Meanwhile, chief executive Cristiano Veloso and VP of corporate development Jed Richardson decided to focus on the Cerrado Verde project, an unusual thermal potash opportunity in Brazil. Put simply, the company plans to heat the rock to almost 1,100C, which releases the potash nutrients into the rock. The end product is a slow-release fertilizer.
This technique has never been attempted in potash, largely because it is very energy-intensive and potash prices were too low for a long time. But now it makes sense.
Amazon has worked hard to gain political support for the project, and has maintained a lot of core institutional support. As the story started to come together, the stock turned around. "We faced our weakness up front and were left with a lot of good shareholders," Mr. Richardson said.
This week, Amazon reported an initial resource at Cerrado Verde of 105 million tones of potassium oxide with a grade of 10.3%.