200 More Jobs At Potash Mine Near Whitby

Anglo American. the owners of the potash mine near Whitby, has announced 200 more jobs as its shaft sinking operations ramp up.

The jobs will be made available over the coming months as the company begins to sink the main mineshafts to the polyhalite ore body, over a mile beneath the surface.

The company needs to fill a wide range of roles, from specialist engineers, surveyors and skilled trades, to non-specialist construction worker roles, and hopes that as many vacancies as possible can be filled by local people.

“This area has a rich mining heritage going back several centuries, so it’s a real honour for us to be building on that history with our 21st century mine,” said Simon Carter, Chief Development Officer of the Woodsmith Project. “We are building a project that people can be proud of and is providing opportunities for local people. These new jobs are another example of us doing that.”

The roles will become available in stages over the next few months and will include jobs both working directly for Anglo American and for its construction contractors. All roles will be advertised on the company’s website and via local job centres.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time for the project and a great opportunity for the right people,” says Simon. “They’ll be helping to build the first new mine in the UK for a generation, the deepest mine in Europe, and the first mine in the world to be designed to blend into the landscape. It’ll be hard work and you need a strong work ethic, team work and communication skills, and a positive attitude to safety. But it’ll also be incredibly rewarding work – a job you’ll be telling your grandchildren about.”

Anglo American is sinking two mineshafts into the polyhalite ore over a mile beneath the surface using huge shaft boring machines, which cut the rock, remove the material, and line the shaft as they go. A second 360m deep shaft, to allow a tunnel boring machine to be lowered into the ground to excavate the mineral transport tunnel to Teesside, is being sunk with conventional drill and blast technology.

When the mine is complete, extracted polyhalite ore will be hoisted up the production shaft and transferred to the mineral transport tunnel, which will carry the ore on a 23 mile long underground conveyor belt to a processing plant on Teesside, avoiding any impact on the countryside above. From there, it will be shipped around the world and sold to farmers as a natural fertiliser

Potential applicants can visit https://uk.angloamerican.com/careers to see the latest vacancies and should apply directly via the website.