The redevelopment of the iconic tin mine at South Crofty could create up to 1,000 jobs for the local community - with minimal impact on the surrounding area.

Richard Williams, CEO of Strongbow Exploration, said that development of the disused mine would immediately create over 100 jobs, and a further 275 would be made once the mine was operational.

Furthermore, for every permanent job created at the site another two to three indirect jobs would be created to support the mine, equalling a total of around 1,000 new jobs.

Despite this Richard believes that the South Crofty Tin Project will have a minimal impact on the local community, with just one truck leaving the site per day.

The tin mine at South Crofty, in Pool, is an iconic site and was in full-scale production for over 400 years, with evidence of mining at the site dating back to 1592.

The mine went into serious decline after 1985, after China flooded the market with cheap tin, and the site finally closed in 1998.

Despite several proposed developments the future of the site was uncertain, until Strongbow Exploration snapped it up in March 2016.

Richard said that the prospect of reopening the mine became attractive following a change in the market for the material.

Although tin was a common metal in the 80s and 90s, supply's have now dropped and demand is beginning to rise, as tin is now commonly used in technology projects.

It is used as a lead-free solder in devices such as iPhones and iPads, and is an active ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, making them stronger and increasing the life of the battery.

But despite the promising future of the project the new owners still have a long way to go before they can begin extracting tin from the mine, and must first tackle the issue of de-watering the mine.

Richard Williams, 50, said: "The mine is flooded and we have to treat the water before we can remove it.

"At the minute several thousand cubic metres of untreated water is escaping from disused mines throughout Cornwall per day.

"What we're proposing to do is beneficial to the environment as we will treat the water, removing all the metals, before we pump it out.

"It's going to take between 18 months and two years to de-water the mine, but during that time we will be rehabilitating the shafts, and there will be 100 jobs created during this process.

"We're looking at nearly 300 permanent jobs when the mine is up and running.

"There have been a number of studies that show two to three positions are created indirectly for each permanent job made, so we could be looking at up to 1,000 jobs being created.

"We didn't want to embark on a major project until the local community was behind it, and we had our first community meeting last summer where we received overwhelming support for what we want to do.

"Because its an underground operation it will have a minimal impact on the local community, we calculated that we will have just one truck leaving the site per day, other than that the only traffic will be people coming to and from work."