Baseresult says it has spent £5m preparing the mine

Baseresult Holdings Limited bought the disused site in 2001 with the intention of restoring it and creating 400 jobs.

On Thursday, the company sent out thousands of leaflets to homes in Camborne to encourage support.

Cornwall County Council has denied it is purposefully delaying a decision and said it was waiting to receive some important information from Baseresult.

Grinding mills

Kevin Williams, Baseresult's managing director, said it was time for action to be taken.

He told BBC News: "We've owned the mine for about five years now and spent £5m getting it up and running, but we've had problems with the regulatory bodies."

But the county council said Baseresult had been given several time extensions to submit a detailed plan which it was required to do under the Environment Act 1995.

It expects the company to submit a full report within the next few weeks - and said the matter would then be dealt with at the meeting of the planning committee in September.