This issue contains the proceedings of the BTS online talk on the Anglo American Woodsmith mine in North Yorkshire, England. As well as producing a valuable fertiliser (polyhalite), the project is also an impressive application of tunnelling in a 'mining' setting. A very long TBM tunnel is currently under construction, bored mostly through fairly homogeneous mudstone with a maximum 390m overburden. The tunnel will house the conveyor (or Mineral Transport System) that will take polyhalite from mine to port. At 37.1km, it is longer than the previous record-holder for the longest TBM drive for a mine: the 13.5km road at the 1980s Selby Coal mine in the UK. So Woodsmith is clearly a standout example of a TBM used for mining.
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