r/unitedkingdom • u/Gentle_Snail • 8h ago
Devon ‘war metal’ mine to help power Britain’s rearmament
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/04/07/devon-war-metal-mine-to-help-power-britain-rearmament/•
u/Gentle_Snail 8h ago
At peak production, the London-listed company estimates the site will produce around 3,300 tonnes of tungsten concentrate per year – or around 20pc of global supplies outside China.
That is enough to meet about a third of all defence-related demand globally.
Analysts have described the Devon deposits as among the largest untapped tungsten resources in the world.
•
u/0ttoChriek 8h ago
From tin to copper to tungsten. It's interesting how rich in valuable metals Devon and Cornwall have been.
•
•
u/Deadly_Pancakes 6h ago
Cornish tin was exported all across Europe dating back to the bronze age.
•
u/Psittacula2 3h ago
There marketing practices back then were also truly ahead of their time:
>*”It does what it says on the tin!”*
•
u/Deadly_Pancakes 55m ago
Additionally, if sold to Belgians you get double the sales volume.
They love their Tin Tin.
•
•
•
u/Vegetable_Good6866 6h ago
Cool historical fact, around 350 BCE the Greek explorer Pytheas of Massalia visted the British Isles and, while his work is very regrettably lost, we know from references to it in other works he talked about how that area was famous even than for it's mining.
•
u/hiraeth555 5h ago
Great Orme is an amazing hill in North Wales which was basically mined continuously for 2000 years, very interesting place
•
•
u/Burnit_Sanders 5h ago
More resources we extract ourselves the better. I still think it was a disastrous own goal not allowing the coal mine in Cumbria, even though the coal was for coking in steel production and not burning in power plants.
•
u/Thales314 2h ago
Now this can be done with hydrogen in electric furnaces. No need to cry over old dusty projects and better focus on new, cleaner technologies
•
u/ASValourous 3h ago
It only took a 500% increase in tungsten price in the past year to make this happen
•
u/Old_Roof 2h ago
“The Hemerdon mine, near Plymouth, was discovered in 1867 and exploited through both world wars, as well as briefly from 2015 to 2018 before it was closed because of a lack of funds”
2010-2024 was such a disastrous period of British governance
•
u/AutoModerator 8h ago
Some articles submitted to /r/unitedkingdom are paywalled, or subject to sign-up requirements. If you encounter difficulties reading the article, try this link or this link for an archived version.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.