Minerals firm to build £2.4bn potash mine in North York Moors National Park

Details of a huge potash mine set to be built in one of Britain's national parks have been unveiled.

Fertiliser company Sirius Minerals said it will plough £2.4 billion into the York Potash Project to build the mine in the North York Moors National Park, just south of Whitby.

The project will create more than 1,000 jobs when it reaches full production and a further 1,500 jobs indirectly, the company said.

And the mine will make a yearly contribution to UK GDP of £2.3 billion, according to economic modelling carried out by the firm.

Business leaders said it is the biggest private investment project in the North of England "by a billion miles".

But it is hugely controversial and environmentalists and organisations including the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) and the National Trust campaigned against it.