Sometimes, the map writers will try to tell you how deep a hole is, but won’t tell you where they started measuring from. Depending on the year, they might have done one or the other.” He smiles: “You have to do trigonometry to figure it out.” In some cases, but not all cases, they measure the distance of it inclined – whereas now you measure vertically. “You might notice that the measurements are different here,” he says, pointing at one of the boreholes drawn on the maps in Cornish Lithium’s office in Truro, a few kilometres from the coastal town of Falmouth. This, say hard hat-wearing geologists from lithium-extraction company Cornish Lithium, is the place that will herald a mining renaissance. In the midst of this scene on a Tuesday afternoon in April is an almost comically small red digger, chugging noisily away at a small hole in the ground. On a bright day, looking at the white walls is like gazing into the Sun. Entire chunks of land are missing, leaving behind white craters where hills abruptly turn into chasms.
What is odd, at least in 2021, is the noise coming from it: the steady sound of digging.įinding the source of the sound involves a cautious ascent on a rocky path to the mouth of the Trelavour Downs, where dense vegetation gives way to a stark landscape ripped apart by heavy machinery. This is not unusual the area is pitted with hundreds of old and abandoned mines where for almost 300 years tonnes of copper, tin, tungsten and clay were taken from the earth. HIDDEN IN THE hills of St Dennis in Cornwall, a short drive away from the mining village once known as the richest square mile in the world, lies a gigantic hole in the ground.
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