Newsletter
Potash Update – December 2023
Mining
Potash Mining
Newsletter: Winter 2023-2024
For the last 12 years or so, activity on the potash development proposed for Osceola County has come in waves. Those of us living in the sacrifice zone are now mercifully experiencing yet another lull in the action. On the crest of the last wave, the Michigan Potash and Salt Company’s efforts to secure investment capital and financing received a huge boost from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. At that time, Russia and its principal ally Belarus, provided about 11% of US potash imports. The West’s boycott of those countries contributed to a global potash shortage, spiking prices from about $250/T to over $1200.
Suddenly, the once dubious economic assumptions of the Evart Township venture became plausible, attracting the attention of investors and financial institutions. MPS&C’s intrepid promoters wasted no time in pressing this market windfall to help raise the $1.2 billion cost of the project. While private capital remained skittish, the Michigan Strategic Fund seemed poised to approve upwards of $200 million in “private activity bonds” to support the project. Letters and comments were submitted to MSF by MCWC members and a public hearing was requested. The bonding proposal has been pending for almost a year now with no action (that we can determine from review of MSF board minutes.)
Meanwhile, the tragic war on Ukraine has dragged on, and fertilizer markets have adjusted to boycotts and price shocks. The global market price of potash this month is about $300-350/T, not very much above its historic price.
More recently, MP&SC applied to the EPA to modify its 3 Class I disposal wells permits issued in 2017 for deep-well injection of salt-brine waste from the potash refining process. Most significantly, the modification if approved, will expand the underground injection zone upward by about 1,000 feet into the Dundee formation. Access to the highly porous (and generously perforated) Dundee limestone is required, apparently because the originally permitted formations were deemed inadequate to receive the volumes and injection pressures anticipated.
MCWC members again answered the call, submitting comments to the EPA ahead of the October 4, 2023 deadline. Additionally, we requested that the EPA hold a public hearing as it is pledged to do upon a showing of “significant interest.” To date, we’ve seen no evidence that the permit modifications are approved, nor have we received notice of any public hearing.
Michigan Potash Watch, a committee of MCWC