Mineral and Waste Planning

Mineral Planning

Cromwell Wood Estate Company, trading as Cromwell Mining Consultants, has been involved in mineral planning for a wide range of minerals since 2002. The Mining Director has been involved in the mineral industry in, design, mine planning, Town and Country Planning, production and restoration for over 25 years.

For the past 16 years the practice has advised clients on planning applications for coal, fireclay, brickshale, limestone, sandstone, building stone, industrial materials, silica sand, sand gravels and metals.

Our specialist team provides working schemes and working plans for planning applications for new sites, extensions to existing sites and reviews of old mineral permissions, some of which were originally submitted by the company.

Over the last 16 years our minerals team have submitted over 75 applications for mineral working schemes. Many of the applications have required Environmental Impact Assessments which require a robust method of working, reserve assessment and assessment of the effects on nearby receptors.

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We also provide the management of Planning Applications that address issues on Traffic, Noise, Dust, Visual Impact, Ecology, Landscape and Restoration.

Engineers and Surveyors can meet with the Planning Officers to discuss compliance with the planning conditions and monitor any ongoing restoration providing advice on planting schedules, soil treatment and biodiversity. The company currently have a success rate of 80% on planning applications before going to a planning appeal. In 2011 the company has obtained planning permissions for dimension stone quarries and restoration of mineral working by infilling with recovered inert waste. The workload for early 2012 includes building stone, inert waste, limestone and surface coal and clay mining.

Site Investigation

The team of Mining Engineers and Geologists undertake site investigations on mineral bearing land, from desk top studies, borehole logs, mapping and walkover surveys using non intrusive techniques to drilling for samples, geological structure and reserve estimation. The reserves are calculated and then a working scheme designed to maximise recoverable mineral without impinging on the restoration of the site or jeopardising a future use.

Mining Waste Directive

The Directive was introduced into UK legislation in 2008 and the Regulations require a mineral operator to obtain a mine waste permit unless they can prove the overburden and discard from the mine or quarry is to be used in the restoration of the site. As most planning permission require all material that is not to be sold for restoration then the need for a permit can be avoided by the submission of an Extractive Minerals Management Scheme (EMMS). Our engineers are experienced in writing EMMS’s and also designing mineral working to exempt the operator from requiring a mine waste permit.

Site investigation is also undertaken for geotechnical, hydrogeological and contamination assessments.

In the past we have worked on coal and fireclay projects, hard rock aggregates, sand and gravel, dimension stone and industrial minerals in the UK and metal, coal and gold mines in Russia, South Africa and Australia.

Our engineering department can manage a drilling programme from the start and provide information on reserves, structural geology and working methods based on the findings of the site investigation and sample results.

Geotechnical Assessments

Chartered Engineers can provide appraisals and assessments of existing workings and review new working areas to comply with the Quarries Regulations and the planning conditions granted in a Planning Permission.

For any other information, please do not hesitate to contact this office and email or speak to John or Sandra Carlon.