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Potash/Phosphate

BHP open to potash partnership with Nutrien, leaves door open to new takeover attempt – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 14, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

BHP Group Ltd. is open to partnering with Nutrien Ltd., and isn’t ruling out making another takeover attempt of the Canadian fertilizer giant, a senior executive with the Australian miner told The Globe and Mail. “We’re happy to partner,” Rag Udd, president minerals Americas with Melbourne-based BHP, said in an interview.

“If you take a look at the majority of our businesses, there’s some form of partnership there with other companies.” When asked whether a partnership with Nutrien meant a joint venture, a takeover of the company, or both, Mr. Udd replied, “There’s a myriad of options that could be looked at.”

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BHP inks $188m contracts with First Nations at Jansen potash project in Saskatchewan – by Staff (Mining.com – March 10, 2023)

https://www.mining.com/

BHP (NYSE: BHP, ASX: BHP) announced Friday that as construction progresses at its Jansen potash project in Saskatchewan, it has awarded three new contracts in partnership with local First Nation communities.

Covering camp management, site services and raw ore/handling foundation, the contracts include representation from the six First Nations surrounding the Jansen site, with whom BHP has opportunity agreements in place.

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BHP brings forward Jansen Stage 2 studies – by Mariaan Webb (Mining Weekly – February 21, 2023)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Diversified miner BHP is speeding up work at its Jansen potash mine, in Canada, as the group sees an attractive entry opportunity for supply in lower-risk jurisdictions amid increased geopolitical uncertainty.

The company, which previously bought forward first production at Jansen Stage 1 from 2027 to the end of 2026, on Tuesday confirmed that the feasibility study for Stage 2 would be completed a year earlier than previously planned.

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Russia and China Have a Stranglehold on the World’s Food Security – by Alan Crawford, Frank Jomo, Elizabeth Elkin and Matthew Bristow (Bloomberg News – February 19, 2023)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The cargo trapped for months at the Dutch port of Rotterdam was so precious that the United Nations intervened to mediate its release. The World Food Programme chartered a ship to transport it to Mozambique, from where it’s being taken by truck through the interior to its end destination, Malawi. It’s not grain or maize, but 20,000 metric tons of Russian fertilizer, and it can’t come soon enough.

About 20% of Malawi’s population is projected to face acute food insecurity during the “lean season” through March, making the use of fertilizers to grow crops all the more vital. It’s one of 48 nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America identified by the International Monetary Fund as most at risk from the shock to food and fertilizer costs fanned by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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[Florida] The Phosphate Industry Needs Additional Regulations – by Glenn Compton (Bradenton Times – February 05, 2023)

https://thebradentontimes.com/

Glenn Compton is the Chairman of ManaSota 88, a non-profit organization that has spent over 30 years fighting to protect the environment of Manatee and Sarasota counties.

The Myakka River is an Outstanding Florida Water (OFW) and must not be further polluted. More than 22,000 acres of land have the potential to be mined for phosphate in the Myakka River Basin. Phosphate companies have an interest in at least 22,375 acres of land in the Myakka River Basin not yet approved for mining.

In 1985, the Legislature of Florida adopted the Myakka River Wild and Scenic Designation and Preservation Act (Section 258.501, Florida Statutes), which designated a 34-mile segment of the Myakka River within Sarasota County as a “Florida wild and scenic” river.

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Mosaic yet to finalize a date to restart its Canadian potash mine – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – January 27, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Resumption will depend on when the company’s current inventory drops enough to restart operations for the long term

Mosaic Co. says the full resumption of its potash mine in Saskatchewan, where production was curtailed in December, will depend on when the company’s current inventory drops enough to restart operations for the long term.

The Tampa, Fla.-based company said in a Dec. 6, 2022, statement that it had “temporarily curtailed” its Colonsay potash mine in Saskatchewan as its inventory levels were sufficient to meet near-term demand. It added that it expected to restart its mill by early 2023.

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BHP to start recruiting hundreds to operate world’s largest potash mine in Saskatchewan – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post- January 1, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

Planning to hire 600 people in 2023, with large portion of workforce drawn from local community

Seasons change, and so does the weather, but one thing remains constant in Saskatchewan: BHP Group Ltd. keeps pressing forward with Jansen, a $7.5-billion project 140 kilometres east of Saskatoon that will be the world’s largest potash mine once completed.

With billions of dollars spent in the past decade, the company has already built two mine shafts and is planning for first potash production in 2026.

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Deadly, dirty, indispensable: the nitrogen industry has changed the world (The Economist – December 20, 2022)

https://www.economist.com/

It lays waste to ecosystems, allows wars to kill millions and has kept billions from starvation

It used to be a marvel; it remains, in its way, a subject of awe. Between the River Tees and the town of Billingham in the northeast of England there is a sprawling chemical works just over 100 years old.

