Belarus’ potash reserves will last 100 years, according to the country’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Andrei Khudyk, in an interview with the state-owned national news agency BelTA.
The minister put the country’s current reserves of potash salt at 7.3 million mt, which, at the current rate of annual production pre-sanctions of 53 million mt of ore, provides the country with enough reserves for more than 100 years, he said.
In addition to the Starobin and Petrykau fields, which are being mined already, Khudyk said the Kastrychnitskaye, Zhytkavichy, and Kapatkevichy fields serve as a reserve raw material base for the country’s potash enterprises.
The Belarus pro-democracy and pro-human rights news site, Charter97.org, reported that due to Western sanctions, potash production in Belarus has collapsed by 60%.The first sanctions against Belarus – by the European Union – were imposed in the fall of 2020 after government violence and repression in the country following the disputed presidential elections in August 2020.
Belarus, according to IFA data, produced 13.1 million mt of potash in 2021, but output is estimated to have fallen since then, after Belarusian potash producer Belaruskali and its export marketing arm Belarusian Potash Co. lost their – at that time – key potash export route, after the Lithuanian government’s decision to end the railway transit contract between the country’s state-owned railway company, Lietuvos Geležinkeliai’s (LTG), and Belaruskali over national security concerns, effective Feb. 1, 2022 (GM Jan. 14, 2022).