Workington is set to get a massive economic boost from plans to bring coal mining back to West Cumbria.

A £14.7 million scheme to extract coking coal off the west coast from 2018, includes plans to use the Port of Workington as a transport hub.

The West Cumbria Mining Company estimates that 750 million tonnes of coking coal is available under 77sq miles of seabed. 

This week, it revealed two pit-head options as possible locations for its proposed new drift mine, which would create 400 jobs. 

Option A would locate the mine to the north of Sandwith and use the existing drifts sea-ward towards the coal bands. 

A semi-buried, or covered over, conveyor would take coal down to train loading facilities at a siding on the St Bees to Whitehaven line. 

Option B is to set up the drift mine half way between St Bees and Mirehouse, with an underground tunnel heading beneath Rottington, out towards the undersea coal reserves and two shaft headhouses for ventilation near the coast between Fleswick and South Head. 

Coal would then be transported by rail to the Port of Workington or Ayrshire for onward shipment to the UK market or abroad. 

The company plans to carry out an impact assessment and hopes to submit a planning application to Cumbria County Council in January 2017. 

The company will have to ensure its coal processing area blends into the landscape and that noise from processing is reduced by putting it in a fully enclose building. It says there will be no spoil heaps.

More than 200 people attended a drop-in session held in Whitehaven last weekend.