Supporting our Communities
Our approach
Without the support of the communities in which we live and work, Tungsten West would not be able to succeed. The success of the Hemerdon project is largely dependent on maintaining the positive relationship we have built within our local communities and their continued support of our development strategy and our operations.
That’s why we’ve built a team that is committed to the proactive engagement with our stakeholders to ensure that we deliver shared value for us, our neighbours and our local economy. Our strategy in this space is to support local universities and young people, the region’s mining heritage, local causes and organisations and locally-based businesses and people through our supply chain.
Powering the local economy
We consider it a top priority at Tungsten West to build sustainable economic activity in the vicinity of our operations, especially at a time when rural employment opportunities and the local economy are under pressure. Through the employment of local people, up to 300 direct jobs and 600 indirect jobs will be created over the life of the mine, having a positive economic and social impact in the region. The majority of our current team is locally based with strong roots in the local community.
Where possible, we use local suppliers for anything that we need at the Hemerdon Mine. Vice versa, Tungsten West sells the aggregates produced at Hemerdon to local construction companies, ensuring they have stable, long-term access to these materials with the additional benefit of a lowering our carbon footprint.
Supporting local causes
Where possible, we provide financial and other support for local causes and organisations. For instance, we sponsored the Cornish Mining Conference over the last few years and sent a delegation to participate. We also support local charitable causes, such the Dartmoor Zoo where our team attended the autumn charity ball.
Listening to our neighbours
Part of our community engagement is providing opportunities to get in touch with us and listening to concerns. Tungsten West has created a regular forum for open and transparent communications with local communities.
Tungsten West maintains a communty presence at Shaugh Prior, Cornwood and Sparkwell Parish Councils to provide updates, listen to local matters and answer any queries raised.
Tungsten West can be contacted here.
Public Consultation
The previous operator of the mine had not foreseen that LFN would have such an impact in the local community. We moved proactively to study the issue and design mitigations. We outlined the findings at a public engagement event at Hemerdon and Sparkwell Village Halls.
We are studying and finding solutions for other community and social impact. Our approach is to conduct more public engagement sessions to inform local communities of our progress restarting Hemerdon.
