Contractors named for £10bn potash project

Hochtief Murphy Joint Venture has been selected for a major multi-million pound tunnelling contract on a £10bn potash mine development in North Yorkshire.

Above: The mine site, south of Whitby

Fertiliser company Sirius Minerals has planning permission to build a mine that is expected to produce an initial 10 million tonnes of potash a year from 2021, reaching 20 million tonnes on full production.

Sirius has chosen Hochtief Murphy for the mineral transport system. The team that built the £250m Crossrail C310 Thames Tunnel in London will now be responsible for the design and build of a 23-mile long, 4.1-metre diameter tunnel to link the mine south of Whitby with the materials handling facility at Teesside. Mineral will be transported on a high-capacity conveyor belt.

Preferred contractor for the mine site itself is AMC UK, a German-Canadian joint venture of Thyssen and Redpath Group. Work includes all of the shaft construction at the mine site and the shaft construction of the mineral transport system.

The selection of contractors follows a 19-month tender process

Sirius managing director Chris Fraser said: “This is the culmination of a huge amount of work by both the successful bidders and those that have been unsuccessful and we thank all of the groups involved for their efforts. We are delighted to now be moving forward with our selected partners towards the implementation of the project.”