Construction of the port and a special handling and storage facility at Wilton will see more than £400m invested in Teesside and will regenerate the former Redcar steelworks port frontage.

Chris Fraser, managing director and CEO of Sirius, said: “We are pleased to have entered into another significant construction contract for the ongoing construction of our world-leading polyhalite project.

“In 18 months we have made great progress and are now nearing the completion of the procurement programme to support our stage 2 financing process.

“The construction of our port infrastructure is another example of the level of investment and skilled job creation we are delivering in both Teesside and the UK as we develop a project that has the potential to make the UK a world leader in the fertilizer industry.”

The port handling facility will receive polyhalite fertilizer after it has been transported from the Woodsmith mine site through the 37km underground mineral transport system and processed into the finished product, POLY4, at the Wilton materials handling facility.

At peak production, Sirius expects to export 20mtonnes per annum of POLY4 to markets all over the world.

Ben Houchen, Mayor of the Tees Valley, said: “The successful development of the Sirius project will see over £400m invested in Teesside and will importantly see the regeneration of the former Redcar steelworks port frontage.

“We expect many more regeneration projects will be announced on the South Tees Development Corporation site very soon.”