BHP Group Ltd., Melbourne, reported that its Jansen Stage 1 potash project in Saskatchewan, Canada, 140 kilometers east of Saskatoon, is now 20% complete, up from 16% complete in January (GM Jan. 20, p. 29).
BHP said in its operational review for the nine months to March 31, 2023, published on April 21, that in the quarter to March 31 the group started blasting and excavation work at the bottom of the shafts.
For the remainder of FY2023, BHP said it will continue to focus on civil and mechanical construction on the surface and underground, as well as equipment procurement and port construction.
The mining group is targeting first production at Jansen (Stage 1) for the end of the 2026 calendar year (GM July 22, 2022), which, when fully ramped-up, is expected to produce 4.35 million mt/y of potassium chloride.
BHP additionally reported the feasibility study for Jansen Stage 2 continues to progress, and said the study is on track to be completed during the group’s 2024 financial year. The group revealed in February that it had accelerated the feasibility study for Stage 2, bringing the expected completion forward by a year earlier from FY2025 (GM Feb. 24, p. 1).
Stage 2 could add another 4 million mt/y of capacity.
BHP is reported to be still open to partnering with Nutrien Ltd., according to a Globe & Mail interview with Ragner Udd, BHP President, Minerals America, in March (GM March 17, p. 1). In 2021, as BHP got closer to a final decision on whether to proceed on the Jansen mine, which it opted to do in August (GM Aug. 20, 2021), much of the speculation was that BHP would partner with Nutrien on Jansen (GM June 25, 2021; May 28, 2021).
Pressed further by the interviewer as to what kind of deal might occur, Udd said the company is looking at a “myriad of options.”