Legacy Project

NI 43-101 In-Situ 400M tonnes of Potash -Saskatchewan.

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Message: NMDC May Buy Stakes in Potash One Project, Zimbabwe Rock Phosphate Mine
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MDC Ltd., Asia’s third-biggest iron-ore producer, is considering investing in Potash One Inc.’s mining project in Canada, and a rock phosphate venture in Zimbabwe as part of a plan to expand into fertilizers.

The company received a proposal to study a “small” stake purchase in the Legacy project at Saskatchewan, NMDC Chairman Rana Som said today in an interview in Mumbai. Talks are also on with a South African fertilizer company to buy as much as 30 percent of a rock phosphate mine in Zimbabwe, he said, without elaborating.

India, the world’s biggest potash importer, needs more fertilizer to boost yields of rice, fruit and vegetables and ensure supply at lower prices to the poor as proposed in the National Food Security Act. The world’s second-most populous nation is the second-biggest grower of rice and wheat.

“Potash and rock phosphate will be required in higher quantities as India aims to achieve food security,” Som said, without details of the Potash One proposal.

NMDC shares were little changed at 249.10 rupees at the close of trading in Mumbai. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s key Sensitive Index fell 0.1 percent.

India, which buys all of its potash requirement from overseas, may use 4.55 million metric tons of the soil nutrient in the year ending March 31, the government said in April.

Kopano Venture

NMDC formed a venture with South Africa’s Kopano Ke Malta Investment Co. to enter coal and iron ore mining in South Africa, Som said. Kopano NMDC Mineral (Pty) Ltd. will be equally held and will prospect for reserves and also seek stake in existing government and non-state mines, he said.

“We hope to benefit from our association with Kopano, which is part of the African National Congress, and from the new Black Economic Empowerment codes,” Som said. “Kopano NMDC can be the Black Economic Empowerment partner.”

South Africa has pushed businesses from metal companies to banks to sell stakes to black investors, in a policy known as Black Economic Empowerment, to help make good for the inequities of an apartheid regime that disenfranchised non-whites.

Indian metal companies are joining Chinese rivals in seeking to buy coal, iron ore, bauxite and copper overseas to secure raw material supplies as costs soar. Copper ore globally is expected to be in short supply for at least five years, according to Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.

NMDC may buy four coking coal mines controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov for two planned steel mills in India, Finance Director S. Thiagarajan said on July 7. Talks to buy the OOO Kolmar mines, which have reserves of about 400 million tons in Siberia’s Yakutia region, are likely to be completed by December, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Abhishek Shanker in Mumbai at [email protected]

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Last update: 7:48 AM ET, Sep 3
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