In October, we posted about the troubles of Wolf Minerals, how Drakelands Mine owner ceases trading and appoints administrators and asking Who would take on Drakelands?
Readers may remember that this was the mine that caused local residents to endure the "horrendous invasive unacceptable" impact of blasting and low frequency noise; we posted about this in What happened last time DCC approved a major minerals application?
Over £100 million has been poured into this failing venture. Question marks now hang over the future of the site, and its restoration. The Telegraph reports that a Swiss-based investment fund has shown interest in taking on the mine, but that:
… talks have hit a snag over the cost of restoring the land after its working life has finished… it is thought a trio of banks that are among Wolf’s secured creditors are wrangling over the size of a bond being held in account to pay for restoration of the site after mining has finished… Around £14m has been deposited for safekeeping but it is thought the banks - Unicredit, ING and Caterpillar - want this reduced to £11.5m.
In 2016, DCC had stated:
6.135 There is already in existence a restoration bond with Wolf Minerals which was required as a part of the original legal agreement associated with the 1986 planning permission…. The value of the bond was calculated by the Mineral Valuer in 2014 to be in the region of £15 million… the operator has already posted the full amount into an Escrow Account to ensure that the finance remains available for this purpose.
The Telegraph quotes Gary Streeter, MP for the area, as saying:
It’s very important to that local economy that this mine continues. We want to get the tungsten out, get the value from it, and put the countryside back together… I’m not in favour of reducing the bond but if it has to be reduced slightly to make this project work, then we’ll have to accept that - but that’s be to negotiated.
Not everyone will be happy that putting the Devon countryside back together – facilitated by a restoration bond lodged for safekeeping in an escrow account – is now up for negotiation, in order to appease various global banking interests.
