THE company hoping to reopen the Hemerdon tungsten mine has launched its first major recruitment campaign.

The recruitment drive is to fill key senior management positions, as it continues to move forwards with its project to reopen the tungsten and tin mine near Plymouth.

Earlier this month Wolf Minerals, the dual Australian (ASX) and London (AIM) stock market listed company announced it had established its UK base at Tamar Science Park as it continues work towards bringing the mine – the fourth largest tungsten resource in the world – back into production.

It has quickly followed this move with the launch of a national and local recruitment campaign for three new staff – commercial/financial manager, environmental manager and HR manager.

They will join existing UK Operations Manager Jeff Harrison and process manager Gilly Hall, who was recruited in the summer.

Mr Harrison said: 'Bringing forward the world class, sustainable mining project which we want Hemerdon to be is a complex project and we now need to grow the team as we develop in detail the technical and engineering aspects of commissioning and operating the mine.

'It is an exciting time for the project and we look forward to what we hope will be a good response from people keen to be part of the renaissance of UK metal mining in its traditional heartland of the South West.'

Hemerdon is recognised by the British Geological survey as the fourth largest tungsten resource in the world and the results of Wolf's positive definitive feasibility study (2011) have confirmed the extent of winnable minerals within the site and a viable plan for mining and processing these over the next ten years.

When fully operational, the mine – which has planning permission in place - will generate about 230 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs, pumping millions of pounds into the local economy.

Work to assemble the finance and equity investment to fully develop the £120m mine is at an advanced stage.

At the same time 2012 has seen a number of milestones reached in preparatory work on the project.

In September Wolf received key environmental approvals, with the granting of seven water permits for the operation of the mine from the Environment Agency (EA).

These were the first of a number of EA permits required for operations within the mine and for a waste dump licence in line with the EU mine waste directive.

This summer also saw the first major infrastructure work on the project completed when a 600m link road was built and opened between Lee Moor Road and West Park Hill in Plympton.