Trudy Harrison met with the West Cumbria Mining team to hear about the latest plans for construction and recruitment at Woodhouse Colliery.
A firm supporter of the mine, the Conservative Parliamentary candidate said: "The coking coal will be mined for the steel industry, supporting more than 500 jobs locally and bringing £165million of private sector funding into Copeland.
"Construction and recruitment are now set to begin next year.
"The project has been delayed for seven months whilst awaiting the rejection of the call-in request by the ex Lib Dem MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, resulting in £2million of additional costs to the Company.”
"It's important to understand that without coking coal we have no steel; without steel we have no manufacturing and without manufacturing we have no industry, energy production, renewable technology, transportation or factories."
Mark Kirkbride, CEO for West Cumbria Mining said “I would like to thank Trudy personally for her support of the project over the years and for the hard work that she has carried out to ensure governmental support.”
