WORK to build a 1,000-job fertiliser mine could start as early as next spring, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Sirius Minerals is just days away from sanctioning the first phases of construction on its York Potash project, based near Whitby.

The company has already started smaller engineering work to prepare for more significant endeavours, including the sinking of mine shafts.

Shareholders are due to vote on a £1bn finance plan next week, which if approved, will pave the way for contractors to ramp up efforts.

The development, which is expected to create more than 1,000 direct jobs and support a similar number in the supply chain, aims to extract the fertiliser polyhalite from land near Whitby, with production planned to get underway in late 2021.

Chris Fraser, Sirius’ managing director and chief executive, told The Northern Echo the firm is close to ticking off another part in its voyage to create the UK’s first potash mine in more than 40 years.

He said: “We have achieved a lot and construction is the next journey.

“We are now in the building phase.

“The funding is the thing to get the construction going and we are getting ready to start mobilising for that.

“A lot of the work has to be done but a lot of it has already been done.”

If approved, Sirius’ funding proposals will see the issuing of new shares to raise up to £400m and convertible bonds to bring in a further £350m.

Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has also given her backing to Sirius through her Hancock British Holdings enterprise.

Under the terms of the finance deal, Hancock will pay £205m for the rights to five per cent of gross revenue on the first 13 million tonnes of sales every year, and another one per cent for sales above the 13 million figure.

Hancock, a subsidiary of Hancock Prospecting, which has growing agriculture interests, will subscribe to ordinary shares in Sirius for another £41m.

York Potash could also receive support from China after it was included in a £5bn Government portfolio aimed at attracting fresh cash into British businesses, which Downing Street said could be pivotal in a new “golden era of UK-China relations”.