Inside Cornwall's new oasis that's entirely manmade

Now, what could previously be seen from miles around is fading under new verdant greens as the old China clay spoil heaps are being reclaimed by nature. But, like the mines themselves, it's entirely manmade. Where barren white clay once formed new hills and plateaux, trees in their hundreds of thousands, wildflowers and grasses are being encouraged back at great expense so in 100 years' time no-one will ever remember the area ever being mined for kaolin.

The area around St Austell may have been mined for China clay for the last 250 years, shaping and changing the landscaping with it, but now it's all about landscape regeneration and rewilding. "This is no greenwashing," insists Wes Pascoe, the estate manager for China clay mining company Imerys as he drives us around from the Clay Country to show us how the French-owned global company is transforming the landscape to something better than what was there before the Industrial Revolution.

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"We've been at it for 40 years," he added. "This is a long term commitment. It's part of Imerys' global strategy in all the countries where we're based to return the environment to what it was before mining. We want future generations not to realise there was mining here."

The mineral company believes its commitment to nature recovery goes way beyond any environmental feelgood stuff others might do to boost their green credentials. It is investing hard cash into making sure the land it extracts its wealth from goes back to nature once the minerals are out of the ground.

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As part of its commitment to greening up the white landscape of the Clay Country, Imerys has been recreating woodlands, healthlands and grasslands and already wildlife is returning. "If you have grassland, you have insects, then you have birds. Complex ecosystems take off and it goes from there," Wes said as he reviewed a large tract of newly regenerated grassland at Scarcewater Tip. "You don't have to be too complex to help nature really."

At Scarcewater alone, more than 30 species of birds have been counted while 80 species of wildflowers from cornflowers and poppies, chamomile, corncockle, marigold and buttercups as well various varieties of heather, have been sown and dozens of native species of trees have been planted. Oaks, beeches, willows, elders, hollies, blackthorns and ash trees now grow in a new woodland down the valley leading to the new grassland area where nothing lived a few years ago. Driving through the woodland you would not know it's all manmade and each individual thriving tree you see was planted.

"It's not just about restoration," Wes said. "It's about management too. We'll have to go back in there and thin it out a bit so the trees bulk out rather than grow tall. We'll leave the coppiced wood into log piles on the woodland floor. It's good for insects. We're also trying to get on top of the rhododendrons. They may look nice for a few weeks of the year when they're in bloom, but they're an invasive species that doesn't do much for wildlife. They're a real pain to get rid off."

Imerys is one of Cornwall's largest landowners with a freehold of about 4,200 hectares (10,300 acres) in the county stretching from Fowey to Indian Queens and another 800 hectares (1,970 acres) at Lee Moor near Plymouth. Until the mining disaster at Aberfan in Wales in October 1966 in which 28 adults and 116 children died, all spoil heaps from clay mining had that classic conical shape embodied in Cornwall's most famous one of all - the Sky Tip.

In the eighties and nineties spoil heaps became the large step pyramids or plateaux you can see while driving down the A30 or A390, but land management changed again in the naughties and shifted towards increased environmental regeneration, backfilled tips and rounded hills and greater managed landscapes.

There are still 14 classic spoil heaps on Imerys land and it is likely that over time, a majority of them will be flattened and redesigned to better blend in with the landscape.

"Years ago we wanted to flatten the Sky Tip," Wes said. "But the community wanted to keep it as it is part of the mining history and heritage of the area, so we didn't and now it's protected.

"We don't lament not having the Cornish Alps gleaming white that you can see from miles anymore. There might be some nostalgia from some people about it, but the new generation is a lot more environmentally conscious. Now when you drive down the A30 or the A390, you're still at a spitting distance to an active mining area but because it's all green you'd have no idea of the impact mining has had on the environment. You'd need a keen eye to know that there still a huge mining operation going on."

Imerys still operates nine open cast kaolin quarries, three refineries, four drying plants, another secondary plant, as well as engineering, warehousing and lab facilities. It has its own train track and tunnel from Par docks to Fowey and even its own deep water port and boats to ship out the previous China clay to customers around the world.

Already it has restored more than 900 hectares of heathland making it one of the biggest heathland restoration projects in England and maintains more than 40km (25 miles) of permissive pathways with more to come so people can enjoy the reclaimed nature trails on foot, bikes or even on horseback.

In areas such as Scarcewater, Imerys is using a technique called hydroseeding which involves spraying a liquid solution of compost and and grass and flower seeds mix onto the barren clay spoils. Once it takes hold the regenerated grassland is left to grow and reseed itself before it is let out to tenanted farmers and their cattle or sheep.

Once Imerys breaks the granite, it extracts the clay, then sells the aggregate to the construction industry where it is used in infrastructure projects such as the new £330m A30 dualling or the A30 link road near St Austell. The mica that is left is dumped behind mica dams where it will solidify over time. Not too good as a soil, such areas are used for solar farms and wind turbines instead which help power Imerys operations.

