Woodhouse Colliery

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Woodhouse Colliery is a proposed coal mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Woodhouse Colliery	Whitehaven, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom	54.5254903, -3.597136 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Project Type	Opening Year	Closing Year
Proposed	Permitted	New	2025 (planned)	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
2.78	–	–	Underground	Longwall	0.23	350	*

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
–	–	216	–	Bituminous	Met	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
West Cumbria Mining	West Cumbria Mining	UK

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the GEM April 2024 Global Coal Mine Tracker dataset.

Background

The Woodhouse Colliery is a newly-approved underground coking coal mine off the coast of Whitehaven, Cumbria, England. It is also known as the "Cumbrian Metallurgical Coal Project." 

In December 2022, the British Government granted the mine planning permission, making it the first deep coal mine approved in the UK in 30 years (the last being Asfordby pit in 1986).

There are currently two legal challenges against the planning approval decision. These are expected to be heard by the High Court in early 2024. Until this final judgement is made, West Cumbria says they are continuing "to progress the pre-start work required, including design, planning, equipment procurement and associated desk-based work." Since 2014, West Cumbria Mining has been developing plans to mine at Woodhouse. The onshore part of the proposal planning permission was unanimously granted (subject to 99 planning conditions) on 19 March 2019 by the Development Control Committee of Cumbria County Council. This decision was subsequently ratified again (a second unanimous vote) on 31st October 2019.

Coal production is expected to commence around 18-months after the start of construction.

The mine has planning approval to operate until 2049 and will support the supply of a critical ra exported to European steel and industrial plants via the Port of of Redcar. Some will be consumed in the UK in steel plants at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot.

• Sponsor:
• Parent Company: West Cumbria Mining
• Location: Whitehaven, West Cumbria, England.
• GPS Coordinates: 54.5254903, -3.597136 (exact)
• Status: Development
• Production Capacity: 3.1 million tonnes per annum
• Total Resource:
• Mineable Reserves:
• Coal type: Coking coal
• Mine Size: 302 hectares
• Mine Type: Underground
• Start Year: 2023
• Source of Financing: £14.7m in private equity financing from EMR Capital Resources Fund 1, a mining-focused private equity fund based in Australia

Opposition

In March 2019, South Lakes Action on Climate Change, and other groups, asked the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to 'Call In' the decision and remake it himself. He refused. Subsequently, the group is trying to raise funds to launch a Judicial Review into the decision.

In January 2021, UK government minister Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, further announced that the planning decision should remain "at a local level wherever possible". Campaigners have said the lack of intervention by the UK government to override the local decision directly contradicts the government’s pledge to show 'climate leadership' ahead of hosting the UN’s climate summit talks in Glasgow in November 2020, and are now assessing options for further legal action.

There is concern about the carbon emissions from the mine, impact on local wildlife and the close proximity to Sellafield nuclear power station.

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.