THE firm planning to build a billion pound potash mine in North Yorkshire has sent a team of staff to a global conference in Australia as it prepares to submit plans next month.

York Potash originally submitted a planning application to build a sunken head mine in Sneaton, near Whitby, to the North York Moors National Park planning authority in September 2012.

However last summer the firm deferred and later withdrew the application summer to re-address issues raised by the authority.

As York Potash works to submit a new application next month, the company has been continuing to build its global portfolio of sales agreements for potash, which is used as a plant fertiliser.

Luke Jarvis, international sales manager at York Potash, who grew up in Whitby, and sales and marketing director J.T Starzecki recently attended the International Fertiliser Association annual conference in Sydney, Australia.

Mr Jarvis said: “The IFA Annual Conference is a major platform for the global fertiliser industry and is another example of how we are leading the way in marketing polyhalite around the world.

“It is always such a privilege to be flying the flag for such an important project and agricultural product from my home town.”

Since marketing for potash mineral polyhalite began, York Potash’s parent company Sirius Minerals has signed offtake agreements and sales commitments with customers around the world totalling approximately five million tonnes a year.