Ashgabat—Turkmenistan this week invited official bids for a project to build the country’s second potash plant. The announcement, published by state-run Turkmenhimiya, said the facility would be based at the Karabil potash deposit in northeastern Turkmenistan. No capacity details have emerged.
The country officially commissioned a Belarusian-built potash mining and processing plant at Garlyk based on the same deposit at the end of March (GM March 31, p. 16). That facility is expected to produce 1.4 million mt/y at full production, although neither Turkmenistan nor Belarus sources have indicated when the plant is expected to be fully ramped-up.
Last week at its Analyst Day 2017, The Mosaic Co. said it has pegged Garlyk’s output this year at 300,000 mt in its S&D projections, and sees the facility ramping up to the full 1.4 million mt/y capacity over the course of the next three to four years. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who attended the opening ceremony March 31, said most of the Garlyk plant’s output would go to China and India.
Minsk has said it would help Turkmenistan to market the potash (GM May 13, 2016). Turkmenistan is working to diversify its economy away from natural gas amid declining export revenues.