Godolphin Exploration Apply For GPDO in Wheal Vor
On 5th February 2024 another mining outfit, Godolphin Exploration Ltd, submitted their General Permitted Development Order (GPDO) for exploratory drilling, again in the Wheal Vor area on land to the North East of Carleen. The planning application reference is PA24/00892 and can be viewed on the Cornwall Council planning website (*). The determination deadline for this application is Monday 26th February but it is recommended that public comments are made before Thursday the 15th of February. You can make any comments relevant to the exploratory drilling in the same place. The OS Maps coordinates for the proposed drill location are 62325 30798. This comes hot on the heels of Cornish Tin's latest submission to drill 26 boreholes.
Similarly to Cornish Tin, Godolphin Exploration are proposing to drill seven days a a week from 7am to 7pm each day (although some activity may occur outside these hours). They plan to drill up to six exploration boreholes from this one location of up to 800m in length. They propose to commence this in "early 2024" and drilling is planned to take 2-3 months although under the terms of the GPDO could continue for up to six months.
This follows a Breage Parish Council meeting that Godolphin exploration attended to give a presentation of their plans for the area on the 3rd October 2023 and a public meeting they held on the 11th November 2023 at Carleen Village Hall at which the lack of support for the proposal was overwhelming.
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If the experience of the residents in the Carleen, Trew and Polladras area in 2021 and 2022 are anything to go by the residents of the area affected may be about to experience a similar level of noise and disruption.
Cornish Tin GPDO Phase 3
We have heard that the third phase of Cornish Tin's exploratory drilling of 26 new boreholes (see our January Newsletter) may commence later this month. We don't have any confirmed information from Cornish Tin as to the drilling schedule but they have told one of our members that it is likely to start on sites 23_101 and 23_107 to the West of Trew.
Google Map of Cornish Tin's locations for the GPDO - currently active sites highlighted in yellow
These mineral explorations have a wider implication for the Breage, Carleen, Polladras and Godolphin area. If either of these companies found what they were looking for and were able to raise the necessary funding, we should expect a planning application for the development of a mine to follow.
This would have a profound effect on the nature of the area.
In happier news it's the long awaited cèilidh at the village hall on Saturday 17th of this month so get your dancing boots on! (for tickets contact the village hall - includes a free pasty!). See our events article for more events coming up soon in the local area.
* As many people have commented to us in the past that the Planning Portal can be somewhat daunting to use for newcomers to it, we're in the process of putting together a handy guide to how to access and use the planning portal to register a comment there. In order to post a public comment you need to first register on the portal.