SHAREHOLDERS in a North Yorkshire mining scheme are having a meeting today to discuss possible legal steps.

Sirius Minerals shareholders lost thousands of pounds when the Woodsmith mine, near Whitby, was taken over in March.

Anglo American completed the takeover in a £405m deal and is now continuing with work to construct the mine and tunnelling to connect it to a processing facility on Teesside.

Some Sirius shareholders said project had been significantly undervalued, with thousands losing money as a result of the deal.

Campaigners, who have been working this year on sifting through papers and documents relating to the project, are now holding a meeting with other shareholders to discuss the possibility of taking legal action.

A post-takeover review is being held by ShareSoc, a not-for-profit membership organisation working on individual investors’ behalf, which it says will be a chance for people to ask questions.

A webinar event is taking place online today at 5pm.

It will be led by panellists Mark Northway, chairman of ShareSoc, Paul Anscombe, chairman of SiriusClaim, Chris Spencer-Phillips, director or ShareSoc and chairman of the ShareSoc Sirius Shareholder Action Group (SSSG) and Cliff Weight, ShareSoc director and member of the SSSG leadership group.

Mr Weight said: “We think what happened is a national scandal.”

He added: “No-one has been held to account and we think they should be.”

About 1,200 people have already signed up to take part and the invitation is open to all 85,000 shareholders, a significant proportion of whom are from North Yorkshire and Teesside.

Mr Weight added: “Some of these people have lost significant parts of their life savings.”

The fertiliser mine project was left on the brink of financial collapse last year after failing to secure £410m worth of Government bonds.

The project was later bought by global mining firm Anglo American in a cut-price deal, virtually wiping out the shareholdings of thousands of private investors.

Work is underway at the mine, which is near Whitby

A spokesperson for ShareSoc said: “Sirius Minerals grew from nothing via Yorkshire Potash into a billion-pound market cap company before it collapsed and was taken over by Anglo American, at what many felt was far too low a price.

“This webinar will review what happened, the potential for legal claims and the lessons learned.

“The webinar will be two way with plenty of time for questions to be asked and answered.”

Questions can be pre-submitted or asked at the webinar, via Q&A software.

The agenda for the event, which starts at 5pm, includes a review of what happened, what ShareSoc campaigners did and an update on progress to date on the case for potential legal redress.

There will also be a section on lessons learnt, including diversification, investment risk and the particular risks with mining companies.

It will be followed by a questions and answers session.

For full details of the event visit www.sharesoc.org/events.