RE: Times article28 May 2018 08:42
Sirius Minerals builds a business on fertile ground
The FTSE 250 company says riches lie buried beneath the North York Moors
Some said that it couldn�t be done, others argued long and loud that it shouldn�t, but as spring turns to summer over the North York Moors National Park, Graham Clarke is undaunted. �If you�re told you can�t do something, you have to prove people wrong, don�t you? Obviously, we still have challenges, but as you can see it�s really happening.�
�It� is the construction of the biggest mine in Britain for 40 years, the last deep mine since Selby�s coal pit in the 1970s and the biggest private sector investment in the north of England. And all this in an area of outstanding natural beauty, �a special place, forged by nature�, according to the park�s own website. �It�, therefore, is not only one of the most important industrial projects in the region in decades, but one of the most sensitive.
Mr Clarke, operations director of Sirius Minerals, finds himself on the front line of a battle that though long since won is still, in its own way, being fought. On one level, the �2.2 billion scheme, in which polyhalite � a form of organic fertiliser similar to potash � will be mined from a thick slab of rock deep underground and stretching out beneath the North Sea, sounds if not simple then at least familiar. On another, the need to minimise the environmental impact adds hugely to the project�s complexity.
It means, for example, burying virtually all equipment below ground, including the headframes, the characteristic structures that stand above traditional mine shafts, to help to ensure that the site, perched on a hilltop and surrounded by trees and mounds of earth, will be virtually invisible except from a helicopter.
It means, too, that next month work will start on a billion-dollar, 37km-long, 6m-wide tunnel stretching away from the mine site near Whitby to transfer the polyhalite, rich in potassium, sulphur, calcium and magnesium, out of sight via an underground conveyor belt to a giant industrial park on Teesside, where it will be processed into pellets and stored before export by ship. Polyhalite�s principal use is as a crop fertiliser and the biggest potential customers are overseas in North America, China and east Asia, where growing populations and rising incomes are driving steady increases in food consumption.
If part of the business is focused far overseas, much of it is squarely on the doorstep. Once operational in 2021, the mine will support 1,000 direct and 1,500 indirect jobs and Mr Clarke, an industry veteran, is quick to emphasise that �we have a mining heritage in the UK and most important, it�s an opportunity to create jobs for decades�.
The project has been welcomed widely on Teesside, in particular, because it will help to revive a heavily ind
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