Following plans in 2011 to restart mining at South Crofty,[1] and to build a supermarket at Hayle Harbour,[2] the World Heritage Committee drafted a decision in 2014 to put the site on the List of World Heritage in Danger, but this was rejected at the 38th Committee Session at Doha, Qatar (July 2014), in favour of a follow-up Reactive Monitoring Mission.

The underground mines, engine houses, foundries, new towns, smallholdings, ports, harbours, and ancillary industries together reflect prolific innovation which, in the early 19th century, enabled the region to produce two-thirds of the world's supply of copper.

During the late 19th century, arsenic production came into ascendancy with mines in the east of Cornwall and West Devon supplying half the world's demand.

Today numerous migrant-descended Cornish communities flourish around the world and distinctive Cornish-design engine houses can be seen in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, the British Virgin Islands, Spain, and in the mining fields of other parts of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man.

The World Heritage Site comprises discrete but thematically linked areas spanning Cornwall and West Devon.