THEY’VE been drilling down to find coal at St Bees beach car park all week, part of the new West Cumbria Mining Company’s (WCM) investigations before it embarks on coal extraction.

“We have chosen to do it at this time to limit the impact on the tourist season,” said chief executive of WCM, Mark Kirkbride. His company’s aim is to be mining three million tons of coal a year from the undersea deposits off Whitehaven, by 2018.

The rig in the car park is the first of four exploratory boreholes in the St Bees area to check underground geology. The second will be sunk on a site (next to an existing bore hole) out towards Rottington, the third behind St Bees public school, near one of the rugby pitches and the fourth is intended, subject to agreement with the landowners, in the vicinity of the village golf course.

The cost of the four boreholes is expected to be around three-quarters of a million pounds and the work will be finished by the end of December. The appointed contractor is Priority Drilling.

Once the core samples are collected a geo-physical survey will take place taking around a day to complete.

It is expected the drill rig, and ancillary buildings, will be off-site by early next week. The hole will have been filled with concrete and topped with tarmac to re-instate the surface of the car park, which is Copeland Council owned.

During the week the drill team have had a number of visitors to the site - around two or three curious villagers a day, said project manager Kevin Murphy, plus a deputation from St Bees Parish Council.

“The drill is expected to hit coal at a depth of 378 metres and the coal seams, of which there are four, are over two metres thick. The core of coal will then be sent for analysis,” said Mr Kirkbride.

The second phase for WCM will involve the offshore drilling of up to a further eight boreholes in the sea off the coast.

WCM will be looking to provide the steel industry at home and overseas with a supply of high quality coking coal. Currently they are testing the viability of the project.

The coalfield is 400-600m deep offshore under the sea. It would be accessed via a drift mine at a point, yet to be determined, south of Whitehaven and north of St Bees, where the mine head and offices will be built, in consultation with the relevant authorities.

The mine will require a varied workforce including administration, management, site workers and construction. Five hundred jobs have been indicated.

Says WCM: “This is an area rich in mining history and experience and we will be looking to harness this knowledge in a modern mine, which will have the benefits of first class levels of health and safety as well as a cleaner and more pleasant environment.

See www.westcumbriamining.com for more.