Nutrien Ltd., Saskatoon, has announced it will keep its Vanscoy potash mine down through the end of January. It cited market conditions. Some 265 employees will be affected. It was originally to come back up at the end of December. The idled Allan and Lanigan mines are expected to return to production Dec. 29 as previously planned and their production is expected to be sufficient to help the company meet near term demand.
Junior sulfate of potash (SOP) producer Salt Lake Potash Ltd. (SO4), Perth, Western Australia, announced it has inked a binding term sheet with Helm AG, Germany, for the sale of SOP from its Lake Way project. The volume commitment under the agreement is for 50,000 mt/y for 10 years, and will be for key geographical markets within Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
SO4 said it has now secured 220,000 mt/y of offtake, representing 90 percent of total planned production for five and ten-year terms from the start of shipping in 2021 with take-or-pay arrangements on product resale.
OCP Group said it is temporarily curtailing its phosphate production plans by 500,000 mt, effective mid-December through the end of February 2020.
It said this decision to reduce its planned production is driven by recent weather conditions and forecasted consignments at Moroccan ports that are expected to continue until the end of February 2020.
Given current demand levels, OCP said it does not believe that this temporary reduced production will affect supply to the company’s customer base. It added that it continues to expect that demand will increase in 2020, and it will be ready to adjust its phosphate production levels to meet its customers’ needs.
