Three hundred jobs are to be lost in mid-Cornwall and west Devon at the china clay firm Imerys.

The firm is transferring some production to Brazil.

Ivor Bowbitch, of Imerys, said it was not the start of a mass transfer of jobs to South America.

But the firm needed to make profits.

'Good future'

"We were losing money on certain grades we were producing here and we will be transferring some of the production to our operation in Brazil.

"Cornwall and Devon still have a very good future, we have clays here that have unique characteristics.

"We have already invested �10m in to the Cornish operation this year.

"We firmly believe in the people of Cornwall, but we must make profits good where they have been poor in the past," he said.

'Pretty special'

The Eden Project near St Austell, Cornwall, has announced it is to take on an extra 200 staff.

They will work in a new dome being built alongside the existing tropical rainforest attractions.

The centre had been expected to attract 750,000 people in its first year, but double that number have visited the project in the first six months.

The third greenhouse will recreate the desert climate of Arizona in the United States at the cost of �20m.

Paul Travers of the Eden Project said: "I was lucky enough to be here where there were just five of us and the feeling to know in a few weeks that there will be nearly 600 is pretty special."