Latest Teesside headlines straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Pat Earnshaw ploughed all his cash into the world's largest fertiliser mine - and watched his holding soar by as much as £2,000 some days.

But the "Sirius dream" quickly turned into a "gut-wrenching" nightmare for him and thousands of other small-time investors.

Sirius Minerals' share price went into freefall on September 17, after the firm pulling a £400m fundraising attempt for its world-leading mine project.

It has left a financial black hole way bigger than the one they're digging just south of Whitby.

But the boss behind it all, Chris Fraser, says he is "confident" the project "will get through this."

The company, he says, takes its responsibility to shareholders "incredibly seriously" and he "feels bad" for those people who have invested their hard-earned cash in the North York Moors gold rush.

It's cold comfort for Pat, a 47-year-old metalworker from York, but he's certainly not alone in his pain.

Half a dozen of his own close friends have also invested £20,000 each.

"It's gut-wrenching, seeing your holding drop and drop," he says.

"I'm on the forums all day, every day.

"I watch the share price all the time, but sometimes you don't want to chance it.

"You don't want to see that paper loss."

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Pat sank a small pension into Sirius Minerals stock in 2016, also using £40,000 of his own money.

He was recently divorced and invested some of the resulting cash into the project thinking "eventually, one day I'll get back on my feet."

All told, he put in £65,000.

"Some days it was going up 5p," he says.

"At that point, every penny it went up I was seeing my holding increase by £400.

"You think 'God this is great'.

'We're all hanging on, hoping and praying'

"I first invested when all Sirius had was a bit of planning, no finance.

"The next minute, they're building it - then the share price just disappears.

"It's just gone to next to nothing.

"You think you are supporting a good company.

"At the moment my holding is around £7,000, it's not worth selling.

"It's a waiting game now, we're all just hanging on, hoping and praying."

One investor Pat knows from a WhatsApp group is in "dire straits", he adds.

"I don't know him personally but he invested £21,000 and he doesn't have anything apart from that.

"He actually borrowed money to plough in.

"Sirius sold us the dream and we've all invested, along with 85,000 others.

"I've had sleepless nights in the past but we've all sort of got used to it.

"It's out of our hands now.

'I'm not a rich person, by any means'

"I'm not a rich person by any means, I run my own business and just plod along.

"None of us in the group are gamblers, we're not even investors really.

"There is risk with everything, but I don't think a lot of us actually realised the risk.

"The Sirius dream is over. You have no chance of getting your money back."

Sirius is currently "slowing down" the project with construction workers leaving sites last week.

But the company has said it wants to retain "as many of its people as it can" so the project is "ready to go" as soon as a solution is found.

Mr Fraser may empathise with its army of smaller investors, yet also claims the firm has been "very clear about the opportunities and also the risks."

But the Australian mining boss is also adamant they have an "excellent project".

"We have been very successful in overcoming some significant milestones along the way," he is quoted as saying, "and we remain confident that we will overcome this one.”