Sirius Minerals revises approach to mine application

SIRIUS Minerals, which has plans to develop the York Potash mine near Whitby, said today it has taken a “new approach” to the approvals process and will submit updated plans next summer.

A planning decision on whether the York Potash mining project can go ahead was delayed, at the request of Sirius in July, when the North York Moors National Park Authority agreed to defer the determination of its York Potash onshore mining application, which was due to be considered by its planning committee of the Authority on July 29.

Sirius said today: “The company has been in a range of productive discussions with advisers, experts, the North York Moors National Park Authority and other statutory bodies about how best to proceed with the approvals process for the York Potash Project and address issues such as hydrological monitoring and European Habitat Regulations.

“As a result, in order to provide an enhanced level of comprehensive information to decision making bodies on the overall impact of the whole project, Sirius has decided to alter its approach and will align the environmental study work for all four key elements of the project (mine, pipeline, materials handling plant and port). This is possible because the company has completed more work on other aspects of the project, now allowing a more comprehensive assessment of cumulative impacts of all of the elements of the project. It differs from the previous approach which focussed initially on a joint Environmental Statement for the mine and the pipeline.”

The company said additional information for the mine application will be submitted for determination by the NYMNPA in July 2014 once further work has been carried out to enable a full cumulative assessment of the mine with the other areas of the project.

“The submission of applications for the remaining three project areas to the appropriate authorities will follow shortly thereafter. The revised approach better reflects the wishes of a number of the decision making authorities and key statutory consultees,” the company said.

Chris Fraser, managing director and CEO of Sirius, said: “Further, extensive work on the port and materials handling facilities has helped to de-risk the project, but it has also generated more information that needs to be assessed in conjunction with the other applications. As a result this new approach will reassure the decision making bodies that sufficient information is available on each element needed to deliver the whole project.

“With the benefits of the York Potash Project proceeding being so substantial, I know that our many supporters will welcome this revised approach that delivers greater certainty and leaves little room for debate over the high level of environmental standards that we are adopting.

“The mine development has the longest lead time so it previously made sense to progress that application as a priority over the other required infrastructure applications. This revised approach will closely align the projects to ensure there are no unknowns for the decision makers.”

He added: “Overall we continue to be very encouraged by the growing level of interest in our project from major industry players, underpinned by strong crop trial results to date, a huge resource base and low projected operating and capital costs relative to the rest of the industry. Our confidence in the development of the York Potash project as a world class fertilizer asset continues to strengthen.”