BOSSES at York Potash are in the process of selecting two leading tenders for the construction of the firm's new £1.7 billion North Yorkshire mine.

After winning planning approval from the North York Moors National Park Authority earlier this month, for the proposed development at Sneaton, near Whitby, parent company Sirius Minerals has revealed funding arrangements and construction plans to take the project forward.

The company says it expects to have all outstanding issues surrounding the projects, including planning conditions and section 106 agreements with relevant local authorities, "deal with in a timely fashion", in order to issue final decision notices by the end of September this year.

The planning approval is open to being "called-in" by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, as the proposals for the mine, and its associated mineral transport facility, and port handling facility in Teesport, deviated from usual planning guidelines.

Sirius said it does not believe such a course of action is necessary and that it is awaiting the notification from the local authorities as to government’s decision on this matter.

Chris Fraser, managing director and chief executive of Sirius, said: "After our recent approvals success we are now rapidly moving to the next phases of financing and construction of the York Potash Project.

"With the underlying strength of our business model, unique product and sector fundamentals I believe we are only at the beginning of a very steep value curve as we move towards becoming a major multi-nutrient fertilizer producer."

Sirius said it is finalising its Definitive Feasibility Study, and is looking at ways of increasing the initial installed infrastructure capacity from handling 6.5 million tonnes per year of the potash mineral polyhalite, up to 10 million tonnes per annum, as well as securing the ability to potentially double the infrastructure capacity to 20 million tonnes per annum.

Sirius said: "The focus is on reducing the impacts of construction, below the levels assessed in the approval process and set in the conditions, while maximising the capital efficiency of the infrastructure installation."

Sirius said it plans to split the financing of the project into two stages.

Stage one will focus on the initial construction period where the perceived risks are higher, and is likely to take the form of a mixture of development equity, including cornerstone investors, and structured debt. .

Stage two financing will account for the majority of the financing requirement of the development. The company’s aim is for this stage to be 100 per cent debt based.