more potash projects in Congo Brazzaville
Article from: The Australian
YOU knew where you stood in my day: there was French Equatorial Africa and there was the Belgian Congo. No confusion.
Buttoday they are - respectively - the Republic of Congo (orCongo-Brazzaville) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (orCongo-Kinshasa). Plenty of confusion.
The latter has been thefocus of foreign mining companies for some years - the riches ofKatanga province, the almost unbelievable gold grades, the tantalum andso on.
But, slowly but surely, things are starting to stir inCongo-Brazzaville. Mining hasn’t had much of a look in there because ofthe nation’s oil and gas riches, which account for 92 per cent of thecountry’s exports.
We have already seen DMC Mining (DMM)acquire a potentially very large iron ore project - and, moreover, onelocated near an existing railway line that would be used to haul theore to the coast. Last week, a placement raised another $4 million,part of which will be used to finance diamond drilling, which willstart next month at Mayoko.
Now comes potash. There is already one established potash project owned by Canadian company MagIndustries.
Itis not surprising that Elemental Minerals (ELM) got a 125 per centboost to its share price on Thursday, when it announced it had pickedup the Sintoukoula potash project in Congo-Brazzaville. Significantly,this ground is just 50km from the country’s port for overseas shipping,Pointe Noire. There has already been work done there, and the Canadianground to the south includes the Holle mine, which operated from 1969until 1977, when it was flooded and closed down. That mine producedsylvite, which is potassium chloride and essential to fertilisers.
Here’sthe point: if ELM’s project gets legs, then there are going to be agood many players becoming interested - especially the Chinese, who arescouring the world for sources of potash and phosphate. This is notonly because of the need to maintain food production in China. What ishappening now is that China is looking to Africa as a future foodsource. The China-Africa Development Fund says it has earmarked $US5billion ($5.8bn) for production of food and cash crops in Africa. Adelegation from the fund was in Liberia earlier this year looking atthe potential for growing rice and other cash crops. Another Chinesegroup has proposed taking over unused land outside the Kenyan capitalof Nairobi and developing new farms. There was talk of a new cornflourplant and raising donkeys on grassland to provide hides needed forChinese medicine.
All these projects will need fertilisers. So, watch ELM.