Strongbow Exploration has completed water treatment trials at the South Crofty mine, bringing a project to reopen the site one step closer to completion.

The South Crofty tin project includes reopening the historic mine in Pool, which would create up to 1,000 jobs for Cornwall.

To reopen the mine Richard Williams, CEO and president of Strongbow, faced many hurdles including de-watering the mine, which first required a water quality assessment.

Now that the trials have been completed the company will work on an application to the UK Environment Agency for a mine waste permit with water discharge consent.

To complete the application Strongbow has hired WS Atkins, a leading global engineering and project management consultancy, who are expected to complete the process within one month.

Once the company receives the mine waste permit, the South Crofty project will be fully permitted, holding a mining license valid until 2071, planning permission to construct new surface process facilities and a permit to de-water the mine.

Richard Williams said: "This is an important step forward as Strongbow works to bring the South Crofty mine back into operation.

"The South Crofty team worked closely with the UK Environment Agency throughout the process and I am very pleased that we were able to develop a system to treat the mine water which met their very high standards.

"We have resounding local support in Cornwall and I look forward to updating shareholders and the local community during the summer."

The water treatment trials were required by the Environment Agency to demonstrate that contaminated mine water could be treated, and dissolved metals and suspended solids collected prior to discharging mine water into the Red River.

The results of the trial successfully met all treated water target containment levels proposed by the agency.

Undertaken by Siltbuster Process Solutions, a leading UK mine water treatment company, the trials utilised their High-Density Sludge process, and a temporary water treatment plant was constructed for the trial.

Siltbuster personnel also designed and built the nearby water treatment facility at the Wheal Jane mine, which has been in operation for over fifteen years.

The proposed treatment process for the mine de-watering is a six stage system, and includes measures such as adding hydrogen peroxide, lime dosing, polymer addition and clarification of water.

Sludge collected in the process will be initially disposed of at a nearby tailings facility, and once in production will be mixed with tailings as backfill and deposited underground.

The mine waste permit application envisages an initial pumping and treatment rate of 25,000m3 a day over an 18 to 24 month period.

After de-watering the mine is complete, a steady-state de-watering program will be maintained, subject to annual precipitation variations.

The installation and operation of a permanent water treatment plant for the project will provide a material improvement to the current status of the local environment which currently has untreated, contaminated mine water discharging into the Red River.