The distillery will feature a rum cask maturation facility. Credit: Svetlana Gumerova on Unsplash.

Cornish Geothermal Distillery founder Matthew Clifford has reportedly submitted the plans to Cornwall Council for constructing carbon-neutral rum distillery and visitor centre.

As per the plans submitted to the council, Clifford is planning to build a rum cask maturation facility, visitor centre, cooperage and geothermal energy centre.

The distillery will be powered by geothermal energy, and will be built with an investment of £10m ($13m).

Clifford was quoted by various media sources as saying: “We’ve been working on our deep geothermal distillery project for the last two years and it is hugely exciting to finally share our plans for this initial ‘catalyst’ stage.

“We aim to combine our absolute passion for rum with much-needed investment and quality full-time jobs in this part of Cornwall, utilising local skills and businesses.

“We will be sharing our vision with the communities close to United Downs, so that they have the opportunity to give us their thoughts and impart local knowledge, which will be invaluable to this project.”

If approved, the new rum distillery will be equipped with Eden Project-style biome Clifford’s patent-pending carbon-neutral rum cask maturation pods.

The pods have the capacity to hold up to nearly 3,600 casks of rum for almost a decade and allow the spirits to mature.

The distillery project is also expected to create nearly 30 new employment opportunities in the region.

Clifford has also partnered with United Downs-based Geothermal Engineering and other local partners on the development.

The rum distillery will be powered by heat from Geothermal Engineering’s United Downs Deep Geothermal Power Project, which is said to be the UK’s first geothermal power project.