Sirius Minerals cheered by upgrade for York Potash project

YORK Potash, the company behind plans for a new state-of-the mine near Whitby has upgraded the size of its mineral deposits in a move it believes will give future funders of the project further confidence.

In a statement to the stock market this morning, parent company Sirius Minerals said that the results from its latest temporary drilling site show an increase in the Total Mineral Resource to 2.66bn tonnes at an average grade of 85.7% polyhalite, a multi-nutrient form of potash, within an area representing just 7% of the York Potash Project.

Although the deposits were already known to be the largest and highest quality in the world, 820m tonnes of polyhalite at an average grade of 87.3% have now been upgraded to ‘indicated status’ by independent geological consultants.

This is significant for the project because it gives an internationally recognised status that will give comfort over the resource to financial markets and future lenders of finance to construct the major mining project in the North Yorkshire Moors.

The news comes as the company’s temporary drilling programme draws to an end and provides further independent confirmation from mineral experts on the scale and quality of the York Potash resource and proposed mine which will employ 1,000 people directly and thousands more across the supply and support industries.

Chris Fraser, managing director and chief executive of Sirius, said: “The scale and quality of the York Potash deposit has been known about for some time, but the upgrade to an indicated status is another key milestone for York Potash and one that will give further comfort in the strength of the project and its globally significant deposit.”

A planning decision on the new mine is expected from the North York Moors National Park Authority on July 2.