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Potash/Phosphate

Nutrien to cut 80 jobs at Vanscoy potash operation, raises earnings forecast – by Ian Bickis (Canadian Press/Financial Post – August 1, 2018)

https://business.financialpost.com/

SASKATOON — Nutrien Ltd. increased its earnings forecast for the year Wednesday after announcing job cuts at its Vanscoy potash operation in Saskatchewan earlier in the day. The fertilizer giant said the job cuts will take place in the fourth quarter this year and include about 30 staff and 50 hourly positions.

The changes are meant to make the Vanscoy operations more efficient as it looks for synergies following the merger of Potash Corp. and Agrium Inc. to form Nutrien at the start of the year, the company said.

Nutrien said in its second-quarter results out Wednesday that it had achieved US$246 million in synergies as of the end of June, up from the US$150 million it said it had achieved as of March.

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TRANSFORMATION: Digging out from a mine closure: Sussex gives itself a shake and tries new things – by Connell Smith (CBC News New Brunswick – July 16, 2018)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/

Southern New Brunswick town lost 1,000 jobs almost overnight when PotashCorp pulled out

Uwe Fiehn has a numbers problem. Despite a fairly steady stream of lunch-time customers exclaiming over the pastries and European breads, the owner of the Country Home Bakery knows a lot more people should be stopping in.

“Every day we need 100 to 110 customers, then you have a very good business,” Fiehn said. “If you have 80 customers every day, that’s also perfect. “But we have at the moment just 50 to 55, you know?” Fiehn and his wife, Linda, bought the property in Sussex Corner, outside Sussex, in August 2015.

1,000 jobs gone

Five months later, PotashCorp delivered the shattering news to Sussex and surrounding communities that it was closing its mine in nearby Penobsquis.

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Why now might be the right time to plant Nutrien in your portfolio – by Jonathan Ratner (Financial Post – July 5, 2018)

https://business.financialpost.com/

A recent rally in potash and nitrogen prices has pushed Nutrien’s shares back up toward the level at which they began trading post-merger

Maybe it has something to do with the name change, but more likely it is the result of a persistently weak market for fertilizer ingredients.

Any way you slice it, Nutrien Ltd. has been buried in the back of many investors’ minds since it was created through the US$36-billion mega-merger of Agrium and PotashCorp of Saskatchewan early this year.

But things could be about to change, thanks to a recent rally in potash and nitrogen prices that has pushed Nutrien’s shares back up toward the level at which they began trading post-merger.

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Nutrien to occupy what will be Saskatchewan’s tallest office building – by Alex Macherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – June 14, 2018)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

The world’s largest fertilizer company is set to move into what will become the province’s tallest office building once it’s built on the north edge of Saskatoon’s River Landing.

Nutrien Ltd. on Thursday announced plans to relocate its roughly 300 local employees to the 18-storey steel-and-glass tower, construction of which is set to begin soon.

While the terms of the agreement are confidential, Nutrien President and CEO Chuck Magro described it as a multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment for the company.

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Fortune 500 phosphate company Mosaic moving headquarters to Florida – Kevin Bouffard (Orlando Sentinel – May 15, 2018)

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/

Phosphate mining giant The Mosaic Co. is moving its corporate headquarters to Hillsborough County in Tampa Bay from Plymouth, Minn. The statement was short on details, including timing, the exact location of the corporate office and the number of employees to be relocated. All “remain under consideration,” it said.

Mosaic, No. 377 on Fortune 500’s ranking of companies by total revenue, has about 150 employees at its corporate office, company spokesman Benjamin Pratt told the Tampa Bay Times in an email on Monday.

Mosaic currently runs its Florida phosphate operations from a multi-story office building in southeastern Hillsborough. It also has an office to the north near Interstate 75 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

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All-women mine rescue team hoping to break down barriers – by Alex MacPherson *Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 14, 2018)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

Kari Lentowicz hopes taking what is thought to be the world’s first all-female mine rescue team to a major competition in Russia will help demolish barriers in a male-dominated industry.

The seven-member group, nicknamed Diamonds in the Rough, is currently raising the $84,000 it needs to travel to Ekaterinburg for the 2018 iteration of the biennial International Mines Rescue Competition.

Lentowicz, who spent more than a decade working in Saskatchewan’s mining industry and has spoken previously about her struggles in a sector dominated by men, is serving as the Diamonds’ coach.

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[Jordan Mining] Three int’l firms interested to explore new deposits of potash (Jordan Times – May 12, 2018)

http://jordantimes.com/

AMMAN — The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is currently considering financial proposals from three companies interested to carry out an assessment study of the potash reserves in the Lisan Area of the Dead Sea, which falls outside the area where the Arab Potash Company (APC) has exclusive mining rights, a top official announced on Saturday.

Minister Saleh Kharabsheh said in a ministry press statement, carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that the ministry’s next step is to float an international tender to explore potash in the said area.

He explained that that the project is part of the ministry’s strategy to enhance the added value of the Kingdom’s mining sector and boost its contribution to the gross domestic product.

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Mosaic Company reported lower sales volumes but higher sales revenue for quarter – by Tom Meersman (Minneapolis Star Tribune – May 7, 2018)

http://www.startribune.com/

Late spring planting and rail bottlenecks in Canada affected its earnings.

Helped by higher prices for phosphate and potash, net sales for the Mosaic Company rose by about 19 percent during the first quarter of 2018, although adjusted earnings were negatively affected by the late spring planting and other weather-related issues.

The global fertilizer company based in Plymouth said Monday that its net sales during the quarter were $1.9 billion, compared with $1.6 billion last year.

