PotashCorp Plans New Brunswick Project

PotashCorp of Saskatchewan has announced plans to invest $1.6 billion in a new potash mine and an expanded potash mill in the province of New Brunswick. The investment is the latest of several potash expansions from the firm, which calls itself the world???s largest producer of the fertilizer.

Expected to take four years to complete, the New Brunswick project will add 2 million metric tons of potash capacity at an existing potash production complex. Combined with potash expansion projects in Saskatchewan, the company says, its overall capacity will increase from 10.7 million metric tons today to 14.9 million metric tons by 2011.

PotashCorp says the new mine will exploit a potash deposit that contains ores similar to those found in Saskatchewan. The firm's New Brunswick facility is located close to the Port of Saint John and offers a shorter shipping time to Brazil and other Latin American countries, where it expects substantial growth in the demand for potash.

Moreover, because the New Brunswick project takes advantage of existing infrastructure, the company says, it will cost less than a similar expansion in Saskatchewan would. Such a project would take five to seven years and cost $2.22 billion, PotashCorp figures.

"Our goal is to be the lowest-cost supplier on a delivered basis to all key world markets," CEO Bill Doyle says.