Cerrado Verde
Photo by: Verde Potash
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Potash and fertiliser development company Verde Potash on Wednesday announced that about $105-million in government funding for its flagship Cerrado Verde project, located within the country’s largest agriculture market, had been confirmed after an appeals period had ended.
Verde last month announced that it had been shortlisted to receive most of the capital it would require to build its project through government funding.
“The company is pleased to confirm that the result is now final and the joint support plan for each approved business plan will be sent on April 17,” the company said in a statement.
Entrepreneur Christiano Veloso recently told Mining Weekly Online that Brazil's government had enabled a pathway to production for the project in its own quest to become fertiliser independent by 2020.
Verde's business plan to develop the Cerrado Verde potash project consists of building a greenfield 1 000 t/d plant capable of producing the company’s proprietary ThermoPotash product and seeking performance guarantees for a large-scale potassium chloride (KCl) kiln.
Verde submitted its business plan for developing Cerrado Verde, at a price tag of about $115-million, of which Verde asked for about $105-million from Inova Agro.
This capital would be provided through loans with subsidised interest rates, equity investment and non-reimbursable project investment grants from the Brazilian Development Bank and/or the Financing Agency for Studies and Projects, both of which are branches of the Brazilian government that operate Inova Agro.
About $4.2-million could be provided as a non-reimbursable project investment grant.
Brazil is the world’s third-largest agricultural exporter. Potash is a critical fertiliser for agriculture, yet the country currently has to import about 90% of its potash from distant locations such as Canada's Saskatchewan and Belarus.
Brazil was the largest importer of potash globally in 2012 at 7.5-million tonnes of KCl. Potash consumption in Brazil has posted a ten-year compound annual growth rate of 4.7%, much stronger than 2.3% potash consumption growth globally. Vale currently operates the only potash mine in Brazil, which met only 7% of the country’s needs and is expected to be depleted in 2016.