Plentiful potash sector sees no need for change

• Autores: Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 611, 2019 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Julio - Agosto)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • [...]there have been acquisitions and sales - the collapse of the Belarusian Potash Company in 2013, the sale of Vale’s fertilizer mineral business to Mosaic in 2016, and the merger of Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan and Agrium in 2018 to form Nutrien, being obvious examples of recent major shake-ups. [...]Sirius has managed to steer the project through the various objections, largely by designing its way around issues of concern, and has gained the approvals necessary to build what is ultimately intended to be a 20 million tonne per year polyhalite operation. Because Sirius will be extracting polyhalite, rather than sylvite - the mineral that traditional muriate of potash (MOP) comes from - the Woodsmith mineral ore also contains sulphur, magnesium and calcium and the resource has a grade of 85.4%, so there is no need to remove any impurities to use it on crops, a step required for MOP. “Current potash production methods - conventional underground mining and conventional solution mining - were developed in the early to mid-1900s and no longer represent the most capital-efficient and environmental efficient way to produce potash,” the company states. Selective dissolution involves injecting a nearly saturated sodium chloride (NaCl) brine, utilizing brackish formation water (ie, water that is more saline than freshwater and is therefore not drinkable) into horizontal caverns.During this process, only the KCl (potash) is dissolved, leaving other minerals intact.The KCl-rich brine is then pumped to a process plant, where an energy-efficient cooling crystallization process removes the KCl, resulting in solid crystals of potassium nutrient.