Northumberland coal export ‘first’ for Banks Mining

Four thousand tonnes of coal from Shotton surface mine supplied to Spanish customer via Port of Blyth

BANKS Mining have completed their first ever export order for coal produced by their Northumberland operations.

Four thousand tonnes of coal produced at the company’s Shotton surface mine, near Cramlington, have been loaded into a vessel at the Port of Blyth and transported to an industrial customer in Spain.

Michael Storey, sales and quality manager at Banks Mining, said: ‘Fulfilling an export order presents different logistical challenges to our usual operations, but our highly skilled and professional team completed the task in their usual safe, responsible and efficient manner.’

The Durham-headquartered firm, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, is now pursuing other opportunities to supply overseas customers both within and outside mainland Europe.

‘The coal we produce in Northumberland is of a very high and consistent quality, capable of meeting the demands of overseas markets,’ said Mr Storey, ‘and having investigated which export markets we might target with it, we believe there are considerable overseas opportunities for us to work towards alongside our domestic operations.’

Banks Mining have worked in south-east Northumberland for more than three decades and currently employ around 200 people across their Shotton and nearby Brenkley Lane mining sites.

The two sites contribute around £35 million to the regional economy every year through wages, investments and the local supply chain, with the coal produced being used by a range of customers for a variety of industrial, domestic and power-generation purposes.

Mr Storey continued: ‘The excellent service standards that we have provided consistently for many years to a variety of UK customers along with our competitive pricing structure for a high-quality product that is produced at two mines working to the highest environmental management standards in the world provides an overall offering that we believe will have great appeal to our target audience.’

Martin Lawlor, chief executive at the Port of Blyth, added: ‘We’re delighted to support Banks Group with this landmark export project. The variety of cargoes travelling both in and out of the Port of Blyth is growing all the time and we look forward to handling further exports for the Banks Group in the future.’