UK national park to host major new mining development

Jonathan Standen
20 July 2016

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Recent planning permissions given to the York Potash project are unique in their scale, complexity as well as their location within a national park, writes Jonathan Standen.

The recent issuing of planning permission for a new polyhalite mine in the North York Moors national park together with associated delivery infrastructure heralds a significant stage in the realisation of a major new mining development in the UK. 

Subject to the ongoing discharge of planning conditions, York Potash Limited (YPL, a subsidiary of Sirius Minerals) may now exploit the largest, highest grade resource of polyhalite to be found anywhere in the world. A type of potash and essential ingredient in plant fertilizer, polyhalite can be used directly on crops or combined with nitrogen and phosphorus to create other commonly used NPK fertilizer products.  

Permission provides for the underground extraction of polyhalite over 100 years within a mineable area of 25,200ha. With a quantified resource of 2.66 billion tonnes, the mining project will have an initial production capacity of 6.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), with a full production potentially rising to 13mtpa. The mine site is located approximately 5km south of Whitby in the North York Moors national park. 

The overall development includes the construction of a 64ha landscaped mine head facility together with a mineral transportation system, a tunnel between the mine and the mineral handling facility at Wilton International Complex at Redcar, Teesside. The mine head will be constructed over 58 months and include the construction of three temporary winding tower headgear frames for sinking the mains shafts and the minerals transport system shaft.

The recent issuing of planning permission for a new polyhalite mine in the North York Moors National Park together with associated delivery infrastructure heralds a significant stage in the realisation of a major new mining development in the UK. 

Two deep mine shafts will be sunk to access the upper polyhalite seam which lies at approximately 1,520m below ground level. Unlike conventional deep mines, the shaft winding head frames will be set below ground. Using conventional continuous mining and ‘drill and blast‘ technology, polyhalite will be worked from two seams by the ‘pillar and stall’ method from horizontal drift tunnels up to 12m wide and between five and 40m high. 

The polyhalite will be hoisted via the mine shafts to 360m below the surface for loading onto the underground conveyor system and transported to Teesside in the 36.5km tunnel. Once at Teesside, the polyhalite will be granulated within an indoor mineral handling facility, with the majority being exported from a new harbour and quay located at Bran Sands adjacent to Redcar steelworks.

Part of the comprehensive scheme of environmental control includes the strict management of traffic during construction and operation, making use of park and ride services in Whitby or Scarborough where mining teams would be transported in dedicated buses.

The complexity of the scheme is reflected by the involvement of four consenting authorities and five separate consents for the main elements of the project.

• Planning consent from the North Yorkshire Moors National Park Authority and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (RCBC).
• RCBC for planning permission for granulation and storage facilities at Wilton International Complex.
• A Development Consent Order has been approved by the Planning Inspectorate for the harbour development at Bran Sands, Wilton as this is classed as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. 
• The Marine Management Organisation has granted a licence for the extraction of polyhalite from YPL’ area of interest beneath the sea bed. A marine licence will also be required in connection with the harbour development works.

YPL undertook extensive pre application consultation with the local community. In 2014, ten public exhibitions were held attended by 765 people. In all there were 1,768 survey responses and an overall level of community support for the whole project of 98%.

An independent socio economic study concludes that there would be significant and positive economic benefits, directly through investment, employment and output, and indirectly through the supply chain and the increase in spending power. The scale of these benefits would have a significant positive impact on an area with historically low employment growth and an overreliance on low paid part time jobs. At a national level the project would make a significant annual contribution to the UK GDP of over £1bn, and could reduce the UK’s trade deficit by up to 4%. 

Located in an area where there is recent experience of significant job losses, the development is seen as being fundamentally important, economically and socially, creating more of an export driven economy, generating substantial GVA, increase levels of production and employment. The mine will generate over 1,000 jobs at full production and a further 1,000 in the supply chain with an aim to deliver 80% of workforce from the local area. A skills strategy has been produced, which will help ensure that the right skills are available locally. This includes creating up to 50 apprenticeships over the next four years in preparation for mining operations.  

A skills strategy has been produced, which will help ensure that the right skills are available locally. This includes creating up to 50 apprenticeships over the next four years in preparation for mining operations.

A planning obligation for the scheme makes provision of up to £175m over more than 100 years. Provision has been made to both mitigate and compensate for residual effects on a range of environmental matters including the national park’s special qualities. The funding covers a range of local measures and improvements relating to special quality, visual, and other objectives. In addition YPL will make a contribution of an annual royalty of 0.5% of revenue from the project to the York Potash Foundation to fund community projects.

The scale and complexity of planning for the scheme is unique within a national park. Conservation and statutory bodies had concerns that the scheme would harm the special qualities of the national park, and its place as an important tourist destination, however the scheme was considered to demonstrate exceptional circumstances and be in the public interest necessary to satisfy the Major Development Test. With the grant of planning permission by October 2015 for all the main elements of the project, YPL is focused on delivering initial financing during the first part of 2016, with early works and construction starting shortly after.

Jonathan Standen is a planning director at Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners, planning consultants and lead coordinator for the York Potash project.