The unique geology, history, and location of the UK have contributed to thousands of years of mining and centuries of intense industrial activity. This legacy, combined with projected climate hazards, poses risks to properties now and into the future. At Groundsure, we specialise in interpreting the past, assessing the present, and modelling future risk to help our clients make smarter, more sustainable decisions about land and property. We take pride in delivering market-leading property reports and services, assessing mining risk, land contamination, flooding, ground stability, climate risk, and more.
For over 40 years, we’ve been providing essential mining-related services, including risk assessments for properties and planned developments in mining areas. This is especially valuable for homebuyers, developers, and local businesses who need to know how past mining could affect their land or property. As time went on, we expanded what we do and started using new, innovative advanced technologies to improve our range of environmental searches. This means we can provide a complete package of property risk assessments all in one place.
One thing that’s always been key to our success is our hands-on approach to consultancy and our people. We offer tailored advice to clients, especially in places like Cornwall, where local knowledge really matters. This helps ensure our advice is practical, specific, and focused on the unique characteristics of the area. Whether it’s dealing with mining history, environmental hazards, or other property concerns, we make sure our clients get the insights they need to make confident decisions.
We’re proud of our team in Cornwall and their deep local expertise. They combine historical mining data with the latest geological insights to give clients reliable, detailed reports and advice. It’s this blend of local knowledge and cutting-edge tools that allows us to provide the most accurate, region-specific support for property development and land management.
We recently caught up with some of our Cornish team to learn about what they do day-to-day.
What’s a typical day like for you, and what are your key responsibilities?
Busy. I manage the mining searches team who produce mining risk reports for Cornwall, Devon and the rest of the UK. There are seven of us consultants within the team with each report benefitting from our expert interpretation.
Ian Curnow – Mining Searches Manager
As a newbie to the Mining Searches team, my typical day can vary with putting training into action or dipping our toes into networking events such as hot mapping. Day to day the focus is on developing our knowledge as mining search writers, taking each search as it comes, some with no mining risks and others having extensive underground workings or subsidence. My responsibilities are ensuring that each search I write is done accurately and efficiently, reporting any mining risks that could affect the property and adding on any mining features that haven’t yet been recorded by other sources.
Cara Deacon – Graduate Mining Risk Consultant
As Environment and Geology Manager, I assist clients, property buyers/sellers, developers, in making informed decisions when purchasing or developing land in mining-affected areas. My role involves assessing ground stability risks, reviewing geological and environmental data, and overseeing site investigations. I work closely with my team to ensure our assessments provide clear recommendations, liaising with stakeholders such as Local Authorities and regulators to align findings with planning and regulatory requirements.
Aaron Moyle – Environment and Geology Manager
What are the most common questions about mining in Cornwall?
Whenever I chat about my job, people always ask if I’m digging up lithium in Cornwall. As exciting as that sounds, my role is a bit less manual—I focus on historic mining risks rather than striking it rich with a pickaxe myself.
Jack Marchi – Mining Search Writer
Isn’t the whole of Cornwall riddled? The simple answer, thanks to our massive archive and forty years of site investigation work, is no. We are able to ‘pass’ many of the prospective dream home purchases that we report upon.
Ian Curnow
What factors do you prioritise when preparing reports?
Accuracy and attention to detail always comes first. Check twice, send once.
Thomas Sharp – Deputy Mining Searches Manager
We prioritise clarity, simplicity, and actionable results. We avoid jargon and technical language, ensuring findings are easy to understand for all readers. Our focus is on providing clear conclusions and practical recommendations, so clients can confidently make informed decisions about their property or project.
Aaron Moyle
Can you share a memorable or challenging project and how you handled it?
We’re currently wrapping up a year-long project focused on consolidating, cleaning, and updating historic mining data in our reports. Updating records that can be over 200 years old to meet our modern, stringent data standards can be complex, but through collaboration with colleagues from multiple teams, we not only successfully completed the project but also gained valuable insights along the way.
Jack Marchi
Daily, due to the nature of the surviving records, we encounter challenging assessments. This is why I have enjoyed my job for so long. We have a great team of individuals all with varied qualifications and experience. That wide ranging knowledge ensures we provide the fairest and most accurate of risk assessments.
Ian Curnow
What’s your favourite thing about working in Cornwall
The opportunity to work for an industry-leading innovator in the environmental and climate sector during the weekdays, while being able to enjoy the County’s sun-kissed beaches and picturesque coastal walks on weekends.
Rory Teale – Graduate Mining Risk Consultant
How do you communicate complex findings to different stakeholders?
focus on being personal, transparent, and approachable, ensuring people feel comfortable asking questions. Most of the time, people aren’t experts in environmental or mining topics, so I break down complex findings into clear, relatable terms. The goal is to make sure everyone has a solid understanding and feels confident moving forward, no matter how complex the subject matter might be.
Tom Harvey-James – Lead Technical Support Specialist
I understand that discovering your property may be affected by historic mining can be stressful and confusing. That’s why I take a patient approach with customers, breaking down their report results into a clear and simple process, helping them feel confident in their next steps. With a background in archaeology, I have extensive experience handling complex findings and working with a diverse range of stakeholders—skills I strive to apply in my role at Groundsure.
Jack Marchi
Empathy. We understand the importance and impact of some of our findings. Importantly, we always find solutions for those seeking to mitigate the risks in buying their dream homes
Ian Curnow
What tools or tech do you rely on, and how do they improve your work?
The geology team relies on a range of specialised tools and technology. This includes essential equipment like a geological hammer and tape measure, a staple for every site visit, to new survey equipment that allows us to accurately map boreholes, trenches, and trial pits. Our latest innovation Groundsure Explorer also allows us to access key historical mapping & geological data on the go, from our phones, laptops and ToughPads at the click of a button.
Aaron Moyle
All of our data is viewed through our geographical information system. As I’m much older than most of my colleagues, it still amazes me that we can zoom around the whole of the UK to view this data in seconds. Though, rather romantically, I miss viewing the original mapping and fitting them manually our service to the customer is unrivalled as a result.
Ian Curnow
Our work is highly multidisciplinary, requiring the use of various technologies. I primarily use the GIS software QGIS, but over the past year and a half, my role has evolved to include PostgreSQL. While QGIS excels at visualising data, I find PostgreSQL more efficient for analysing large-scale historic mining data from across the country.
Jack Marchi
We have a big archive of information including maps, mine plans, geology plans, books, aerial photographs and our previous site investigations.
Matthew Blewett – Senior Data Analyst
For more information on how we approach mining and environmental risk analysis feel free to reach out to info@groundsure.com or check out some of the resources available on our website www.groundsure.com, our new information platform Knowledge Base at knowledge.groundsure.com and not forgetting our industry podcast GroundTalk – The Groundsure Podcast, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Podbean
https://groundtalk.podbean.com
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/groundtalk-the-groundsure-podcast/id1742503804
https://open.spotify.com/show/0o9oawjCVqoPMhf6N1UhkR?si=64f2893310474b25