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Sirius Minerals shareholders will decide if the world-class mining project should be taken over by Anglo American, in a crunch vote on Tuesday.

The Sirius Minerals board said it faced a "stark choice" between recommending Anglo American's £405m cash offer or seeing the cash-strapped project collapse into administration within weeks.

At its peak, the mine is set to create around 2,000 jobs for Teesside and North Yorkshire.

The controversial 5.5p a share offer has angered thousands of private investors, many of whom bought shares at a far higher price.

Teesside Live will be providing live coverage of the shareholder meeting and vote from 11am.

You can follow for updates and reaction HERE.

Shares peaked at more than 45p in 2016.

There are thought to be around 85,000 small investors, including many who live locally, who have sunk money into the firm and whose vote will be crucial in decided the future of the company.

Shares in Sirius stood a 4.34p on Monday.

Sirius was forced to seek a rescue takeover to continue work on its £2.8bn polyhalite mine south of Whitby and a processing plant at Wilton after failing to secure vital funding last year.

(Image: evening gazette)

Last week the Sirius Minerals Shareholder Action Group SMSAG said Anglo's offer "significantly undermines the value" of the project.

With days to go before the vote, it penned an open letter to the Sirius board calling for a "thorough exploration, through existing investors and the markets" towards raising the £470m needed.

"The area contains the highest-grade resource of polyhalite to be found anywhere in the world," the letter said.

"Anglo have spoken openly about buying at 'near the bottom of the market'."

Loyalty shown by retail investors from the project's "embryonic stage", it continued, "should be repaid with an opportunity to explore the funding of the next stage".

"We would remind the board," the group said, "that we represent up to 85,000 shareholders and 50% of the company shares.

"Additionally, institutional investors have also urged the board of directors to explore all alternatives."

According to reports on Monday, one of the largest investors in Sirius Minerals - Jupiter Fund Management, which has a 7.8% stake in the company - is due to vote in favour of the deal.

For the takeover to be approved, at least 50% of shareholders need to vote in favour, representing at least 75% of the votes by share value at Tuesday's meeting in London.

Teesside Live will be providing live coverage of the shareholder meeting and vote from 11am.

You can follow live coverage HERE