Scarborough-based company’s expansion

The Scarborough-based company behind the construction of a £2.2bn mine near Whitby has completed the purchase of land in Redcar to house its water distribution network.

The Bran Sands site on Teesside that lies adjacent to the former Redcar steelworks site will be home to its harbour facilities and a conveyor system as part of its Woodsmith mine development to extract polyhalite, a multi-nutrient fertilizer.

The mine, described by a government minister in February this year as a “project of national importance,” is currently under construction near Whitby. The whole operation will create over 2,500 jobs and £2.5bn of annual exports at full production.

Sirius’ project involves the construction of two deep mineshafts to access the mineral deposit, connected to a 23-mile tunnel to transport the polyhalite via conveyor belt to Wilton, where it will be processed in a new plant. The finished ‘POLY4’ product will then be transported to a new harbour built at Bran Sands for shipping around the world.

Construction at the Woodsmith Mine site is currently under way, with building activity in Teesside due to commence in 2019 and first production of polyhalite due by 2021.

“The acquisition of Bran Sands represents another important step forward in the ongoing development of our project,” said Chris Fraser, CEO of Sirius Minerals.

“Having exclusive access to our own deep water port is a huge part of the proposition for our project, giving us access to a global distribution network.”

Sirius Minerals is focused on the development of its £2.2 billion North Yorkshire polyhalite project – a state-of-the-art new mine south of Whitby and tunnel containing a conveyor belt system to transport mined polyhalite to a materials handling facility and harbour facility at Teesside.

At full production the project will create over 1,000 direct jobs and a further 1,500 indirectly.

It is said to have the potential to generate over £2 billion of exports for the country each year and generate hundreds of millions of pounds in tax payments.