“Are you here for the attempted murder?” asks a punter when I step into the Red Lion. My answer — I’m here for the return of lithium mining — stirs little interest among the pub’s patrons. The last time the town of Redruth played with this sort of idealism was when it overwhelmingly backed Leave in 2016, shocking the idyllic coastal fringes of Falmouth, Truro and St Ives.
These days, the bloody-mindedness remains but has long since given up on the rebellious politics of 2016. Little has changed after Brexit. Westminster and anything associated with it — London, politicians, tourists, journalists — are despised. Alternatives such as Mebyon Kernow, the Cornish independence party, are seen as a joke. In fact, everything is a joke: spurning my predictable questions about life in the area, one gentleman does a 10-minute skit about how he’s been smuggling migrants from Calais on an old fishing boat and leaving them on the telegenic beaches for second-home owners to deal with.
Tourism has helped to create a sort of neo-feudalism in this era, warping the rental market for existing residents, and trapping locals in a seasonal economy of unreliable incomes and unresolved resentment. The prosperous parts of Cornwall have become “a giant theme park”, as one punter describes it, leaving Redruth as one of its many servile outhouses, lying beyond the gates of Poldark-cum-Surfing Land.
In another age, Redruth was one of the wealthiest towns in the world, its copper playing a part in everything from the Industrial Revolution to Britain’s naval hegemony. That economy fell into decline in the late-19th century, long before the rest of Britain’s manufacturing base. The result is an eerie hodge-podge of industrial marvels, social deprivation and abandoned mining infrastructure. On the high street, next to some of the finest 18th-century architecture in the country, stands an abandoned Wilko.
But, in the last few years, an opportunity for recovery has presented itself. Now, it’s the area’s lithium, discovered in “globally significant” quantities in 2020, that could yet realise some of those visions of abundance and revival: the rare-earth element is essential to the production of batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. Come 2026, Cornish Lithium will soon start extracting the gold of the green industrial revolution. The company estimates that 7,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) can be produced a year, alongside the 20,000 from 2028 provided by rival companies Imerys and British Lithium operating down the road in St Austell. This would, however, still leave Britain dependent on some of the world’s biggest producers in Australia, China and Chile, with such schemes only partially covering the 80,000 tonnes a year the UK is predicted to require by 2030.
Despite these deposits, both companies have had to jump through hoops merely to survive. But having previously relied on angel investors and crowdfunds, a package of £67 million announced in August from the UK’s Infrastructure Bank placed the project in the national interest. When Emmanuel Macron declared that “made in Europe” should be our continental motto, lamenting that a Europe without a serious industrial policy risked being left behind by the changing tides of globalisation, he was talking about the viability of quixotic projects such as lithium mining in Cornwall.
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SubscribeI’m so pleased that this, and the South Crofty mine, are possibly about to happen. When friends have gushed to me about how pretty the towns in Cornwall are I always ask ‘have you been to Camborne or Redruth?’ Or many other smaller places in the forgotten interior which are among the poorest 10% in England. Anything that attracts new jobs and new money to the area and stops the Cornish relying on seasonal service jobs is to be very much welcomed.
I like the cut of the local businessman’s jib.
You beat me to it… best bit of the article.
Get government out of the way and it’s got a chance of succeeding.
You say: ”Little has changed after Brexit.”
well well well, how we were promised doom and destruction of just about everything in the UK, where we dare to even VOTE to leave (never mind have the temerity to actually leave) the EU. We were promised ”everything would change for the worse”
The phamtom 4% GDP decline has long since proved to be (another) myth and most of The Eurozone has been in resession – Germany still is.
UK economy since 2016 has grown faster than the other main EU Countries.
The City of London continues to Boom.
Germany – it turns out is the sick man of Europe – and will likely have a hige bite out of its car market eaten by The Chinese in the next ten years.
its also intersting now that UK (one of only two paymasters in EU) left, the fiscal burden has fallen onto the remainign 27 – where their people are too now questioning the EU Value for money. (to a greater or lesser extent) – Funny that, when they have to put their hands in their pockets – as opposed to take, take take, attitudes change somewhat.
Sounds too good to be true. Am waiting now for the middle class NIMBYs to complain.
Are you bipolar by any chance?
One day you are Chris Wheatley, a retired English engineer living in Wales, the next you are Caradog Williams, some form of Welsh wizard also living in Wales.
Which is it?
They call me Merlin here, or rather Myrddin to be exact.
I shall try to remember that!
Correction; lithium is not a rare earth element (REE). It is an alkali metal akin to sodium and potassium, and its chemistry is significantly different than that of REE’s. Further, it is the lightest in mass metal, #3 on the periodic table. REE’s all belong to the lanthanide series of elements and are significantly heavier than lithium. If one is going to write articles that include technical aspects, please do a little research. It wouldn’t have required much effort, just a quick review of a periodic table, available online or in any high-school chemistry text book.
Redruth is magnificent; it has so much promise if only the town council would reopen the high street to traffic. 30 odd years they have tried to make it work pedestrianised but every year, somehow, it gets worse and yet another shop closes. Where do you go after Wilko? What’s left?
Reopen Redruth high street to traffic.
How serious is Mebyon Kernow? Can anyone join?
Mebyon Kernow’s entire efforts appear to be very simple graffiti on two bridges over the A30. One of those is faded quite a bit and the other has started to go too.