Cornwall’s china clay mining industry is playing a "big part" in the A30 Chiverton to Carland Cross upgrade, National Highways has said.
Contractors Costain Jacobs and supply chain Aggregate Industries are tapping into natural Cornish materials for the 8.7-mile duelling scheme. Larger infrastructure projects typically use millions of tonnes of aggregate – representing a large carbon footprint – but the A30 project is using a by-product from the china clay mining sector for construction.
The residue, known as stent, would normally have no use and be left in white spoil heaps. Instead, the material from the Littlejohns Pit near St Austell is being processed into sustainable secondary sand and aggregate for building work. According to National Highways, compared to the 5kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per tonne carbon emission of virgin aggregate, the locally imported material is around 2kg CO2e per tonne.
