The ongoing expansion of Brazil’s industrial farms has created a robust market for the mineral feedstocks used for the manufacture of chemical fertilisers. Historically, demand was met largely by imports, but a combination of cost and geopolitical considerations has motivated agribusiness and government to invest in domestic fertiliser production. Most of this investment will be in mines and manufacturing plants in other parts of Brazil; however, the Brazilian Amazon has mineral resources that are cost-competitive and strategically vital. Andean countries also rely on imports and, although there is interest in Peru to enhance domestic sources, fertiliser feedstocks would not be of Amazonian origin. The Guianas do not have agricultural economies sufficient to justify investment in fertiliser factories, nor, apparently, sufficient mineral reserves to create an export industry. Potash: A New Mineral Resource in the Heart of the Amazon Brazil is the world’s largest single importer of potash fertiliser and it is almost entirely dependent (95 per cent) upon imports from three countries: Canada, Belarus and Russia. The fertiliser supply chain is about to undergo radical change, however, because of an ongoing effort to develop a world-class potash reserve located directly underneath the Amazon River floodplain. The potash was discovered by Petrobras geologists when they were exploring for oil in the Amazon and Solimões basins in the 1980s. The deposit consists of a 400-kilometre-long band of sedimentary rock that is one to four metres thick buried 650 to 900 metres below the surface of the Amazon floodplain. The ore body is…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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