The firm hoping to return coal-mining to Whitehaven with the creation of more than 500 jobs is inviting the public to view its latest plans this weekend.

West Cumbria Mining (WCM) will have staff available to answer questions about employment, construction and the planning application that is set to be lodged in the coming months.

Those with specialisms in geology, mine design and the environment will also be on hand to address queries at the event tomorrow and Saturday between 10am and 4pm at Haig Museum, Kells.

Helen Davies, WCM's communications manager, said: "These events will be our fifth full open weekend, alongside a significant programme of other public engagement.

"The team always looks forward to seeing the hundreds of people who come for an update.

"Whilst the planning process makes no requirement for us to undertake consultation with the public, these events have given us fantastic opportunities for face-to-face discussion with people who live in the area and we like to think people have appreciated this as much as we have."

Pending the planning go-ahead from Cumbria County Council and other approvals, construction would start in early 2018 and the operation to extract coking coal would begin in early 2019.

The site is adjacent to Haig Colliery, from which coking coal was extracted between 1914 and 1986.

The new coal – totalling more than two million tonnes a year – would be extracted from under the sea four miles off the coast of St Bees and transported to the surface using an underground conveyor belt.

It would then be treated at a dome-covered processing plant using around a third of the former Marchon site, before being transferred to a train loading facility on a siding built by WCM south of the new Mirehouse train station proposed by NuGen, the firm behind the proposed new nuclear power station at Moorside, on land next to Sellafield.

WCM anticipates creating 510 jobs, including 50 apprenticeships, and workers would be employed in three shifts.

The firm has pledged publicly that at least 80 per cent of the jobs will go to local people.

During its previous open weekends, WCM says it has received feedback on a "wide variety of topics, including building design, railway use, parking and communications, and this has all been read and taken on board, resulting in changes to aspects of the design and process."

Responding to some concern at the last open weekend about the volume of traffic bound for the plant, Ms Davies said that materials will be stored offsite – possibly in the former Alcan site at Lillyhall – and transported to the plant in smaller batches in no more than four lorries per day.