ChrisJC
12 years ago
"davetidza" wrote:

The reason that none of these firms mine in this country is that there is very little left to mine - we've had it all away over the last 500 years or so!



Not forgetting the tremendous regulatory / environmental / NIMBYism hurdles you have to overcome in the UK to as much as lift the first turf!

Chris.
John Lawson
12 years ago
Looks as if my memory was a little rusty, but originally there
were going to be three potash mines, and probably RTZ were involved in one or other of the two mines that failed to materialise.
I.C.I. were interested from their fertiliser manufacture, and of course had other mining interests at the time-namely Weardale Lead which supplied fluorspar, for their hydrofluoric acid business.
Presumably Anglo-American sold out Boulby as not being of their core business.
RTZ were going to do a similar thing with their diamond mines, but reconsidered it probably, noting how keen the Chinese are on this pure carbon.
Knocker
12 years ago
The interesting one with Anglo American is that they actually ended up owning 100% of Boulby 14 years ago. At that point Boulby was 100% owned by Minorco Minerals who were bought by Anglo American in 1999.
John Lawson
12 years ago
According to my usual source this project looks even bleaker than before.
Quoting directly' there is the risk that this project will be stillborn'.
Apparently they have only £20 million to invest, their share price has fallen to 15p and the picture for potash prices looks less certain, due a partial brake up of a trading cartel.
If the price does fall then the price they might get for their product may fall below what is economic.
Knocker
12 years ago
You're spot on John, what Potash is currently seeing, is a rerun of the International Tin Council Collapse, which killed off the Cornish Tin Mines. The price of Potash has dropped from its peak of a £1000 a tonne two years ago to £350-£400 a tonne, following a Russian Major producer pulling out of the cartel last week.

It will take a while to even itself out again, although it will not take as long as tin did (Nearly 20 years) as the stockpiles aren't there.

For Boulby, they're still quids in - in 1999, the price was £120 a tonne and they were doing very nicely then.
Ty Gwyn
12 years ago
Think your pricing is a bit high there Knocker,
It did reach nearly 580 pounds per ton 5yrs back,but its been under 300 pounds for a few years.
Knocker
12 years ago
Yorkshireman
12 years ago
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-07/potash-ceo-doesn-t-see-change-for-canpotex-export-venture.html 

Potash prices have dropped sharply (as have the share prices of potash producers) - I wonder how this will affect the planned mine near Whitby?

Cheers
D.
Jimbo
  • Jimbo
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
12 years ago
"Yorkshireman" wrote:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-07/potash-ceo-doesn-t-see-change-for-canpotex-export-venture.html

Potash prices have dropped sharply (as have the share prices of potash producers) - I wonder how this will affect the planned mine near Whitby?

Cheers
D.



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John Lawson
12 years ago
Latest info from my usuall source is that Sirius minerals have visited friends in the city, and recapitalised itself, with now apparently enough money to open the mine.
As we know there are stll two uncertainties.
The first is planning permission, and the second the state of the potash market, given the collapse of the cartel.
Apparently prices are stable for now but the future price is more difficult to guess.
Apparently there are three more potential potash mines which are also in the planning /development stage and all three of these new mines are said to be suspect due to this price uncertainty.
boaz
  • boaz
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
12 years ago
It was in the Yorkshire Post, yesterday, that they had got £25million investment + £8.5 million they already had which would be enough to carry them through the delayed/revised planning stage
John Lawson
12 years ago
New information on this project today, from my usual source.
Their planning application is apparently going to take longer than expected.
The park authority want to consider matters arising from the' European habitat legislation'!
This means that would not be in a position to raise their potash until 2018.
On hearing this the market, promptly knocked their shares down from 19.8p to 9.8p.
The company also revealed it lost£14.5 million in the year ending 31st March.
This more or less was taken care of by the $25 million raised earlier this year. (according to my source this came from ONE U.S. shareholder!)
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