Mining company Anglesey has announced that the county council has approved the Parys Mountain mine environmental impact assessment (EIA) scoping report.

The North Wales Minerals and Waste Planning Service, on behalf of Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn/Anglesey county council, has provided detailed feedback and commentary on each chapter of Anglesey submission. The planning service is in broad agreement with the environmental scope as presented by the company.

In line with the feedback received from the council, Anglesey will enhance the scope of its work to ensure that it can be clearly demonstrated that the impact will be overwhelmingly positive, that the historic character of the landscape is sustained, and that the changes resulting from enacting the contemplated planning application are well-informed.

Anglesey says there is wide acceptance of the scope of the overall methodology, how the company has characterised potential impacts, and with the avoidance and mitigation of potential impacts in areas such as ecology and biodiversity, visual impact, air quality, noise and vibration, labour and working conditions and human health.

However, there are three areas where there is not broad agreement and further work has been recommended, namely ground and surface water, cultural heritage and traffic and transportation.

In each of these areas, the planning service has directed the company towards experts, historically completed studies and other literature which is readily available. This additional information will be made use of by Anglesey to enhance and further refine the scope presented.

In terms of the ground and surface water, the company intends and expects that the re-commencement of mining and processing operations will have a net positive impact. This view is informed by feedback previously provided to Anglesey by specialist consultants on this topic.

The recommendations made will be taken on-board by the company, it adds.

Further, for cultural heritage, it is well noted that the scheme being proposed will not directly impact any statutorily designated sites. However, as Anglesey described in its submission, the site lies almost entirely within the Amlwch and Parys Mountain Registered Landscape of Outstanding Historic Interest.

The mining and processing of metals and the logistical infrastructure to support those activities, such that used for energy generation and the pumping of water, as well as the physical links to Amlwch Port dominate the historical fabric of Parys Mountain.

Anglesey believes that the re-commencement of such activities will add to the long history of mining and processing at the site and thus, as reported upon by the Planning Service, will intrinsically have a significant impact on the historic environment, the company notes.

With regard to traffic and transportation, Anglesey will make provision within its plans to conduct a full transport assessment in line with the recommendations made.

“As previously noted, the Anglesey Mining team are committed to close collaboration with stakeholders, communities, industry and supply chain, particularly around minimising potential environmental impacts and maximising economic development opportunities for local communities,” the company says.

“I am delighted that the proposed mitigations to potential environmental impacts, put forward by the company, have been approved by Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn/Anglesey county council. I’m grateful to the North Wales Minerals and Waste Planning Service for their diligence in forming their opinion of the scope, and for the feedback that will make this project better for all stakeholders,” says Anglesey Mining CEO Rob Marsden.

“The permitting objective of Anglesey Mining remains unchanged, that is to make a planning application, that when enacted, will be seen to provide economic returns to investors, job opportunities, mitigation of the impacts to the environment and enhanced respect for, and appreciation of, the mining heritage of Parys Mountain, thus earning us a social licence to operate.”

The company is developing the 100% owned Parys Mountain copper/zinc/lead/silver/gold VMS deposit in North Wales, UK with a reported resource of 5.3-million tonnes at over 4.0% combined base metals in the measured and indicated categories and 10.8-million tonnes at over 2.5% combined base metals in the Inferred category.