Cabinet Secretary opens Wales’ first commercial mine-water heat scheme

Wales’ first commercial mine-water heat scheme has opened at the Lindsay treatment works in Ammanford. Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Evans opened the plant, which takes warmth from treated mine water and sends it to an industrial unit and offices on the Capel Hendre estate.

The Mining Remediation Authority built it with Thermal Earth Ltd and Innovate UK. Heat exchangers sit in the treatment ponds. The water is already warm from the old workings. A pump lifts that heat far enough to replace a fossil boiler. The partners put the carbon saving at about 17.5 tonnes a year.

Evans said Wales should use its industrial past for heat, not only for heritage pages. Andrew Simpson, for the authority, called it a model they want copied on other treatment sites. Nick Salini, of Thermal Earth in Ammanford, said a local firm did the kit.

The site has been running since March 2025. It sits in the Heat Strategy for Wales and in a map of mine-water heat the authority made for the government. That map is why Ammanford came first. The authority already runs more than 80 treatment sites to keep old workings off the rivers.

This is a Carmarthenshire story that happens to be national policy. It is not a cookie banner, and it is not a Senedd exterior shot.

Source: Welsh Government / GOV.UK, 30 June 2025 · Liberty Lux News