AN ARTIST will be travelling 3,000ft underground and heading on a slow boat to China as he documents the progress of the York Potash project.

A website of photographs and other artwork charting the development of the York Potash project has been launched by artist Kane Cunningham, from Scarborough.

The artist began documenting the immense mining project four years ago, when York Potash agreed to let him photograph its development and allowed him access to all aspects of the project. He is now the artist-in-residence for the project, producing large-scale paintings, etchings and photographs.

After years of planning , Sirius Minerals was awarded permission to create the £1.7bn mine at Sneaton, near Whitby in summer this year, in a close-run vote by the North York Moors Planning Authority. Now Mr Cunningham will follow the project as it begins to extract polyhalite from the vast reserve beneath the North York Moors National Park and coast. The high quality mineral will be exported around the world as a crop nutrient to increase food yields around the world.

“I’m going to follow it 3,000ft down in the shafts, then the first production along the conveyor belt to the processing plant and alongside the ships. Then I’m jumping on a slow boat to China for three weeks, or wherever it goes next,” he said.

The project was described by business leaders as the biggest single investment project in the north of England by some considerable way and is expected to help balance the North/South economic divide and reduce the UK’s trade gap.

Mr Cunningham said that coupled with the development of the world’s biggest off-shore windfarm at Dogger Bank in the North Sea, from Teesside, the region is on the cusp of an industrial renaissance which he plans to capture for future generations. He said it was also important for him to capture the people involved.

“We also have the off-shore windfarm coming to the North-East bringing engineering and business back to the region, so the industrial North is coming back,” he said.

“It was the people that struck me about this project. I started photographing the drillers, who were a bunch of lads working at 4am. I asked them where they were from, and they explained they were from Whitby.

“They were all working on the ships and trawlers then when the fishing industry jobs disappeared they went to work on drilling rigs and windfarms.

“They also said they were putting North Yorkshire on the world map. The industrial North has had a kicking but it seems to me things are happening again. There’s a vibe around the place now.”

The photography will become part of the York Potash company archive and a selection of his photographs and other artwork will be exhibited at galleries across North Yorkshire, including the Coast Gallery in Cloughton, Scarborough and at Zillah Bell Gallery in Helmsley.

To see Kane Cunningham's work visit: www.yorkpotashartist.co.uk