Councillors give Winsford Salt Mine extra 26 years of life
17th February 2012
Categories: News
Winsford Salt Mine has been given permission by Cheshire West and Chester Councillors to extend the operational life of the mine from its present closure date of 2021 by an extra twenty six years to 2047.
Councillors on the Strategic Planning Committee voted unanimously for the extension.
Members were told that a second horizon would be mined beneath the current worked horizon within the South Bostock area of the mine. This could take two years before coming into operation.
Salt Union Limited extracts at present around 950,000 tonnes of salt each year from the mine, which has remaining reserves of approximately six million tonnes. The time extension will yield an additional 28 million tonnes.
Councillor Norman Wright told the meeting: “This extension is going to give an additional life of about 26 years of mining in the area which will create employment.
“Also over the last two or three winters we have become dependent on salt for the roads and Cheshire is the main supplier of salt in this country.”
Councillors were told that there were salt mines in America and Europe using similar processes to those which would be undertaken at the Winsford Salt Mine.
