Portugal’s mining strategy may favour copper over lithium
Portugal already has the largest copper mine in the European Union, operated by Lundin Mining.
Sirius Minerals PLC (LON:SXX) shares advanced around 5% on Thursday as the company sealed a 7-year commercial deal with Wilmar Group, a Singapore listed agribusiness firm, which will have exclusive rights for the use and resale of POLY4 in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines and Myanmar.
POLY4 is the fertiliser product that will be made at Sirius’ Woodsmith Mine in North Yorkshire, United Kingdom. According to the company, the site hosts the “world’s largest and highest grade polyhalite deposit” and it is set to generate an initial 10 million tonnes per year of this type of potash before it enters a second phase that will double that production to 20 million tonnes a year.
Within the deal with Wilmar up to 750,000 tonnes of the POLY4 would be shipped to Southeast Asian customers. The Singaporean company has the option to lift the offtake volume up to 1 million tonnes per annum. The pricing parameters will be linked to prevailing market prices for certain nutrients contained within POLY4, such as potassium, sulphur, magnesium and calcium.
“We are delighted to be partnering with one of the largest and most established fertilizer buyers and distributors in South East Asia, (…) a fast-growing market which provides Sirius with an attractive opportunity to further diversify and grow our current portfolio of customers,” Sirius managing director and CEO, Chris Fraser, said in a press release.
Yet, this is not Sirius’ first big contract. The London-listed company already had offtake deals with partners in Europe, South America, China and Southeast Asia. Together, those deals amounted to 3.6 million tonnes of fertilizer, according to a report by Proactive Investors.
