Anglesey mine with metal deposits worth £206m could reopen Published duration 25 July 2017

image copyright Geograph/ Robin Drayton

A long-closed Anglesey mine that has deposits of gold and other metals worth about £206.5m could be reopened, a report has said.

There have been a number of attempts to restart work at Parys Mountain, which closed almost a century ago.

Its owner Anglesey Mining commissioned a scoping report, which estimated values of zinc, silver and copper.

The company called it a "viable project" and is now looking for financial backers to help restart work.

It would cost $53m (£40.5m) to reopen the site for mining 1,000 tonnes a day for eight years, the scoping report says.

The estimated annual output would be 14,000 tonnes of zinc, 7,200 tonnes of lead and 4,000 tonnes of copper, while gold would also be recovered.

This would provide metals worth US$270m (£206.5m).

120 jobs

Mining at the site is thought to date back to the Bronze Age and it yielded more than 300,000 tonnes before its closure.

In 2006, Anglesey Mining planned to sell shares to pay for a feasibility study to reopen the site.

Two years later it was nearly sold to an Australian mining company but the deal fell through.

Anglesey Mining's chief executive Bill Hooley believes the project now has fresh impetus, saying: "We think there is support for us. There is a shortage of zinc in world market."

The company has had planning permission since 1990 and Mr Hooley believes about 120 jobs could be created.