Overview

Sirius Minerals gained permission for its North Yorkshire Polyhalite Project in 2015, and will become one of the largest producers of multi-nutrient fertilizer. Polyhalite is an evaporite mineral comprising potassium, sulphur, magnesium and calcium; the defined North Yorkshire resource is the world's largest and highest grade.

Polyhalite will be extracted via two mine shafts at a depth of around 1600m, and transported outside of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park to Teesside on a 37km underground conveyer system. It will then be granulated at a materials handling facility at Wilton, and transferred to a ship loader at Bran Sands on the River Tees, with the majority being exported to overseas markets. The Company is aiming to achieve first product from the mine by the end of 2021, ramping up to an initial production capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) and then to full production of 20 mtpa.

This site visit is to the Woodsmith Mine, where construction commenced in May 2017. The visit will comprise a presentation of the project and Q&A, followed by an escorted site walkthrough, to see the scale and complexity of the sinking of the Production, Services and Mineral Transport System (MTS) access shafts and the associated infrastructure.