Cornish tin mine could reopen with Trump administration investment

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Donald Trump has aggressively pursued investment into hi-tech industries in recent months, but the US administration has now set its sights on a more traditional sector: tin mining in Cornwall,The South Crofty mine, near the village of Pool, could start up again after nearly three decades aided by a potential $225m (£166m) investment from across the Atlantic, creating 300 jobs,The site dates back to the 1600s but closed in 1998; there have since been repeated attempts to reopen it,Cornish Metals, its owner, said on Thursday it had received a letter of funding interest from the official export credit agency of the US to develop the site,Any investment would depend on the mine supplying tin to the US, which considers the metal to be a critical mineral.

Tin is used for soldering and is found in most electronic devices, as well as electric cars and solar panels.The metal is important for connecting semiconductor chips to circuit boards and its value has surged amid the boom in investment in datacentres that will power the AI industry.The metal’s price has risen sharply over the last decade, from $16,000 a tonne in 2016 to more than $50,000 at the start of this year.However, about two-thirds of the tin mined today comes from China, Myanmar and Indonesia, where there are long-running concerns about fragile supply chains and the use of child labour.Don Turvey, the chief executive of Cornish Metals, said the US interest was “a testament to the quality and strategic importance of South Crofty and its potential to become the first new tin producer in the western world”.

Shares in Cornish Metals jumped nearly 7% on Thursday.South Crofty received a £28.6m investment from the UK government in 2025 to support efforts to reopen it.Last summer, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, estimated the mine the could support 1,300 jobs in the wider region.Separately, a US-led critical minerals summit on Wednesday involving 50 countries produced a slew of agreements aimed at loosening China’s grip on more than 25 key elements, in their raw form and processed.

The EU and the US announced joint intentions to work closer together, committing to a memorandum of understanding in the next 30 days,The two will also work with Japan on building additional supplies, after a separate US-Japan arrangement signed in October,The US state department said it had signed 11 bilateral deals on critical minerals at the summit, convened by the state secretary, Marco Rubio,Patrick Schröder, a senior research fellow at Chatham House’s Environment and Society Centre, said speeches by Rubio and the US vice-president, JD Vance, had made it clear the driving interest was that the US wanted to secure supplies for AI development,“Although they didn’t say it explicitly, it is still America first.

It was framed as ‘America needs your help’.There was no mention of renewables,” Schröder said.
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How to make moreish cookies from store-cupboard odds and ends – recipe | Waste not

I often eat a bag of salty crisps at the same time as a chewy chocolate bar, alternating bite for bite between the two, because the extreme contrast of salt from the chips and the sweetness of the chocolate fire off each other and create an endorphin rush. The same goes for these cookies, adapted from a recipe by Christina Tosi at New York’s legendary Milk Bar.Christina Tosi writes in Gourmet Traveller Australia how she first learned to make these cookies at a conference centre on Star Island, New England, where they’d bake them each week with a hodge-podge of different ingredients. Being on an island, they didn’t always have access to what they wanted, so they had to come up with a new recipe every week using whatever they had. In the spirit of the recipe’s origins, I’ve adapted Tosi’s recipe for the UK, and made it flexible, so you can raid your own store-cupboards and adapt and invent your own version from it

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Camilla Wynne’s recipes for blood orange marmalade and no-bake marmalade mousse tart

If you’re intimidated by making marmalade, the whole-fruit method is the perfect entry point. Blood oranges are simmered whole until soft, perfuming your home as they do so, then they’re sliced, skin and all, mixed with sugar and a fragrant cinnamon stick, and embellished with a shot of amaro. Squirrel the jars away for a grey morning, give a few to deserving friends, and be sure to keep at least one to make this elegant mocha marmalade mousse tart. A cocoa biscuit crust topped with a chocolate marmalade mousse and crowned with a cold brew coffee cream, it’s a delightful trifecta of bitterness that no one will ever guess is an easy no-bake dessert.If you’re not up for preserving, make this using shop-bought thick-cut marmalade

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The dump dinner: spaghetti is now being served straight on to the table – but why?

Name: Dump dinners.Age: Horribly new.Appearance: Feeding time at the zoo, but for humans.I’ve just Googled this. Apparently a dump dinner is a make-ahead slow cooker recipe

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Australian supermarket coconut water taste test: ‘Smells like an island holiday’

Overcoming his irrational fear of coconut products, Nicholas Jordan tests a lovely – and lowly – bunch of coconuts in a rowIf you value our independent journalism, we hope you’ll consider supporting us todayGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailI have a fear of coconut products. Like all fears it’s based on a questionable rationale and trauma, and my trauma is taste testing “health” coconut-heavy products that taste like soap. Which is why, until recently, almost all the coconut water I’d drunk was from a straw reaching out of a fresh coconut.Surely there’s no way a bottled coconut water, made from 100% coconut, could be that bad. Maybe it could be better than the real thing? I enjoy Melona more than the average honeydew melon

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Miso mystery: red, white or yellow – how does each paste change your dish? | Kitchen aide

What’s the difference between white and red miso, and which should I use for what? Why do some recipes not specify which miso to use? Ben, by email“I think what recipe writers assume – and I’m sure I’ve written recipes like this – is that either way, you’re not going to get a miso that’s very extreme,” says Tim Anderson, whose latest book, JapanEasy Kitchen: Simple Recipes Using Japanese Pantry Ingredients, is out in April. As Ben points out, the two broadest categories are red and white, and in a lot of situations “you can use one or other to your taste without it having a massive effect on the outcome of the dish”.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more

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The pie and mash crisis: can the original fast food be saved?

There used to be hundreds of pie and mash shops in London. Now there are barely more than 30. Can social media attention and a push for protected status ensure their survival?Outside it’s raining so hard that the sandwich board sign for BJ’s pie and mash (“All pies are made on the premises”) is folded up inside. The pavement along Barking Road in Plaistow is a blur through the front windows and deserted, and there are only two customers in the shop. Another sign – this one on the counter – says “CASH ONLY”