Mosaic CEO Joc O’Rourke said the company expects the positive momentum to continue because of improving market conditions and strong operational performance. In addition, O’Rourke said in a statement: “Our excellent progress on the transformational initiatives at Mosaic Fertilizantes is expected to generate substantial earnings growth in the second half of 2018.”

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‘It’s getting to a point where we have too many of these existential crises’: Saskatchewan government renews call for federal solution to transportation woes – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – April 30, 2018)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

Saskatchewan’s energy and resources minister says the federal government should act swiftly to prevent another railway backlog like the one that has plagued the province’s farmers and potash producers this year.

Ottawa should not only pass Bill C-49 — new legislation aimed at improving rail service — but ensure the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline System to B.C. is built, Bronwyn Eyre said Monday in an interview.

“If those two factors were resolved, the railway would be more free and more product could move. It’s getting to a point where we have too many of these existential crises (for) too many sectors,” Eyre said.

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Fertilizer giant Nutrien to temporarily lay off up to 1,300 in Saskatchewan (Canadian Press/Globe and Mail – April 27, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Fertilizer giant Nutrien Ltd. says it will temporarily lay off up to 1,300 workers at two of its potash mines in Saskatchewan. The layoffs are to affect staff at the Vanscoy mine this month and the Allan mine in early May.

Will Tigley, a company spokesman, says some essential staff would remain at both facilities. According to Nutrien, the layoff is directly related to rail transportation backlogs, the possibility of a Canadian Pacific Railway strike and growing inventory.

The company says layoffs aren’t unusual and they could last for days or weeks. Premier Scott Moe called on the federal government to put pressure on the railways to improve service.

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Brazilian shuffle: Canpotex opens Sao Paulo office as Vale exits fertilizer industry – by Andrew Willis (Globe and Mail – April 23, 2018)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

As Brazil’s largest mining company exits the fertilizer industry, Canada’s leading potash exporter is ramping up its operations in South America’s largest agricultural market.

Canpotex Ltd., the Saskatoon-based company that sells potash from 10 Saskatchewan mines to farmers around the world, is expected to announce the opening of its first office in Brazil on Monday.

In an interview, Canpotex chief executive Ken Steitz said expanding its sales effort in Brazil is part of a $1-billion investment to better position the Canadian company as a dominant fertilizer supplier to a country that’s expected to lead the world in food production over the next three decades.

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BHP strikes potash as Jansen shafts reach 940 metres – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – April 6, 2018)

http://thestarphoenix.com/

One of the world’s largest mining companies has struck potash in Saskatchewan. Five years after committing $2.6 billion to sink a pair of kilometre-deep shafts at its Jansen mine project, BHP confirmed that drilling crews reached potash deposits 924 metres below ground late last month.

While the multibillion-dollar mine has yet to be sanctioned by the Anglo-Australian mining giant’s board, Giles Hellyer, the company’s vice president of potash operations, said reaching potash was a “significant milestone.”

“Shaft sinking is technical and complex,” Hellyer said in an emailed statement. “The ongoing sinking and completion of the shafts over the next couple of years will help us reduce the development risk of this greenfield project and give us access to what we believe is one of the world’s best undeveloped potash resources.”

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Gold mine of potash sits beneath Michigan, could be worth $65 billion – by Keith Matheny (Detroit Free Press – March 16, 2018

https://www.freep.com/

About a mile-and-a-half underground in north-central Michigan, an almost-forgotten reserve of the potassium-rich mineral salt potash could be worth $65 billion to the Michigan economy.

A widely used agricultural fertilizer, Michigan’s potash may be some of the purest found anywhere in the world. It’s spurring a Colorado engineer and geologist’s plan for a more than $700-million mining and processing facility in Osceola County.

“This is a transformative, generational opportunity for Osceola County,” said Michigan Potash CEO Theodore Pagano. “One of the world’s tightest-controlled commodities sits in Evart Township, and it’s the highest-graded ore by a factor of two. And it sits in a location better than anybody else’s in the world.”

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Mine Accident Shows a Potash Market Nervous About Outages – by Jen Skerritt and Aliaksandr Kudrytski (Bloomberg News – March 16, 2018)

https://www.bloombergquint.com/

(Bloomberg) — The news, when it came late Friday night from a government ministry in Minsk, was grim: the ceiling of a potash mine in Belarus had collapsed more than half a kilometer underground, trapping two workers.

Halfway around the world, the reaction to the headlines was swift and dramatic. Shares of some of the largest potash producers soared in New York and Toronto on speculation that the accident could knock out a large chunk of global production capacity.

The March 9 episode vividly illustrates that after a decade of gluts, the industry is suddenly nervous again about supply shocks. Demand has been constantly increasing and any change in production from the world’s top suppliers in Canada, Belarus and Russia has the potential to impact the market dramatically, said Daniel Sherman, a senior analyst for Edward Jones in St. Louis.

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INSIGHT: Brazil Potash – King of the jungle? (ICIS.com – February 14, 2018)

https://www.icis.com/

LONDON (ICIS)–Deep in the Amazon lies a wide clearing – an unremarkable space overlooked by jungle trees with little sign of human habitation. However, if muriate of potash (MOP) start-up Brazil Potash pulls off its plan, the sleepy jungle of Autazes could soon be home to the nation’s largest MOP mine – a scheme CEO Matt Simpson believes could vastly reduce Brazil’s near-complete reliance on imported potash fertilizer.

Simpson – an experienced industry professional in the field of mining – heads up Brazil Potash, which formed in 2009 with a simple plan: to provide Brazil’s immense agricultural industry with a homegrown source of the vital mineral fertilizer.

‘Potash’ is the umbrella term for a number of potassium-rich fertilizers used the world over to support plant nutrition, improve yields, and fend off disease.

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