Anglo American to invest £440m this year on Woodsmith polyhalite mine near Whitby which is expected to support thousands of jobs

The chief executive of Anglo American has provided an update on the progress of the Woodsmith Project, the polyhalite mine being developed on the North Yorkshire coast, as part of the

company’s annual results presentation to investors today.

Mark Cutifani revealed that the company invested nearly £390m in the project last year, with excavation of the mineral transport tunnel from Teesside passing the 18 km mark by the end of the year, beyond the intermediate access shaft site at Lockwood Beck.

The Lockwood Beck shaft is complete, having reached its target depth of 383 m, and shaft lining is currently under way. At the mine head itself, shaft boring has started in the services shaft, while progress is also being made on the production shaft infrastructure.

Mr Cutifani confirmed that the company is working on a number of changes to the design of the project to create an "enhanced configuration" and to ensure the project meets Anglo American’s safety and operating standards, as well as its commercial objectives, given the very long life of the mine.

“This is a world class fertiliser project and a business segment that we are even more positive about than when we acquired the project,” said Mr Cutifani. “This is a very long-life asset and a product for which we see increasing market interest as the commercial trials demonstrate its crop yield and numerous environmental qualities, so we are going to take the necessary time to get every aspect of the design right to match our long term vision and value aspirations.”

Investment in 2022 is expected to be around £440m as new project lead Tom McCulley, who took over as CEO of Anglo American’s Crop Nutrients business in January, further develops the detailed design engineering, with changes expected to the phasing of work, particularly at the Woodsmith mine site.

In 2020, Anglo American tabled a successful offer for Scarborough-based Sirius Minerals, which was behind the project to mine polyhalite, for use in the production of fertiliser, from its site at Sneaton, near Whitby.

In 2020, Mr Cutifani said he aimed to support thousands of job by pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the Woodsmith scheme.