CEO Allana ..
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Ethiopia has “huge potential” to become a significant potash producer, TSX V-listed Allana Potash CEO Farhad Abasov said on Thursday.
“It’s not going to be as big as Saskatchewan, but it’s going to be a substantial potash producer,” he commented in an interview.
Allana owns the Dallol project in the East African country, where it aims to publish an updated resource estimate in the middle of June.
A bankable feasibility study is scheduled to kick off immediately afterwards, to be completed around July or August next year.
Other companies active in the Ethiopian-Eritrean potash basin include Norway-based Yara Chemicals, diversified major BHP Billiton, Canadian hopeful Ethiopian Potash and Australian junior South Boulder.
Abasov said that Allana was hoping to produce around one-million tons yearly of the crop nutrient by late 2014, which it could expand in the future.
“We think the production can reach several million tons a year...as we start production and learn more about the market dynamics, and if there is enough demand, we can increase it beyond one-million tons.”
On Thursday, Reuters quoted Ethiopia Mines Minister Sinkenesh Ejigu as saying the country hoped to produce one-million tons of potash a year within five years, which Abasov said was a conservative projection.
A one-million ton operation would cost in the “hundreds of millions”, which Abasov hoped would not top $1-billion, though he said it was too early to estimate.
Already, the company has a 105-million-ton resource, which it Abasov said could be “significantly improved” through the recently completed drilling on the western portion of the property.
The company also plans on publishing another resource update later this year, based on drilling on the eastern part of the project.
Initially, Allana plans on trucking its potash to the Djibouti port, but hopes to make use of a rail line the Ethiopian government plans to develop. Abasov said the company might get its production on rail cars by around 2016, which should be cheaper than transporting it by road.
Saskatchewan is the biggest potash producer, accounting for around one-third of global supplies.
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/...ash-says-allana-ceo-2011-06-10 -----------
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