India has halted its
potash imports until the end of March, as droughts
significantly reduce demand in the country, which is one of the
world’s largest consumers of fertiliser,
Reuters reported.
India, whose major phosphate suppliers
include Uralkali PJSC, Potash Corp. of
Saskatchewan, Agrium Inc.,
Mosaic Co., K+S AG,
Arab Potash Co. and Israel Chemicals
Ltd, has also delayed negotiations for 2017 potash
purchases until at least June.
Government and industry officials have
said that Indian potash imports are unlikely to reach levels of
over 4m tonnes seen in recent years in 2017.
According to Reuters, spot prices
for potash currently stand at around $230/tonne, an eight-year
low and a reduction of over a quarter since last year.
London-listed Russian phosphate producer
PhosAgro OJSC’s top priority for
the coming year will be to continue with large-scale investment
projects to expand and modernise existing facilities, according
to the company’s CEO, Andrey Guryev.
This will include construction of a 760
tpa ammonia production facility, a 500 tpa granulated urea line
and the overhaul of existing urea and phosphate-based
fertiliser capacities at its Cherepovets site.
The company will also aim to complete
development of its upstream capacities at Apatit, which will
include increasing outputs at the Kirovskiy and Rasumchorrskiy
mines and completing modernisation work of the
apatite-nepheline peneficiation plant, ANOF-3.
All of the projects will be completed in
2017.
The Office of the Ombudsman in New Zealand
will investigate expenses charged by the country’s
Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to
Chatham Rock Phosphate Ltd.
The costs were associated with a declined
marine consent application filed by Chatham. The miner is
contesting New Zealand dollar (NZ$) 800,000 ($530,808*) in
invoiced costs, of a total of $2.7m ($1.7m) charged by the
EPA.
"The requested scope of the investigation
was first to examine the EPA's costs recovery practices for its
marine consent process - including the withholding of
information from CRP which was relevant to whether some of the
charges were authorised by law," said Chris Castle, CEO of
Chatham.
TSX-V listed oil and gas producer,
American Petrogas Inc. has brought on board
advisory firm Advisian to prepare a
preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of phosphate resources at
its Bayovar mineral concessions in Peru.
Advisian, a subsidiary of Worley
Parsons, expects to publish the results of the PEA
during Q2 2016, ahead of a prefeasibility study (PFS) by the
end of the year.
Senegal’s Mimran Natural
Resources is set to buy a 45% stake in local company,
AFRIG SA, which owns a number of phosphate and
heavy mineral deposits in the West African state.
AFRIG intends to enter the fertiliser
market through the construction of the country’s
second phosphoric acid plant, the other being an existing
facility held by Industries Chimiques du
Senegal.
Zambian miner, Zamphos Minerals
Resources Ltd, has discovered phosphate deposits in
the country’s Isoka district, the Zambian
Daily Mail newspaper has reported.
The company is currently engaged in
exploratory drilling for phosphate at the site, which is also
believed to hold rare earths and a number of other
minerals.
"We are
looking at other mineral prospects but, the major one is the
phosphate fertiliser, although there are also deposits of
dolomite, ankerite, siderite, Isokite and apatile," Zamphos
geologist Tapuwa Muthetwa told the Daily
Mail.
Zambia currently imports 90% of its
phosphate requirements from China.
In financing news, ASX-listed
Minbos Resources Ltd has entered into a
subscription agreement with Green Services
Investment, to raise Australian dollar (A$) 3.4m
($2.4m) via the placement of 680m shares.
The placement will be conducted in two
tranches, one of 268m shares for $1.3m and one of 412m shares
at $2.1m, plus an issue of 385m options at an exercise price of
A$0.01.
The proceeds from the financing will be
used to fund a bankable feasibility study (BFS) at
Minbos’s 50%-owned Cabinda phosphate project in
Angola.
*Conversions made February
2016