Tungsten West – the operator of the tin and tungsten mine at Hemerdon near Plymouth, the mine "formerly known as Drakelands", and subject of previous posts – has issued an EIA Scoping Request to Devon County Council PRE/1523/2021 in connection with its proposal to increase the output of secondary aggregates.
Tungsten West has formed a subsidiary, Aggregate West. The company claims:
4.7 For a viable operation, Aggregate West Limited’s business plan allows for incremental growth over a 5‐year period. Assuming 20 tonnes of aggregate per HGV and movements 6 days per week, this is likely to require an average number of daily exportation movements as follows:Year 1 (2022): 150 Aggregate HGV ExportationsYear 2 (2023): 150 Aggregate HGV ExportationsYear 3 (2024): 200 Aggregate HGV ExportationsYear 4 (2025): 250 Aggregate HGV ExportationsYear 5 (2026): 300 Aggregate HGV ExportationsYear 5+ (2027+): (To be agreed as maximum based upon assessment of highway capacity including mitigation required).
Assuming 50 working weeks per year, the company’s ambitions are seen to grow from 900,000 to 1.8 million tonnes per annum.
According to the supply deal announced last month with GRS, a proportion of the aggregate would be loaded onto ships at Plymouth for transportation to other ports around Britain, and onto trains at Marsh Mills for onward distribution via the rail network.
Local residents are understandably concerned about the scale of such ambitions.
