Park gives go-ahead for mine tests that could bring 5,000 jobs

Sirius Minerals was given the go-ahead yesterday by the North York Moors National Park Authority to carry out exploratory work to establish the extent of the mineral deposits.

The multi-national company has secured a massive mineral rights portfolio for more than 150,000 acres of land between Whitby and Scarborough in the hope of creating the potash mine and up to 5,000 jobs.

The exploratory drilling is now due to be carried out during the height of the summer season, prompting concerns from tourism businesses that trade will be affected.

But senior officers at the national park authority maintained that there was “no factual evidence” that the drilling would have an adverse impact on the tourism sector.

Yesterday the authority’s planning committee approved applications for temporary drilling rigs more than 100ft high to be put on two sites near the villages of Ugglebarnby and Hawsker.

The managing director and chief executive officer of Sirius, Chris Fraser, stressed that every effort would be made to ensure local communities were kept informed about the drilling work.

He added: “The project is of national importance and if delivered in the right way could be a real benefit to the local area.

“We will work as quickly as we can to complete this phase and draw up detailed proposals for the project.”

The temporary drilling near Ugglebarnby and Hawsker is expected to take up to eight weeks to complete, and a Sirius Minerals spokesman stressed the sites would be restored to their original condition after the work is finished.

The exploratory work will extract sample cores of the mineral underground to confirm the extent of the potash, a mineral that is an essential component of fertiliser, before detailed proposals for the actual mine are developed.

Up to 10 applications for temporary drilling rigs in the national park are expected to be submitted before a full planning application for the potash mine is announced towards the end of next year.

However, residents fear a major drilling operation in the national park will destroy one of the country’s finest landscapes.

Concerns have also been voiced about the amount of traffic which would be generated if the potash mine were to become a reality.

Senior planning officials have maintained that the proposals for the mine, which would represent the biggest development in the national park’s history, will be “rigorously examined” before any decision is taken.

The national park authority’s director of planning, Chris France, claimed national guidelines on development within the boundaries of national parks would be followed before any decision is reached.

Sirius Minerals revealed proposals in January for what would be the first mine of its kind to be created in the UK for 40 years.

The firm, which also has projects in Australia and the United States, has claimed the North Yorkshire development would create up to 5,000 jobs.

The proposals provoked widespread concerns among conservationists who fear the North York Moors is under threat from major developments, including a separate scheme which would see a gas plant built on the edge of the national park near Thornton-le-Dale.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last month that conservationists had claimed the mining operation could undermine the environment and the area’s vital tourism industry.

The North Yorkshire Moors Association’s chairman, Tom Chadwick, said that both the proposed potash mine and the gas plant had “no place in a national park landscape”.