Morocco and Western Sahara have enough known phosphate to meet the world’s demand at present levels for 300 years.
Potash Potluck
The Australian reports today that BHP has bought a Canadian potash company.
MINING giant BHP Billiton said today it had agreed to buy Anglo Potash for $C284 million ($A300 million). BHP Billiton said Anglo Potash’s only asset was its 25 per cent interest in the Canadian potash joint venture development project in which BHP Billiton holds a 75 per cent stake. If the deal is approved, BHP Billiton would take 100 per cent control of the joint venture, which is focused on developing the first new potash mine in almost 40 years in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan.
The world’s largest potash producer is North American company Potash Corp. Energy Bulletin recently pointed to a presentation by William Doyle to Potash shareholders (pdf) quoting Norman Borlaug on the importance of fertiliser.
The company has a great Flash based app showing major fertiliser consumers and producers (the World agriculture and fertiliser map), along with various other pieces of information – have a play with it.
Good morning. Welcome to this annual meeting of PotashCorp shareholders. We appreciate this opportunity to discuss the performance and potential of your company – and to share our views on the global conditions that are shaping our industry. …
Our potash, phosphate and nitrogen are essential to growing healthy, nutritious crops and to maximizing yields. Today, we are the world’s largest fertilizer producer by capacity – and our efforts are increasingly important to global food production. …
The good news is that farmers have the ability to meet this everincreasing food demand – but it’s going to take time and a longterm commitment to intensive farming and proper fertilization. In the words of Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug, “This is a basic problem…without fertilizer, forget it. The game is over.”
Potash producers are currently thriving, courtesy of soaring fertiliser prices.
Across the board, the price of synthetic fertilizer has gone through the roof. Dealers are reporting farmers are paying double or even triple the amount they paid last year for the same amount of fertilizer.
Brian Fulmer, a corn and soybean farmer from Northhampton County, just got finished planting his soybeans this week. Liquid nitrogen, which he said he paid $175 a ton for last year, cost him $335 a ton this year.
He locked in starter fertilizer at $350 a ton, only to find out it had jumped to $700 a ton within a matter of weeks. “In the last two years, fertilizer prices have doubled. I hope the commodity prices don’t go back down, because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Fulmer said.
The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) index of fertilizer prices paid by farmers, which is derived from information from fertilizer dealers, has gone up nearly 200 percent since January of 2000. Much of the increase has been within the last year.
What’s to blame? According to Penn State ag economist Jayson Harper, high fuel prices and increasing demand are the culprits. “I wouldn’t be expecting any kind of price relief for the farmer anytime in the near future,” Harper said.
To Build Solar Panel, 18 oct 2011
