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	–	–	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 [100%]	UK

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

Background

The Woodhouse Colliery (also known as "Whitehaven Mine" and the "Cumbrian Metallurgical Coal Project") is an approved underground coking coal mine off the coast of Whitehaven, Cumbria, England.

West Cumbria Mining has been developing plans to mine at Woodhouse since 2014. 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.

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).

This historic approval triggered a flurry of legal challenges which continue to stall any construction progress. In September 2024, the environmental groups South Lakes Action on Climate Change and Friends of the Earth won a case against the project, which returned the decision back to the UK government. Subsequently, the High Court overturned the mine's 2022 approval. West Cumbria did not appeal the decision by the allotted October 2024 deadline, however, it is unknown if they'll withdraw the project's application altogether.

Should the mine eventually open, it has approval to operate until 2049 and would support the supply of a critical rail exported to European steel and industrial plants via the Port of Redcar. Some of its coal would be consumed in the UK in steel plants at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot.

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.