Owner of Woodsmith mine in North Yorkshire reports $9.8bn in earnings for 2020

The owner of the Woodsmith Project on the North Yorkshire coast saw profit attributable to equity shareholders of $2.1bn of the same period.

Last year, Anglo American successfully bid for Scarborough-based Sirius Minerals, which is aiming to mine polyhalite, for use in the production of fertiliser, from its site at Sneaton, near Whitby.

The global mining giant said integration activities have progressed well and the development of the project continues, with total capital expenditure of $292m incurred by Anglo American during 2020.

By the end of December, the excavation of the conveyor tunnel had reached almost 12km and continues to progress well, Anglo American added.

The first shaft-boring machine has been assembled within the service shaft and is being commissioned at the mine head. While the firm said it had made good progress on the production shaft.

The impact of Covid-19 on the project's development has been limited to date with Anglo American implementing appropriate health measures.

The mining project aims to extract polyhalite from a mile below the North York Moors to use as fertiliser.

Speaking of the results, Mark Cutifani, chief executive of Anglo American, said: "In 2020 we saw much of the world tested to its limits by Covid-19.

"I am immensely proud of how our team of more than 95,000 people across Anglo American pulled together to do what's right for each other, for our many stakeholders across society and the business. We showed considerable speed and agility to help keep people and communities safe while supporting business continuity.

"Making sure every employee returns home safely at the end of each day drives our thinking and behaviours and it is with this mindset that we achieved our best ever safety performance.

"However, it remains our most pressing challenge that we still experience serious and fatal safety incidents.

"In 2020, and after eight fatality-free months at our managed operations, two people lost their lives at work, one in each of our PGMs and thermal coal businesses.

"While we have made such progress, we can never say we have had a good year unless we have zero fatal incidents."

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