Sirius Minerals Regulatory News (SXX)

16 July 2013

Sirius Minerals Plc

York Potash Project approvals - status update

·; Planning committee report and officer recommendation expected to be published before the end of this week

·; Sirius Minerals believes there is an exceptionally compelling case for approval

·; Substantial progress has been made on key objections

·; Detailed set of planning conditions currently being finalised with the Authority

·; Support for the York Potash Project application continues to grow

The Directors of Sirius Minerals Plc (AIM: SXX, OTCQX: SRUXY) ("Sirius" or the "Company") are pleased to provide an update on the York Potash Project planning approval process.

The Company is expecting the North York Moors National Park Authority ("NYMNPA" or "the Authority") to publish its planning committee report and officer's recommendation on the Company's planning application for onshore mining by the end of this week. The recommendation and subsequent decision will be a result of an assessment of the balance of policy considerations, assessing and applying weight to the benefits, as well as the anticipated environmental impacts.

The Company has been given no indication as to whether this recommendation by the planning officers will be for approval or refusal. The decision on the planning application will be made by a majority vote of the NYMNPA members at the Authority's special planning committee meeting on 29 July 2013. At this meeting the officer's recommendation will be considered as part of the committee's deliberations along with representations from the Company and other stakeholders. Planning committee members have the option to either endorse or overturn the officer's recommendation made in the committee report.

Chris Fraser, Managing Director and CEO of Sirius, commented:

"There is a very clear and strong case for the National Park to approve the application for this exceptional project. With close to 10,000 pages of information submitted in the application there is a wealth of detailed information that will give comfort in the level of care that has gone into our proposals."

Update on key objections

Further to the announcement on 20 May 2013 and following detailed discussions with the Environment Agency, its objections to the application have been removed subject to planning conditions. A detailed set of conditions have now largely been agreed, with the specifics of one monitoring condition to be finalised to ensure hydrogeology monitoring is robust but does not unnecessarily delay the commencement of early construction works.

Discussions with Natural England remain on-going and positive and the Company has developed a productive working relationship with the organisation. While some of Natural England's objections are likely to remain, including the in-principle landscape objection, the agency appears satisfied its other concerns are being addressed by further clarifications that have been provided by the Company and that a number of the potential impacts can be managed through conditions.

The Ministry of Defence is expected to formally remove its holding objection before a final decision is made on the application, having previously stated that it was minded to do so. Its proposed conditions have been agreed, subject to some minor changes proposed by the Company.

The local highways authority, North Yorkshire County Council ("NYCC") has indicated that it has no objection to the proposed development having considered the 'worst case' highways impact. NYCC is fully aware of the existing highways operations on its network and is therefore best placed to advise on the appropriateness of the plans, associated impacts and required mitigation.

AMEC review document

The Company's announcement of 15 July 2013 referenced an Executive Summary of a "Commissioned Review" of the Company's Environmental Statement which was prepared by AMEC, consultants to NYMNPA on the York Potash planning application. Whilst the full report is not yet available, the Executive Summary contains a number of negative statements about the Company's Environmental Statement. This review is a subjective opinion and contains a number of statements based on differing professional opinions. It will be for the NYMNPA officer's to provide a full recommendation in its planning committee report.

The Company disagrees with large parts of the AMEC Executive Summary and is currently preparing a detailed response to the National Park on its concerns. In the Company's opinion a number of errors have been made in preparing the report and a number of issues raised are at odds with the position of statutory bodies. The AMEC Executive Summary also does not appear to have been updated to reflect all of the latest clarification information that has been presented and discussed with the NYMNPA and the relevant statutory experts.

Growing application support

The planning application continues to be widely supported locally, regionally and nationally. A recent review of the planning file showed there are over 1,900 public letters of support on the planning file and less than 150 objection letters. Support exists from a wide range of sources, including local parish and borough councils, as well as Local Enterprise Partnerships, business groups and the regional tourism body, Welcome to Yorkshire. Support letters have also been submitted to the Authority from the Chief Executive of UK Trade & Investment and Michael Fallon MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise and Minister of State for Energy.

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About Sirius Minerals Plc

Sirius Minerals is a globally diversified potash development company. Its primary focus is to bring on stream major potash mining facilities through the acquisition and development of projects overlying recognised potash deposits. Today it holds properties in the United Kingdom (North Yorkshire) and the United States (North Dakota). Incorporated in 2003, Sirius Minerals' shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market. Its shares are also traded in the United States on the OTCQX through a sponsored ADR facility. Further information on the Company can be found at www.siriusminerals.com.