Construction Magazine November 2018 | Page 80

SIRIUS MINERALS
80 will be zero visual impact on the National Park , which is a fundamental ethos of the whole project .” While Fraser admits this decision did incur additional costs , he stresses that these were non-negotiable .
The second component was one of transportation : extracting the ore and moving it to and from the mine site . The transportation and logistics surrounding mine sites create a myriad of major and minor noise and light pollution , as well as congestion and additional carbon emissions . To avoid this impacting the park , the company looked to another innovative solution : an underground
Mineral Transport System ( MTS ). The MTS is a fully segmented tunnel containing a conveyor belt that will transport the extracted ore outside the national park to the industrial port of Teesside , where the polyhalite will be granulated and shipped . It will be constructed using three tunnel boring machines ( TBMs ) undertaking three independent drives : one will launch from the surface at the port end , and two from sub level launch chambers at the mine end and at an intermediate site .
“ The tunnel will be dug through one rock strata , Redcar Mudstone , at an
NOVEMBER 2018