Zinc mine could create 500 jobs in the north

Up to 500 new jobs could be created in the North after zinc deposits worth millions of pounds were discovered.

Canadian mining firm Minco has invested more than £500,000 in an operation to test drill at sites near Allenheads in Northumberland and Nenthead in Cumbria.

The company says initial results are “very promising” and forecasts show up to one million tonnes of ore a year could eventually be extracted.

The area, on the border of County Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria, has been mined since Roman times, primarily for lead.

So far, five 500m deep boreholes have been sunk.

Minco’s executive director Rowan Maule said the area could hold some of the largest zinc deposits in Europe.

He said: “We believe that this could be a world-class deposit.

“There is still a lot of work to do, which would involve a lot more drilling over several years, but the potential here is massive.”

“There could easily be, in five or six years from now, a major mine developed, should we be able to go through all the planning processes.

“A project of that size would mean a mine producing a million tonnes a year and employing between 200 and 500 people.”

The company said its initial exploration programme in the North Pennines, which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), would last 12 months.

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