EMR Capital backed operation to be UK’s first new deep coal mine since 1980s
Output from the UK’s first new deep coal mine since the 1980s, backed by Australian private equity, won’t be used for energy.
Britain first new deep coal mine since the 1980s has been granted planning permission.
The mine, which will be known as the Woodhouse colliery, is to be opened near the site of the old Haig colliery, which was closed in 1986, near Whitehaven on the northwest coast of England.
The £165 million ($310m) facility, which will mine seams stretching out under the Irish Sea, aims to create 550 jobs and produce more than three million tonnes of coking coal.
The coalmining industry in Britain was producing 128 million tonnes a year in 1981.
Coking coal is typically used by steelworks and reserves mined in Cumbria could be used at Britain’s blast furnaces in Port Talbot and Scunthorpe. Much of the coal is expected to be exported from Redcar on the east coast after being transported there by rail.
The operator, West Cumbria Mining, which is backed by Australian private equity firm EMR Capital, says the mine will create £2.5 billion worth of British exports in its first ten years. Having already secured the backing of the government through Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, Woodhouse was formally granted planning approval yesterday by Cumbria county council. The mine could be operational by 2021.
Mark Kirkbride, 48, West Cumbria Mining’s chief executive and a former mining engineer with Skanska, said: “(The facility) will bring significant local benefits and have a positive impact on the local community and economy.”
With the country weaning itself off a significant dependence on fossil fuels, West Cumbria Mining has insisted that its coal will not be used for energy purposes.
Greenpeace said the planning decision was “appalling” given that last week thousands of schoolchildren were demonstrating against climate change. “We are in a climate emergency and this decision smacks of terrible short-sightedness,” said John Sauven, the group’s executive director. “We cannot afford to burn more coal.”
EMR Capital last year won a $US2.5 billion bidding battle for Rio Tinto’s Kestrel coalmine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.
The Times
