developed land, existing buildings and existing infrastructure.

The plan includes substantial environmental remediation, restoration and ecological enhancement.

We feel, and we hope you would agree, that it represents a significant asset to the local economy, to the economy of Cornwall and hopefully beyond.

The Wheal Jane story is also an employment story which has already demonstrated its potential to generate quality employment in Cornwall, and which has the potential for significant further growth over the next few years. In achieving this, the Masterplan also addresses another Cornish problem, that being the retention of skills. Mining, minerals,and renewable energy students are often lost to the county, but hopefully Wheal Jane and other such developments are beginning to provide opportunities for these students to stay and work in Cornwall.

In line with the sustainable theme running through the Masterplan, all our building refurbishment and new build projects will be to high European sustainability standards.

Interestingly, rather than flattening the site completely, the Masterplan proposals do actually preserve what is a fairly unique post-mining Cornish mine development for future interpretation.

In summary


The developments which have already taken place within the Masterplan on site have all been funded internally through the Wheal Jane Group and its business activities and associates on site. Only recent projects such as the office development and the proposed headworks buildings developments are seeking external funding to progress the Masterplan.

In all, the Wheal Jane story represents a unique and innovative post-mining remediation project which is underway and making good progress, but which has a long way to go and a lot more to give. Wheal Jane is very much a work in progress.

Bernard BallardDirector of Marketing and Property, Wheal Jane Group

Chairman, Brownfield Investments Ltd

Secretary, Cornish Chamber of Mines and Minerals

Business

Masterplan presentation v13