Engineering news
A mineral mining company has submitted a planning application to mine what are thought to be the largest deposits of potash in the world, located in one of UK's national parks.
Sirius Minerals hopes to build a mine on a site four kilometres south of Whitby, within the North York Moors National Park, where 1.3 billion tonnes of polyhalite have been discovered.
Geologists believe this is the world's biggest and best quality supply of the valuable mineral, which is used as a vital ingredient in powerful fertiliser.
The key factor behind the increase in potash demand is the world's growing population, and the need for farm land to produce higher yields.
The firm said the mine would create up to 1,800 jobs during construction, more than 1,000 direct jobs at full production and thousands of indirect jobs in the support and supply industries.
Chris Fraser, managing director and chief executive of the company, said: “The York Potash Project will deliver an unrivalled level of investment for North Yorkshire, creating significant new jobs and improving local skills for generations to come.
“We have been extremely grateful for the wide-ranging support received during our extensive pre-application public consultations.
“A huge amount of technical work and studies have gone into the application and we believe that we have both put forward a robust planning case and set a new benchmark for sensitive design in the mining industry.”
The company said it had conducted an extensive consultation which revealed 91% of people responding were supportive of proposals, with 8% undecided and less than 1% against the new mine.
Ruth Bradshaw, policy and research manager for the Campaign for National Parks, expressed concerns regarding the proposed project.
She said: “We are very concerned about the negative environmental impacts of locating such a significant development in a national park.
“Now that the full planning application has been made available we will be scrutinising it carefully.
Sirus Minerals hopes to receive a decision about the planning proposal in May.
The mining process
The York Potash Project plans to construct and operate a buried pipeline to transport the ore from the mine to the processing facility in Teesside. The mineral transport system would consist of two pipes buried 1.2 miles below the surface. Once mined, the potash will be mixed with brine and carried as suspended particles along the pipeline. The pipeline would be capable of carrying up to 20 million tonnes of ore per year.