Tectonic Metals gets funding for gold exploration in Alaska
The company's Flat gold project is located 40 km north of the giant Donlin gold project.
The big three North American potash producers – Agrium (NYSE:AGU), Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (TSX:POT) and Mosaic Co. (NYSE:MOS) – have settled anti-trust claims in the US without admitting any wrongdoing.
Potash Corp and Mosaic will each pay around $44 million, while Agrium agreed to a $10 million payment.
Another defender Russian potash giant Uralkali (LSE:URKA) settled the claims in September also for around $10 million.
The drawn-out class-action – thrown out in September 2011 last year only to be revived by the US Court of Appeals in June last year – dates back to 2008 and accuses seven companies of engaging in a global conspiracy to raise the price of potash since 2003.
Together the groups alleged to operate as a ‘cartel’ produce some 70% of the world’s potash – a key ingredient in fertilizers. Global demand is between 50–60 million tonnes per year.
Chinese and Indian consumption drove the potash price from $100/tonne in 2004 to above $900/tonne in the run up to the 2008 recession when the boom went bust and prices rapidly fell back to $350/tonne.
After trading in the $500–$540 a tonne range for most 2011, the price of the soil nutrient steadily declined last year to average around $460–$470 a tonne.
At the start of the year Canpotex – the offshore marketing arm for the Agrium, Potash Corp and Mosaic – signed a deal with China for around $400 a tonne.
Talks with India – the world’s number one importer – continue.
India has been eager to diversify its supply and state-owned enterprises from the country have been in talks with two Canadian potash juniors about off-take and ownership deals.
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