Anglo American scales-up its Woodsmith mine ambitions

PROJECT UPDATE

Anglo American scales-up its Woodsmith mine ambitions

Anglo American recently unveiled the long-awaited strategy update for its large-scale Woodsmith mine project in the UK. Initial production of the company’s POLY4 polyhalite fertilizer is now scheduled to begin in 2027. The mine’s ultimate annual output has also been increased to 13 million tonnes.

The under-construction Woodsmith polyhalite mine in the UK.

PHOTO: ANGLO AMERICAN

Mining major Anglo American is currently developing the UK-based Woodsmith mine project This will access the world’s largest known deposit of polyhalite, a natural mineral fertilizer containing potassium, sulphur, magnesium and calcium – four of the six major and minor nutrients that every plant needs to grow.

The under-construction Woodsmith mine is located around five kilometres south of Whitby, a small fishing port in North Yorkshire on England’s North Sea coast. Anglo American gained control of the project in March 2020 through the cash purchase of Sirius Minerals for $496 million (£405 million) (Fertilizer International 495, p10).

Woodsmith will extract polyhalite from the deeply buried underground ore deposit – containing 290 million tonnes of permitted reserves – via two 1.6-kilometredeep shafts (Figure 1). Unusually, the ore extracted at the mine will then be transported to the port of Teesside through a 37-kilometre-long underground tunnel on a conveyor belt system. This mineral transport system (MTS) is designed to minimise the project’s surface environmental impact.

On arrival at Teesside, polyhalite ore will be granulated at a materials handling facility at Wilton to produce a premium-quality, low-carbon fertilizer certified for organic use. This product, known as POLY4, will be exported from Redcar Bulk Terminal, the company’s dedicated port facility.

Strategy update – investment, capacity and timescale

Anglo American now looks set to invest in the region of $4 billion to complete the Woodsmith project. The latest investment plans were unveiled as part of a strategy update for the large-scale polyhalite mine released on 23rd February.

Anglo has also increased project capacity by revising upwards the mine’s ultimate output. It now expects initial production of POLY4 fertilizer to begin in around four years, with production then ramping-up over time as the market for polyhalite develops.

“As noted in a number of market updates throughout 2022, we are enhancing the project’s configuration – including the capacity of the shafts and other infrastructure to accommodate higher production volumes and more efficient and scalable mining methods over time – to ensure we deliver maximum commercial returns from Wood-smith over the expected multi-decade asset life,” Anglo American said. “These project team proposals, endorsed by the Board at the end of the year, indicate an extension of the development schedule and the capital budget, compared to what was previously anticipated.”

In light of these changes, Anglo American now expect to bring POLY4 to market in 2027, with an annual capital investment of around $1.0 billion. The company is also proposing to increase Woodsmith’s design capacity to around 13 million tonnes per annum – up from 10 million t/a previously – subject to further studies and approval.

Anglo American has already approved $0.8 billion of investment for the Wood-smith mine project in 2023, with most of this expenditure going to shaft sinking and tunnel boring activities. This comes on top of $522 million of capital expenditure in 2022 and nearly £390 million in 2021 (Fertilizer International 508, p62).

Investment and construction activities – and the announced strategic changes to these – are being directed at core project infrastructure (Figure 1), in particular:

• The mine’s two 1.6-kilometre-deep shafts that sink down to the mechanised underground polyhalite mining operation
• The 37-kilometre-long underground mineral transport tunnel (MTS) needed to carry material from the mine to the materials handling facility (granulation plant) at Wilton on Teesside
• Three smaller intermediate access shafts to the MTS needed for maintenance and ventilation.

Delivering these project elements are part of the mine’s critical path to production. The additional project activities on Teesside – the construction of the materials handling facility at Wilton and the Redcar Bulk Terminal – although not on the critical path, are also part of Woodsmith’s core infrastructure.