Huge potash mining project can transform the coastal economy

Chris Fraser, managing director of Sirius Minerals, said industries from building to medical will see standards rise as people seek opportunities being created in and around the coast.

A planning application, expected within months, will set out the wider benefits to the local population who are snapping up shares in the company on a daily basis.

Industry estimates suggest for every person employed at the mine, four more will have a job as a result.

Mr Fraser said: “In our submission we will articulate how far it goes in terms of upgrading the services and systems and everything around this region.

“Right down to electricians – more will come to this area because they are needed at the mine, therefore the quality of services will rise.

“Private developers will start coming back because there will be over a thousand people employed by us and many thousands indirectly who will have jobs because of the people employed at the mine. They will want to live where they work.

“Doctors, hospitals, schools – it will have a huge knock-on.”

Rig workers already use local accommodation and storage depots and York Potash has planted itself firmly in the community by sponsoring, among others, the biggest event of the year, Whitby Regatta.

It has also established a community fund – The Foundation – with an initial input of £3m to develop skills among local people and help community projects.

That figure is set to rise to £9m per year when the proposed mine reaches full production.

It seems a mere drop in the ocean compared to the amount of money being ploughed into the project.

Sirius raised £55m in January this year by issuing shares to investors.

At the end of the last financial year, Sirius had £54.3m of funds available with the majority funding temporary drilling sites, planning applications and overheads at York Potash.

Sirius’ annual results showed a £60m loss – which is being attributed to the company’s shift in focus from projects in Australia and America to the North York Moors. The deposits of potash in Sirius’ other assets are lower quality compared to the North York Moors which York Potash’s test drills show has 1.35 billion tonnes in just two per cent of the project area.

Mr Fraser said: “It is the world’s largest and the world’s highest grade of polyhalite – that is a fact. We know from further drilling and results that number will increase.” It begs the question why potash projects proposed in the 1960s and 1970s never materialised – a question Mr Fraser has asked himself as they initially targeted to find five-metre seams but actually discovered 20 metres.

He added: “Boulby has been in successful operation for 40 years but largely forgotten about by the world’s mining industry.

“I don’t know what Rio Tinto and Whitby Potash were thinking at the time but those projects were shelved.

Those projects and the historical oil and gas exploration gave us a lot of information about seams but it was the test drilling that led us to discover the quality of the polyhalite.”

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