We will be consulting soon on Hemerdon Tungsten Mine

  • As expected under the conditions of the Local Enforcement Position, we have received an application from Drakelands Restoration Limited (owned by Tungsten West plc) to vary its environmental permit for Hemerdon Tungsten Mine. This means the company has asked for our permission to make a change to the mineral processing facility permit.
  • Because there is strong public interest in this site, we will be consulting on the proposed changes.
  • We expect to open the consultation in November and will write to you again with details of how you can take part.

Background

On 7 July 2026, we issued Drakelands Restoration Limited with a Local Enforcement Position to operate a mobile crushing and screening plant at Hemerdon Tungsten Mine. You can read more about the LEP here.

Although the company has been operating the mobile plant, we were clear in the conditions of the LEP that they must apply to vary their environmental permit if they wish to continue this activity for more than 6 months (from 7 July).

We have now received their permit application. We are satisfied we have the information we need to begin determining it. We will soon invite you to review their application and let us know what you think of their proposal through our formal consultation process.


What changes are being proposed?

Drakelands has applied to make the following changes to its environmental permit:

  • Permanently include the new mobile front end (crushing, screening and washing operations) into the already permitted Hemerdon Mineral Processing Facility
  • Extend the installation boundary to include the mobile front end.
  • Process ore up to 250 tonnes per hour.


What happens next?

As with the original permit application, we will consult on the application documents for at least four weeks.

We will consider every comment we receive alongside the technical evidence and use this information to help reach a draft decision.

If we conclude that the variation should be refused, Drakelands has the right to appeal that decision.

If our draft decision is to issue the permit variation, we will consult again. This will give you the opportunity to comment on the draft permit conditions and see how we have considered the feedback received during the consultation.

We will contact you when the consultation opens and explain how you can take part.


If you have any accessibility requirements that could make it difficult to use our online consultation service, please contact us by email at DCISEnquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk or call our customer contact centre on 03708 506 506.

For more information about environmental permits, visit Check if you need an environmental permit - GOV.UK.

If you have any questions or would like to be added to the mailing list for this site, please email DCISEnquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk.