Mining deposits located two potassium Amazon

Mines can be part of a giant reservoir hidden under the forest

by Globo Rural Online

( State of Amazonas is the richest in potassium in Brazil )

The Potassium Brazil confirmed on Monday ( 11/11 ) who found two new deposits of potash in the sedimentary basin of the Amazon . One is in New backwater and another in Itacotiara .

New backwater on the banks of the Amazon River , potassium was found to 766 meters deep in a layer with thickness of 4.87 meters and potassium content of 20 % KCl ( potassium chloride ) . The mineralization New backwater contains sulfates in significant proportion . Potassium sulphate ( SOP ) fertilizer is a noble and , therefore, with market prices on average 30 % higher than those of potassium chloride .

In Itacotiara deposit , which is close to the highway AM- 010 (15 miles from the Port of Hermasa the Amazon River ) , was located a layer of 4.27 m thick , grading 20:54 % KCl at a depth of 860 meters.

The company , in a statement , said it will keep looking for new sources of the mineral in the sedimentary basin of the Amazon and the repository of Autazes where feasibility studies are being conducted . " The archaeological Autazes , besides being much more shallow and larger than those of Fazendinha and Arari , is richer . Our technical team is confident that more potassium is found in the Basin and that many of these deposits will be viable for commercial exploitation , " says geologist Joseph Fanton .

Helio Diniz , chief executive of Potash in Brazil , says the quality of the findings exceeded the company's expectations . " As we had noted earlier this year , several deposits could be found in this region , however, the holes pioneers in New backwater and Itacoatiara showed potassium layer thicknesses greater than 4 meters, in addition to showing the presence of sulfates in significant proportion ," says ..

In these places , he said, also are favorable depths ( 750-900 meters) to the development of conventional underground mining , as occurs in the largest deposits of Canada and Russia. " We still have much work to set the size of these deposits . Do not discard the possibility of at least the Deposits of Autazes New backwater and be part of one giant reservoir , since the distance between the mineralized holes is only 16 km . The new holes running and programmed in these areas will be essential to determine the production scale of the project . "

Source : Globo Rural Magazine ( Brazil ) .