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Work on a huge £2.3bn mine in North Yorkshire is “on time and on budget”.

Construction started last January on the world’s largest polyhalite mine, near Whitby , and a Teesside processing plant which will create 1,000 direct jobs and potentially 1,500 more in the supply chain.

It’s claimed the North Yorkshire site represents the “world’s largest high-grade known deposit of polyhalite”, which is a multi-nutrient form of potash which is used as a fertiliser.

Sirius Minerals, the company behind the mine , has now published its latest quarterly update on its performance during 2017.

It says it remains on track to deliver first commercial production on time and on budget in 2021.

But the company says the current ‘diaphragm walling’ - known as ‘D-walling’ - activities are about two months behind schedule, following some delays in commissioning equipment and adverse weather in the latter stages of the quarter.

(Image: Peter Reimann)

However Sirius is confident this small loss of time will be recovered over the remainder of the project schedule.

Chris Fraser, chief executive, said: “2017 is a year of great progress for us where we went from really something on paper to something in the ground.

“The site transformation at Woodsmith is probably the biggest representation of the change and also just the fact we have gone from a small team of people dreaming and planning and having a vision of what we want to do, this year is when it has became a reality.”

With production due to start in 2021, potash mined just south of Whitby will travel 37km by underground conveyor to Teesside where it will be turned into pellets before being shipped around the globe.

(Image: Evening Gazette)

Sirius says site preparation scope of work at the Woodsmith mine site, near Whitby, and Lockwood Beck, at East Cleveland , is substantially complete.

A number of minor activities remain ongoing and will be completed in 2018.

At Wilton, site clearance and the removal of vegetation is under way to enable construction activities to get started.

Thomas Staley, chief financial officer at Sirius, said: “The thing that I am most proud of from our achievements in 2017 is the way in which we’ve managed to grow the company.

“We had I think 45 employees at the end of last year and we now have over 140 in the team and working in the office and there’s 200 plus contractors who are working with us alongside that core company team. And it’s great to see that a lot of those people have come from the local community.”