Spring decision on £1bn mining project in park

The company behind the plans for the potash mine announced yesterday that a planning application had been submitted to the North York Moors National Park Authority.

Directors from York Potash, a subsidiary of the multi-national firm Sirius Minerals, have heralded the move as a milestone in the project as talks continue with investors in key markets across the globe, including South-East Asia and South America.

But the authority’s director of planning, Chris France, told the Yorkshire Post the developers need to satisfy stringent national planning regulations as to why the mine has to be built in the national park.

He confirmed the application represented the biggest ever planning decision that the authority has been faced with in its 61-year history, although another potash mine was approved and built in 1969 at Boulby on the northern fringes of the North York Moors, near Staithes.

Mr France said: “Boulby is a major operation, but the York Potash proposals represent the biggest ever development within the national park.

“It is a very big deal, as it is earmarked for land on a high point that is just south of Whitby, and just inland from what is arguably one of the finest bays in the north of England at Robin Hood’s Bay.

“The developers are starting from a negative standpoint in many ways, because they have to satisfy the national planning guidance and prove the mine cannot be built anywhere else. We will be considering the plans extremely closely to ensure the mine does not have an adverse effect on the national park.”

The park authority still has to validate the application, which initially had been expected to be submitted by the end of December. It will only then be made public, although the document is expected to be online at the start of next week.

The authority is planning to hold a public meeting in March to outline the application, which incudes a series of supporting economic and environmental studies and is understood to stretches to more than 2,000 pages.

Two specially convened planning meetings will be staged, the first of which is expected to recommend a site visit for the committee’s members to the site earmarked for the mine on farmland near the village of Sneaton.

An actual decision on whether the mine should be built is then due to be made at the second planning meeting, which will be held by the end of May to meet a 16-week deadline from when the application is validated.

Sirius Minerals’ operations director, Graham Clarke, confirmed talks are continuing with investors, with a specific focus on markets in China, India and Brazil.

He added: “A huge amount of work has gone into the application, and we are confident that we have come up with the best scheme that we possibly could. This is a milestone in the project, but there is no sense of anyone relaxing. There is still a great deal of work that needs to be done, and we will continue to work closely with the national park authority.”

Plans for the mine were unveiled two years ago this month and exploratory drilling work has since pinpointed one of the world’s most extensive seams of potash, a key component in fertiliser. The deposits are seen as a hugely important source of potash to help boost crop yields while satiating global food demand.

York Potash then announced in September last year that it plans to build the mine on the farmland near Sneaton. The mine is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs and a further 4,000 jobs in the wider economy. It had initially been costed at £1.7bn, but simpler processing has meant the figure has now been reduced to £1bn.

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