Britain's first metal mine in 45 years opened

As the mine site was opened recently it became Britains first metal mine in 45 years. Photo: Wolf Minerals

Wolf Minerals is an ASX (WLF) and AIM (WLFE) listed specialty metals producer from its operations at Drakelands, a major global tungsten mine  in the United Kingdom's Southwest. The company says it is making it is making "significant progress" running its tungsten and tin mine in Britain.

Construction of the mine and processing facilities commenced in February 2014 and it was completed by mid 2015. As it was opened recently it became Britain's first metal mine in 45 years.

The Drakelands Mine at the Hemerdon Tungsten and Tin Project has one of the Western world's largest tungsten and tin resources and provides a secure supply of tungsten for a global customer base.

Wolf is led by an management team of British and Australian mining professionals and more than 200 people are permanently employed on site.

The tungsten produced by Wolf is critical  to a range of industrial, mining and agricultural applications and key uses are in cemented carbides, steel alloys, metal products, lighting, drill bits and jewellery.

The mine is just ten kilometres from Plymouth, a city of 250,000 people in England's Devon county. Owners says the mine has created over 200 jobs.

In full production the mine produce approximately 5,000 tonnes of tungsten concentrate and 1,000 tonnes of tin concentrate per year.  Output will supply 3% of world's tungsten.

The open pit mine is 850 metres long, 450 metres wide and 200 metres deep. The mine life is 10-15 years.