Firm to invest £18m in china clay plant

Imerys has mined kaolin in the area for about 300 years

A mineral supplier in Cornwall has announced an investment in its dry mining process worth about £18m.

Imerys, which extracts china clay (kaolin) in the county, announced the investment after receiving a £2.1m grant from Cornwall Council through the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme.

Imerys said it would upgrade its clay processing facilities with a dry mining plant to be built in the Karslake area, near Roche. It said the upgrade would also help cut its electricity use in Cornwall by 10%.

Mark Hewson, who leads Imerys in the UK, said kaolin had been mined in the area for about 300 years and the investment in the industry would help "shore up jobs".

'Maintain economic support'

Mr Hewson said: "Through direct and indirect employment, we support around 3,500 jobs and in addition spend more than £40m every year in the local economy.

"This investment - which allows the significant update of our facilities - will help us to shore up those jobs and maintain that economic support for many years to come."

He said the project would also help its lithium project, which is located in an old china clay pit.

"The strength of our project is our ability to use our existing china clay assets to minimise the impact on the local area," Mr Hewson said.

The council said the investment would support "hundreds of jobs, improve energy efficiency by cutting electricity use by over seven gigawatts, and boost local and global competitiveness".