enduring success?
profit made from the changes which
we are going through, I think morale would
have a great boost. Many people refer to
the good old days when Cornwall ran a
global company based in Cornwall, very
much like IMERYS is now. Profits were
big and everyone was optimistic. The past
fifteen years have seen the decline and
change. But Cornwall has been making clay
for hundreds of years, the Cornish people
will make it a success if a success can
be made.
colleagues today?
to be part of the minerals industry?
identity especially with its long running
industrial past. It is also a brilliant place
to live, with the scenery, beaches and
relaxed atmosphere. Of course, I would
recommend my children to live and work
for our industry.
arrival of IMERYS?
over ECC, the industry was in a state of
slow decline. Profits weren't anywhere as
good as fifteen years before and the
company was attempting to compete
with high brightness, fine clays especially
those from Brazil. We were, for some time
re-shaped as a chemical company when
our head office moved to Theale in Reading
near London. The changes and loss of
identity which resulted from this, I feel,
was not `our finest hour'. We were struggling.
investment, and, looking back we have
had a consistent approach to the business
that was to preserve the industry for the
long term rather than tear it apart. Yes, we
have had redundancies, but then again
ECC had already had several bouts of
redundancies before Imetal.
here. Without IMERYS we may well have
not survived.
IMERYS' new global structure, focusing
on filler from your mines, for example,
as opposed to coatings?
in Cornwall can't compete with clays from
Brazil. They can produce it a lot more easily
and cheaply than us. But, when it was
announced that 800 jobs were to go, with a
proportionate chunk of industry hardware
as well, it could have been taken as
betrayal. The new filler platform is simpler
and cheaper to produce from pit to port.
Littlejohns Pit will be producing a lower
head grade with less mobile plant; the
refining is also simpler, more efficient
and with significantly higher recoveries
than before; the new drying plant will
predominantly be using energy efficient
mechanical drying rather than thermal.
cheaper to run, particularly with the price
of energy at the moment. It has also
resulted in big investment in parts of the
industry rather than making do with what
we have got, keeping the emphasis on
newer, more efficient plant. I am a lot more
confident that Cornwall would benefit from
a long term profitable future.