The Crown Estate has a variety of mineral interests on and off the rural estates. As with mines royal, we are not involved in the physical process of mining, but we licence such activity.

There are 34 active mineral lettings extracting sand, gravel, limestone, granite, brick clay, coal, slate, dimension stone including Portland Stone and waste disposal. We also own inland mineral rights covering some 115,000 hectares (285,000 acres).

The prerogative right to gold and silver mines also feature in our interests. In the UK these are referred to as ‘Mines Royal’. At present there is one productive gold mine in Northern Ireland.

The mineral interests are an important element of our rural portfolio. In recent years we have invested in new operations with the purchase of mineral interests at Cauldon Low in Staffordshire and Nether Murthat in Scotland.

There is a commitment to high environmental standards. A prerequisite to awarding any licence is the satisfaction of all statutory requirements, including environmental and nature conservation designations. We encourage and assist our mineral tenants to improve their working practices. Instances include a traffic reduction tunnel between two quarries in Gloucestershire, an underground extraction trial on the Island of Portland and the extension of a facility to produce secondary aggregate from slate waste in Wales.

We adopt a responsible approach to inherited liabilities in the form of abandoned mines and quarries. Since 1994 an assessment and remediation scheme has been implemented across the Welsh commons and severed mineral ownership areas. In that time, nearly 300 mine entries or workings and 90 quarries have been treated at a cost in excess of £300,000.