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Yara finalizes USD 100 million potash exploration project
Yara Dallol BV, a subsidiary of Yara International, is finalizing a potash exploration project in the Afar Regional State with an outlay of 100 million dollars.
Sanjay Singh Rathore, executive director of Yara Dallol BV, last week said that his company has been prospecting for potash in the Afar Dallol depression. Sanjay said that his company had discovered a substantial amount of potash in its concession.
The company has already undertaken a feasibility study. “We are now in the process to complete the definitive feasibility study. If approved we will be producing 0.6 million tons of potash annually by applying solution mining,” Singh said.
If the definitive feasibility study is approved by the board of the company, Yara will build a potash mine in the Dallol depression. It will also construct a potash fertilizer factory. The total cost of the project is estimated at one billion dollars.
Drilling activity started at site in 2010, and most drilling and drilling-related activities were completed in 2012. The project development phase will be finalized with the Definitive Bankable Feasibility study which is expected to be finalized soon. According to Yara, the study will be the basis for a decision on whether to proceed with project execution and realization, with production start-up 2-3 years thereafter.
According to the company, the estimated capacity for the Dallol project is 1-1.5 million tons of potash per year, with resources of more than 30 years mining. Yara hopes to supply ten percent of the current global potash market.
Yara International is an agricultural chemicals giant that has been supplying fertilizers to Ethiopia.
Allana Potash of Canada is also in the process to build a potash mine in the Dallol depression. The company secured a mining license from the Ethiopian ministry of mines a year ago. A local company, Ethio-Potash Corporation is also exploring the Dallol depression.
According to a recent World Bank study on the Ethiopian extractive industry the mining sector accounts for around one percent of the Ethiopian economy, which is expected to reach 10 percent in ten years time. The study says potash is likely to be one of the first industrial minerals to contribute to the growth.
Filed under: Ag Related, Economy, Infrastructure Developments Tagged: Agriculture, Allana Potash, Business, Economic growth, Ethiopia, Fertilizer, Investment, Millennium Development Goals, Sub-Saharan Africa, tag1, Yara International
