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Full Development of Whitby's Woodsmith Mine Could Restart in 2027

Tuesday, 25 February 2025 06:00

By Matthew Pells

Anglo American says work on the site is continuing as more sales contracts are signed.

Anglo American's Chief Executive, Duncan Wanblad, has stated that full development at the Woodsmith Mine is unlikely to resume before 2027. 

The project near Whitby has been slowed down to allow for restructuring of the parent company.

Speaking at an event about the companies 2024 performance Duncan Wanblad said there are three conditions need to be satisfied before full development can be resumed.

Wanblad says it's unlikely that all three condition will be met before 2027, but he said work is continuing at the site as they gather more data to better understand the level of investment that will be required to sink the main shaft.

The service shaft is now at a depth of 804 metres, having intersected over 10 metres of the sandstone strata. Shaft excavation will progress through the sandstone strata for the duration of 2025.

The Chief Exec says that the company continues to see "huge potential" in the value of Woodsmith and says market development activities are showing promising results, with a new sales contract in Europe and MoUs in China.

Anglo American is developing Woodsmith to access the world’s largest known deposit of polyhalite, a natural mineral fertiliser containing potassium, sulphur, magnesium and calcium. Once fully operational, polyhalite ore will be extracted via two 1.6 km deep mine shafts and transported to Teesside via an underground conveyor belt. The company expects the final design capacity to remain around 13 million tonnes per annum.

In May 2024, Anglo American announced it would be slowing the pace of development of the Woodsmith project in the near-term to support a wider financial restructuring of the company.

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