RESIDENTS are to be consulted on plans for a pipeline which will transport potash from a new mine at Whitby to Teesside.

Plans to transport deposits from a new mine in North Yorkshire about 30 miles to Teesside via a pipeline have already met with some opposition.

The site at Sneaton, near Whitby, is thought to be the largest mineral deposit of high-grade polyhalite in the world.

It is calculated there are at least 1.35 billion tonnes of the mineral, which is used to create potash, beneath the North York Moors and stretching out under the North Sea.

The £1.5b project to mine the natural resource already has the backing of North Yorkshire County Council.

York Potash, the company wanting to build the modern mine, is proposing to transport the potash ore in solution via a buried pipeline stretching to a processing facility near Wilton, Teesside.

The company believes this is the most efficient way of moving the potash and avoids using roads. It would be buried at least 1.2 metres below ground and similar to a utility pipeline.

York Potash says the use of pipelines to transport minerals crushed to powder is “tried and tested around the world in the mining industry”.

But Tom Chadwick, from the North Yorkshire Moors Association, says this particular mineral has never been transported in this way. He says roughly 25km of the pipeline will pass through the national park.

“We regard this as an industrial-scale experiment that should not take place in a national park,” he said.

“Coal is moved through pipelines and iron ore, but nowhere in the world has polyhalite been transported in this way.

“It would be transported in a saturated brine which is highly corrosive liquid. “If that leaks out under farmland or streams or other valuable areas of landscape, that will have devastating environmental concerns.”

The pipe between Sneaton and Wilton will roughly follow the A171 and loop around Boosbeck.

The consultations will be held from 2pm until 7pm close to the route at:

• Lingdale Working Men’s Club, High Street, Lingdale on Tuesday, November 27.

• Ugthorpe Village Hall (St Anne’s), near Whitby, Wednesday, November 28.

• Scaling Dam Sailing Club, Whitby Moor Road, Saltburn, Thursday , November 29.

• Sleights Village Hall, Coach Road, Sleights, Friday, November 30.

• Kirkleatham Hall School, Kirkleatham Village, Saturday, December 1.

The planning application for the pipeline is separate to the application for the mine. More details are available online at; www.yorkpotash.co.uk