Tin mine reopens for heat pumps

Cornwall's largest redundant tin mine is to be reopened as a base for a heat pump manufacturer.

Mount Wellington mine near Bissoe has been bought by Kensa Engineering which designs and builds environmentally friendly heat pumps.

The Cornish company will move from its current base at Mabe by the autumn.

Managing director Richard Freeborn said the company was confident it would increase staff ten-fold within the next five years.

"At the moment we're on a one-acre site and we're really starting to struggle," he told BBC News.

"This site is 20 acres, although we'll only ever use part of it, but the great thing is there's room for us to expand.

"And instead of making a few hundred heat pumps a year, we could be making 10,000 or 20,000 heat pumps a year. It gives us lots of room for further growth."