Potash company draws up North Yorkshire mine plans

The mine's winding tower may be sunken to ground level to minimise the size of surface buildings

A company is moving forward with a £1.7bn scheme to exploit potash deposits in North Yorkshire which it says would create more than 1,000 jobs.

York Potash has been test drilling between Whitby and Scarborough and says it has found some of the best potash deposits in the world.

The firm has drawn up possible designs for the mine shaft and says it hopes to get planning permission early in 2013.

Potash is a potassium compound mostly used in fertilisers.

The UK's only current mine is at Boulby in North Yorkshire.

York Potash has not yet decided where its mine will be. If planning permission is granted next year production would start in 2017.

The company said it was "committed to employing local people and is already working with local authorities to try and encourage the kind of skills and education that the future workforce will require".

York Potash said it hoped to reduce the environmental impact of the scheme by pumping the potash via an underground pipeline to a processing plant in Teesside, rather than bringing it to heaps on the surface.

It has also devised two possible designs for the mine shaft's winding tower, which would either be located 600m underground or sunken to ground level to minimise the size of any surface buildings.

Graham Clarke, operations director, said: "There is still a lot of work to do and we will conduct extensive public consultation as soon as we have more detail for people to comment on."