Twitter

Potash/Phosphate

Vancouver port strike hitting potash exports at crunch time for overseas farmers – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – July 6, 2023)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The strike at four British Columbia ports is putting more pressure on an already-stressed international potash shipping network, with overseas farmers potentially caught in the crosshair. Nutrien Ltd, The Mosaic Company and K+S Potash Canada operate large potash mines in Saskatchewan, and all rely heavily on shipping the agricultural commodity overseas from the West Coast.

Canpotex Ltd., which handles potash shipments for Saskatoon-based Nutrien Ltd. and Tampa-based Mosaic, sends 70 per cent of its international shipments through the Port of Vancouver, one of four facilities affected by the strike.

Read more

Mining companies betting on autonomous technology to make dangerous jobs safer – by Amanda Stephenson (CBC News Calgary/Canadian Press – June 25, 2023)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/

Powerful tech allowing companies to remove human labour from underground work

Forget about the canary in the coal mine — experts say the day is coming when there won’t even be a need for a human. The global mining industry has come a long way since the days when coal-blackened miners would carry a bird underground with them in hopes its distress would alert them to the presence of toxic gases.

Today, companies are employing everything from driverless haul trucks to remote-controlled and robotic drilling machines to remove human labour from some of their most hazardous operations.

Read more

Florida’s fertilizer industry funds research that prompts phosphorus-friendly laws – by Fernando Figueroa and Serra Sowers (Miami Herald – June 15, 2023)

https://www.miamiherald.com/

When The Mosaic Co. wanted to study using phosphogypsum — a waste byproduct of the phosphate industry now heaped into small mountains — in road construction, it turned to the Sustainable Materials Management Research Laboratory at the University of Florida’s College of Engineering.

Environmental engineering professor Timothy Townsend works in Florida and around the world on sustainable solid and hazardous waste management. Mosaic, a Tampa-based Fortune 500 company that mines phosphate for fertilizer, has sponsored roughly $500,000 in research funding for his lab over the past three years for projects that seek to find beneficial uses for phosphogypsum.

Read more

Saskatchewan’s rich resource revenue ride may be ending – by Phil Tank (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – May 17, 2023)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

With the price of oil and potash dropping, the boom that fuelled Saskatchewan’s budget surplus after Russia invaded Ukraine could be ending.

The party might be ending. The surge in resource prices that bestowed a windfall of so much unexpected resource revenue money on our province that even the Saskatchewan Party managed to balance the budget shows signs of declining.

The price of potash, the main driver of the sudden Saskatchewan surplus, has been dropping since November. Last week, the CEO of Saskatoon-based Nutrien Ltd., Ken Seitz, indicated the company is reconsidering its plans to ramp up potash production after disappointing first-quarter results due to dropping prices and reduced sales.

Read more

Canada can play a major role in addressing growing food insecurity, Nutrien CEO says – by Rosa Saba (Canadian Press/CTV News – April 5, 2023)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

TORONTO – Canada is poised to play a big role in global food production as climate change makes farming more difficult and the world’s food supply chain is rendered fragile by political and economic uncertainty, said Nutrien CEO Ken Seitz. Seitz made the remarks in Toronto at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Canada.

He said climate change is redrawing the map of global food production and Canada has an opportunity to be a key player in addressing food insecurity. The world faces a double-barrelled problem, said Seitz: “To feed a rapidly growing world, we’ll need to produce more food and we’ll need to do it sustainably.”

Read more

Conversations: Nutrien’s Ken Seitz on how Canada can seize its spot on the world stage – by Kevin Carmichael (Financial Post- April 3, 2023)

https://financialpost.com/

The game has changed and Canada, via Nutrien, could win it

If you were drafting a team to confront this age of climate, technological and geopolitical disruption, Ken Seitz might be a first-round pick.

The company Seitz leads, Nutrien Inc., is the world’s biggest producer of potash and the largest agricultural retailer. That puts the Saskatoon-based company in the middle of the climate fight since agriculture is both a significant source of greenhouse-gas emissions and export revenue.

Read more

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.”

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

[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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more