In the 1920s, as part of the newly formed Imperial Chemical Industries (ici), it was feted as a miracle of modernity; to a visiting Aldous Huxley it was “one of those ordered universes that exist…as pure logic in the midst of the larger world of planless incoherence”, a forerunner of the sort of future he would explore and deplore in “Brave New World”.

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K+S Potash Canada gearing up for increased capacity at Bethune mine – by Pat Rediger (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – November 16, 2022)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Although the grand opening of the K+S Potash Canada (KSPC) mine in Bethune was greeted with cheers from across the province in 2017, there are still plenty of reasons to celebrate as the company plans to continue increasing production at the facility over the coming decades. KSPC is targeting to one day reach four million of tonnes of potash production per year, which is double the current production from the mine.

KSPC is in the midst of a feasibility study which will lay the framework for future milestones of growth and timelines for the Bethune mine. Sam Farris, president of KSPC, said this process will enable the company to become a world-class potash producer and future leader in climate change responsibility while sustainably feeding the growing world’s population.

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Mosaic misses profit estimates on lower fertilizer prices, Hurricane Ian damage – by Ruhi Soni (Reuters – November 7, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

Nov 7 (Reuters) – Mosaic Co (MOS.N) on Monday became the latest fertilizer maker to miss third-quarter profit estimates, hurt by damage from Hurricane Ian and cooling prices of crop nutrients.

Prices of nutrients such as phosphates and potash have cooled from the near record highs they touched earlier this year as farmers cut back on fertilizer use to rein in costs.

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‘Saviour for the world:’ Saskatchewan fills resource gaps caused by war in Ukraine – by Kelly Geraldine Malone (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – October 23, 2022)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

With its stable and established resource and agriculture sector, the province has found itself in a position to help fill the global gap caused by the war.

Cameco Corp. is in a position to grow, the president of the Saskatoon-based Uranium giant recently told investors, because a “geopolitical crisis has hit our market” with Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Tim Gitzel was speaking earlier this month after the company announced it had partnered with Brookfield Renewable Partners to acquire Westinghouse Electric, a nuclear power plant equipment maker.

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Nutrien’s new CEO Ken Seitz has a lot on his plate – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 11, 2022)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

In some ways, Ken Seitz, the new chief executive of fertilizer giant Nutrien Ltd., is in an enviable position. As long as he doesn’t get fired, he’ll be ahead of his two predecessors, Mayo Schmidt and Chuck Magro, both of whom were shown the door in the past year and a half.

And as a former miner himself, Mr. Seitz commands a natural respect from the thousands of men and women who work a kilometre underground in Nutrien’s six potash mines in Saskatchewan, some of which have been in operation since the late 1960s.

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Pollution From Florida Mining a Concern With Hurricane Ian – by Curt Anderson (Associated Press – September 28, 2022)

https://www.usnews.com/

Environmental groups say the polluted leftovers of Florida’s phosphate fertilizer mining industry are at risk for leaks or other contamination triggered by Hurricane Ian.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The polluted leftovers of Florida’s phosphate fertilizer mining industry, more than 1 billion tons in “stacks” that resemble enormous ponds, are at risk for leaks or other contamination when Hurricane Ian comes ashore in the state, environmental groups say.

Florida has 24 such phosphogypsum stacks, most of them concentrated in mining areas in the central part of the state. About 30 million tons of this slightly radioactive waste is generated every year, according to the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute.

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Sask. projecting $1.04B surplus amid rising resource revenues – by Stefanie Davis and Brendan Ellis (CTV News Saskatchewan – August 23, 2022)

https://regina.ctvnews.ca/

Saskatchewan is projecting a $1.04 billion surplus for 2022-23, with a large bump from non-renewable resource revenues projected. That figure is a $1.51 billion improvement from budget forecasts, which projected a $463 million deficit for the year.

“A strong economy and higher resource prices have meant a significant improvement in the province’s finances. That means we can balance the budget, pay down debt and help Saskatchewan people with the rising cost of living,” Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said.

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A remote Canadian province luxuriates in the global supply crunch (The Economist – August 18, 2022)

https://www.economist.com/

Saskatchewan is enjoying wild growth in the wake of war in Europe

Gerrid gust’s great-grandfather was from near Dubno, a town that is now in western Ukraine. He settled between the two biggest towns in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon and Regina, on a plot of 160 acres which he bought for C$10. The farm is now a patchwork of properties 100 times the size which Mr Gust runs with his father and brother. Each year they harvest wheat, lentils and rapeseed.

Every planting season 23-metre-wide “drillers” shoot seed and fertiliser directly into the soil for 16 hours a day. Then it is all down to the heavens. Nearly all of Saskatchewan’s crops depend on rain rather than irrigation. Last year “was desperately dry”, says Mr Gust.

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