CORNWALL Council has approved the permitted development order by a Cornish Mining company for the drilling of exploratory holes at a mine in Kelly Bray — meaning work will start later this month.

Cornwall Resources Ltd, a joint venture between New Age Exploration (NAE) and Strategic Minerals Plc, has now finalised the drilling contract and all other necessary arrangements for the two-phase drilling programme at Redmoor mine.

Callington Town Council accepted the exploratory drilling proposal at a meeting in February and Cornwall Council also accepted the proposal last week.

A two-phase drilling programme will now commence with 13 holes in the first phase and 10 holes in the second. The aim of the drilling is to confirm and extend the high grade resource at Redmoor.

The company has said that land access agreements had now been signed for 19 of the 23 drill holes planned. It was told by Cornwall Council that noise levels must be less than 55 decibels from Monday to Saturday with two rigs operating and must be less than 50 decibels with one rig working on Sundays.

The sequence of holes is being finalised and landowners will be informed two weeks before the drill comes onto their land.

Cornwall Resources Ltd has signed a lease for office space in the Kelly Bray Industrial Estate, which it hopes to move into this month.

The exploration drilling manager Brett Grist has recruited his deputy and a third geologist will be recruited in the near future. Three other job positions are also being advertised, some may be permanent.

The company said the complaints procedure will be communicated prior to drilling starting. Signs will be put up at each drilling site with phone numbers to call if there are any issues — both during and outside of working hours. It said people were also welcome to call into the new office in Kelly Bray Industrial Estate.

NAE managing director Gary Fietz said: ‘We are excited to be commencing drilling on site later this month which marks a major milestone in advancement of the Redmoor Tin-Tungsten project.

‘The support and level of interest that has been shown by the local community has been most encouraging. Our highly experienced exploration team — in particular our community advisor Jeff Harrison and our exploration manager Brett Grist — have worked hard to complete this milestone ahead of shedule enabling the drilling programme to be undertaken during the time of year when weather conditions are more favourable.

‘We expect to complete both phases of the drilling programme this year and anticipate being in a position to update the market on the results from initial drill holes in the third quarter of 2017.’

Callington Town Coun-cil is currently working to set up a specialist section on its website to display any information it receives from the mining team.

People will also be able to ‘sign-up’ to receive updates via this section of the website.