Mining is making a comeback in Anglesey!
It looks like copper mining might be making a return to Parys Mountain.
It looks like copper mining might be making a return to Parys Mountain, just south of Amlwch. It’s been a whopping 120 years since the last miners packed up, but the history of this place goes way back to the Bronze Age.
Don McCallum, the site manager, mentioned that the old mining techniques were pretty basic – think hand tools, horses, and dynamite. But with modern electrically powered mining, from underground rather than on the surface, there’s still a ton of valuable stuff left to dig up. Anglesey Mining is hoping to extract around a billion dollars’ worth of copper, gold, silver, and other metals over the next decade or so.
Rob Marsden, the CEO of Anglesey Mining (Based at the Harwell Innovation Centre), is super optimistic. He says Parys Mountain is the biggest and most advanced project for mining these metals in the UK. Plus, it’s already got a lot of the infrastructure in place, which is a big win. He was recently featured in an interview with ITV Wales, which you can view here: https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2024-08-28/copper-could-be-mined-on-anglesey-again
Of course, they need to make sure the local wildlife is safe, so there will be plenty of surveys to check on bats, birds, and plants. If everything gets the green light, this could be the UK’s only domestic source of copper. Considering the UK uses about 15,000 tonnes of copper a year (all currently imported), this could be a game-changer.
So, keep your fingers crossed for this project – it could be a big boost for the local economy and help the UK transition to greener energy!
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