Kernick Dam is one such area where a solar farm now stands. It also a fantastic view point over the mine below and the contrasting colours and landscape contours below. There are the plateaux and white slopes of the current mine, conical spoil heaps where nature has tried its best to reclaim the slopes by itself while the lush greens of new woodlands and grasslands at Scarecewater and Melbur mine form a strong contrast on the side and beyond.

Rewilding costs more than £500,000 a year which the commercial operations pays for (there is an estimated nine million tonnes worth of kaolin still to be mined in the area) but it is also something the company and its staff take great pride in and not just pay lip service to.

In places like Dubbers pit, Imerys is recreating a layer of topsoil by mixing recycled food waste from industrial anaerobic digesters at Avonmouth, cleaned sewage slurry from South West Water and clay mining sand from its own sites. Imerys will then put down a layer of this nutrient rich topsoil three feet deep and seed it with grass and flowers. Once the soil has stabilised (rooting grasses and plants help prevent water and soil runoffs), trees will be planted which Wes hopes will become a wildlife-friendly woodland.

Over the years Imerys has already planted between 1.5m and 2m trees, all British native species, along with miles of hedgerows. At Dubbers it is adding an extra 5,000 trees and with funding expected to be approved from Defra later this year, another 300,000 trees could be planted in the years to come - which would make it one of the biggest woodland restoration schemes in England.

"This year we're experimenting by not putting plastic guards on the trees," Sean Simpson, the waste recycling planning manager at Imerys, said as he surveyed the oak and willow twigs being pushed into the ground at Dubbers. "They cost a lot of money and they're not that environmentally friendly.

"We'll see if the deers cause any damage. They probably will to some extent but the trees are not being planted for timber so it doesn't matter if they grow a bit stunted and are not perfect."

Sean is a keen photographer and has snapped deers and other animals on site while his drone pictures show the before and after restoration work in stark colourful contrasts. Already red deer, roe deer, badgers, foxes, harvest mice, rabbits, toads and dozens of species of birds from buzzard to cuckoos, red kites and green woodpeckers, have been recorded here along with amphibians, dragonflies and a plethora of insects.

Through funding from the G7 Landscape Nature Recovery Project, which was announced by the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of Cornwall hosting the G7 Summit at Carbis Bay, Imerys has also been able to fund the restoration of 14 hectares of heathland at Carloggas Downs. Impenetrable gorse was cut down and now seeds and flowers buried beneath, such as heather and rare flowers, are able to grow and thrive, all kept in check through regenerative farming and conservation grazing.

The project run in collaboration with Cornwall Wildlife Trust also gives a young farmer and his native English longhorns and shorthorns cows the land he needs to get started while it has also helped to restore fencing and Cornish hedges and improved access for local dog walkers too.

It's not just the big scale environmental work that Imerys is involved in. Take Rocks drying plant for instance. Ollie Preston, a relief day captain and a budding beekeeper in his spare time, asked if he could put hives on a patch of scrubland at the back of the plant and now Imerys is going one step further by getting rid off the invasive gorse and seeding wildflowers and planting new field maples too. Field maples are known to take root quickly and help cool down areas where they are planted.

Up some unused track nearby, abandoned tanks have filled up with water. Left to their own devices they are now rich with pondweed, lillies and even water loving trees and are homes to dragonflies and other insects. Ollie is now hoping the dry tanks next to them will be broken through so they can fill up with water too and pondlife can enjoy an even greater space to thrive.

Meanwhile, new benches and tables will soon be installed near the meadow patch so staff enjoy the greenspace for their lunch which will be better for their mental health in the long run. Ollie returned to work not so long ago after an illness and for him, having the opportunity to set up hives and look after them has had huge benefits for his recovery and mental health.

"I'm an environmental person. I love animals and wildlife. It's something I had been toying with for a few years. Since I have been back I spoke to the manager and we got these two hives. The plan is to get two more in the coming months. You might not think so with the stack behind us but this is the perfect environment for bees.

"There is a farm just behind here where they're planting 50 acres of wildflowers as part of a Defra initiative. The stack is not a problem for bees and right now there are probably 30,000 bees in the hives.

"The vision is for Imerys to seed its own wildflower meadow here and plant trees. I think by this time next year it will look very different. It's about improving every little bit of nature we can and get people to think in another way about nature and the environment and the ways we can improve mental health."

Bee hives have also been installed at Treviscoe while a project involving Cornish honey bees, which are said to be adapted to the Cornish mizzle weather and changing temperatures is also underway at Penrose Tip while there are plans to introduce hives at Par, Carloggas and Scarcewater too.

While Wes insists all this is no mere greenwashing, as Devil's advocates we wonder if all this nature restoration work really makes any difference.

Sean summed it up nicely. "Without what we do, it'd take generations before nature reclaims the land when our enhanced restoration takes months. What we're doing is unique. I'm really proud of what are doing here and what we've already achieved. I come down here and I see inew incredible wildlife here every day. With what we're doing the Clay Country is the true wild heart of Cornwall."

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