Name of the Project
Woodsmith polyhalite project.

Location
North Yorkshire coast, south of Whitby in England, in the UK.

Project Owner/s
Global mining company Anglo American.

Project Description
Woodsmith is a large-scale, long-life Tier 1 asset that is being developed to access the world’s largest-known deposit of polyhalite – a natural mineral fertiliser product containing potassium, sulphur, magnesium and calcium, which every plant needs.

Polyhalite ore will be extracted through a 1.6-km-deep mine shaft and transported to Teesside by an underground conveyor belt in a 37 km mineral transport system tunnel, thereby minimising any environmental impact on the surface. 

It will be granulated at a materials handling facility to produce a comparatively low-carbon fertiliser – known as POLY4 – that will then be exported from the port facility to a network of customers worldwide.

The project will have a final design capacity of 13-million tonnes a year.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
Anglo American announced in May 2024 that it will reduce capital investment from $200-million in 2025 to no capital expenditure in 2026, to support balance sheet deleveraging.

Planned Start/End Date
Project ramp-up is expected from 2027.

Latest Developments
Anglo announced in May 2024 that, to support the deleveraging of its balance sheet, it would slow the pace of the project’s development in the near term.

The company’s current focus is on preserving the exceptional long-term value of this high-quality asset and the commercial opportunity it offers to support the project’s full development.

Following the decision to slow development, a detailed review was conducted to identify critical value-adding work and key activities to be undertaken during this period. The review aimed to derisk the overall project schedule, preserve progress in areas entering care and maintenance, and further optimise certain project scopes to ensure readiness for ramp-up when conditions allow.

Shaft sinking activities are continuing on the service shaft, progressing through the key Sherwood sandstone strata – a water-bearing layer of hard rock. Advancing through this formation will help derisk the overall project schedule.

The service shaft has now reached a depth of 804 m, having intersected more than 10 m of sandstone strata. Shaft excavation will continue through this layer throughout 2025.

Meanwhile, sinking activities on the production shaft were paused in June 2024 at a depth of 712 m, representing about 45% of the shaft’s final depth. By December 2024, the tunnel had reached the final intermediate shaft at Ladycross, where there was a planned maintenance stop for tunnel boring machine. During this period, the tunnel and Ladycross shaft were successfully connected. Tunnel boring activities have since continued at a significantly reduced pace, which will continue in 2025. The tunnel has now reached about 29.3 km of its total 37 km length.

Value-preservation work during the slowdown includes maintaining key permits, preserving land rights to allow for future project ramp-up, and executing a study programme focused on enhancing the project’s configuration. This includes optimising scalable mining methods and additional infrastructure.

The study programme’s rescoping takes into account the revised capital schedule and development plan. Crucially, it enables Anglo to review project and business development opportunities, refining its business plans before ramping up again when conditions are favourable.

The project’s expected final design capacity remains at about 13-million tonnes a year, subject to ongoing studies and approval.

Work is also continuing to identify and secure one or more strategic syndication partners for Woodsmith ahead of board approval and subsequent project ramp-up.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Anglo American group head of corporate affairs James Wyatt-Tilby, tel +44 20 7968 8759 or email james.wyatt-tilby@angloamerican.com.