To get a sense of the mood among investors in Sirius Minerals, the casual onlooker need only pop into a couple of internet chatrooms. The web is alive with gossip and speculation about this FTSE 250 company, whose market value of close to £1 billion is built on the bet that in a couple of years’ time it will hit pay dirt through a mine deep under the Yorkshire moors.
Sirius Minerals was founded in 2003, initially looking for potash mining opportunities in North Dakota. Ultimately fruitless in its exploration endeavours in the United States, more than a decade later the company turned its attention to Britain, finally securing the licence to develop the world’s largest deposit three miles south of Whitby from the North