Strategic Minerals is taking its Redmoor tungsten project in Cornwall into its largest drilling campaign to date, highlighting the growing strategic importance of tungsten as Western governments seek more secure supplies of critical minerals for industry and defence.
The company plans to complete 22,500 metres of diamond drilling, with the programme scheduled to run through the second quarter of 2027. The campaign includes at least 44 resource infill holes and nine metallurgical holes, generating geological, metallurgical and geotechnical data needed to advance the project toward a pre-feasibility study.
Redmoor Resource Expands
Redmoor’s 2026 mineral resource estimate totals 17.4 million tonnes grading 0.65% tungsten-trioxide equivalent, including tungsten, tin and copper mineralisation.
The latest estimate increased contained tonnage by 49% compared with the previous resource, strengthening the project’s potential as a polymetallic critical-minerals development. The expanded resource is only the starting point for the next phase of work. Strategic Minerals must now improve geological confidence and establish the technical parameters needed for mine planning, project financing and eventual construction.
Tungsten Gains Strategic Importance
The investment case for Redmoor has changed significantly as geopolitical concerns reshape the global tungsten supply chain. Tungsten is valued for its exceptional hardness, high density and ability to withstand extreme temperatures. It is essential for applications ranging from cutting tools and industrial equipment to aerospace and defence systems.
China remains the dominant force in global tungsten production, making alternative sources increasingly important to Western governments and manufacturers. Against this backdrop, a tungsten deposit in Cornwall can attract strategic interest that would have been much harder to justify when the metal was viewed primarily as a niche industrial commodity.
Metallurgy Could Determine Redmoor’s Future
The new drilling campaign will focus not only on increasing resource confidence but also on understanding how efficiently the project’s polymetallic mineralisation can be processed.
Redmoor contains tungsten, tin and copper, potentially creating additional value through by-product recovery. Those economics will depend on demonstrating commercially viable recoveries and producing concentrates that meet market specifications. For that reason, the metallurgical drilling could prove as important as expanding the resource itself.
The key question is no longer simply how much mineralisation Redmoor contains. Investors will increasingly want to know whether the deposit can support a credible processing flowsheet, robust project economics and a financeable mine development plan.
Cornwall Builds a New Critical-Minerals Base
The Redmoor programme comes as Cornwall seeks to rebuild its historic mining industry around modern critical-mineral projects, including tungsten, tin and lithium.
For Strategic Minerals, successful drilling could provide the foundation for a credible pre-feasibility study and move Redmoor closer to development. For Cornwall, the project could become an important part of a broader industrial revival, while for Western markets it offers the potential for a new domestic source of a strategically important metal. The next major milestone will therefore not simply be another exploration result. It will be whether the 22,500-metre drilling programme provides the geological and metallurgical confidence needed to transform Redmoor from a promising resource into a potentially financeable tungsten project.
