India’s Rajasthan state government has decided to open up its huge potash reserves to the private sector through auctions, following years of attempts to exploit the deposits commercially being stymied by bureaucratic red tape.
Rajasthan sits on some 20,419 million mt of total potash resources, according to the 2018 edition of the Indian Minerals Yearbook, published by the Indian Bureau of Mines. The deposits are mostly concentrated in the Nagaur-Ganganagar Basin of northwest Rajasthan. Known potash deposits are minimal elsewhere in India, but the country currently meets almost all of its domestic consumption of the nutrient through imports. Potassium chloride imports totaled around 4.5 million mt in calendar 2018.
Rajasthan’s state government has now set up a state-level empowered committee for harnessing potash deposits in the state, according to a report last week by India’s Hindustan Times and others, citing state Chief Secretary D.B. Gupta.
According to the Chief Secretary, the first task will be for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be inked between Rajasthan State Mines & Minerals Ltd. (RSMML), India’s Ministry of Mines-run Mineral Exploration Corp. Ltd. (MECL), and the Department of Mining and Geology to undertake feasibility and pilot plant studies.
The MOU is expected to be signed in “a few months’ time,” but the studies will be completed in six months, paving the way for auctions, according to the report, citing Gupta. Development and exploitation of the potash deposits have the potential to reverse the scenario from India being an importer of potash to an exporter of the commodity, he said.
The state government will need to undertake financial and economic studies before the auctions start, according to the report, citing Rajasthan’s Mines and Geology Director Gaurav Goyal.