West Cumbria Mining has said it is delighted with the decision on December 7, 2022 of the UK Secretary of State for for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities , Michael Gove, to formally approve the Woodhouse Colliery planning application. It states: “The decision of the Secretary of State, which is supported by the Planning Inspector following on from last year’s planning inquiry, means the project can now move forwards to deliver the world’s first net zero mine supplying the critical steel industry with a high-quality metallurgical coal product.”
It added: “We look forward to taking the project to the next stage of delivery and jobs creation and thank all of those in West Cumbria and across Britain who have supported the project throughout.” Once the Woodhouse Colliery moves into the operational phase, the company plans to extract and process around 2.7 Mt/y of metallurgical coal from the operation, focused on supplying UK and international steelmaking plants. It will employ over 500 people and will operate for 50 years.
Run-out and pocket extraction will be the chosen mining method at Woodhouse, which is located near Whitehaven, as this is a proven, highly versatile coal mining method that takes advantage of advancements in mining technology to mitigate risks associated with the Cumbrian coalfields, the company says.
The technique includes the use of bolter miners to develop the gate roads for the panel, with a bolter miner then driving a run-out roadway. A continuous miner subsequently cuts chevron cut pockets into the pillars, while the roof is supported. Shuttle cars continuously move coal from the respective continuous miners to the feeder breaker and, once coal has passed through the feeder breaker, it falls onto a underground conveyor belt to be taken to surface. Woodhouse colliery’s operations will reach a maximum depth of around 550 m via existing drift tunnels associated with the former Sandwith anhydrite mine.
Once processed, the coal at Woodhouse will be transported to the railway loading facility (RLF) in the Pow Beck Valley, near Mirehouse, via an underground conveyor buried in a concrete box culvert, which will mitigate any visual, noise or dust issues between the mine site and RLF, in recognition of the sensitivity of the area.
The news represents something of a renaissance for British underground coal mining; after many saw the closure of UK Coal’s Kellingley in North Yorkshire, almost exactly seven years ago on December 18, 2015, at the time the last of the UK’s deep coal mines, as the end of the road. But in fact, Woodhouse will not be the only UK coal mine operating – Energybuild operates the Aberpergwm drift mine in Wales, producing high grade anthracite from the 9 ft seam.
It is now part of Northern Ireland headquartered LCC Group, and supplies specialty markets including filter media and carbon electrodes. It also has 25 year life of mine planning permission to extract up to 2 Mt/y so has a secure future. It has 160 employees and 22 apprentices so is a major contributor to the local economy. It operates a Komatsu Joy 12CM15 continuous miner, two Joy 10SC32 shuttle cars, a feeder breaker and four quad bolters. It also has Joy 12CM18 and 12CM12 continuous miners under refurbishment along with four 10SC32 shuttle cars and two feeder breakers.
