Sirius scoops AML’s CEO

IRJ - June 20 - Alan Watling will be joining Sirius Minerals as managing director of its York Potash development project in the UK. In this role based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, he will be responsible for leading the project through feasibility studies to construction and production.

Prior to joining Sirius, Watling was chief executive of African Minerals where he developed the Tonkolili project – a fully integrated iron ore mining and infrastructure project in Sierra Leone now in production. He has also held a number of senior leadership positions with Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group.

“The York Potash Project is the most important and exciting mining development in the UK and comes at a time when the region is in genuine need of economic stimulation…[I] feel very confident that we will deliver this project into production as fast as possible,” Watling said.

York Potash is Sirius’ main development asset and the project targets Polyhalite as a source of sulphate of potash and potassium chloride as a source of muriate potash. The project spans 661km2 of mineral rights agreements and has an NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate of 1,350 million tonnes (Mt) of 88.7 per cent polyhalite within an area representing only 2 per cent of the revised project area with a high grade mineralistaion within inferred resource of 940Mt of 94 per cent polyhalite, according to the company.

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