Saskatchewan—BHP Billiton Ltd. has cut its capital expenditure on its Jansen Potash Project in Saskatchewan from US$330 million last fiscal year to about US$200 million this year, the president of BHP’s Canadian unit, Giles Hellyer, told Bloomberg late this week. The effect of cutting the rate of expenditure on Jansen will push the timeline for the completion of the production and service shafts from 2017/18 to 2018/19, he said. Jansen was 54 percent complete as of Dec. 31, 2015 (GM Jan. 28, p. 15). BHP has committed US$3.75 billion to acquiring land, sinking, and lining the two shafts and building some of the above-ground infrastructure for the project, but it has not made a final investment decision on Jansen, which would produce upwards of 8 million mt/y of potash. Last month, CEO Andrew Mackenzie said BHP still wants to build the mine despite a severe bear market for the crop nutrient, but the group probably will not be ready for a push to production until the potash market recovers, which BHP does not see happening until the 2020s (GM Feb. 26, p. 16).
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