Verde Potash's ThermoPotash May Revolutionize Brazil's Agriculture Industry

Farmers have learned that using potash on their crops provides better yields and better crops. However, organic farming in potassium-deficient soils is difficult because the application of chloride does not fall into best practices. As a result, organic crops farmed in areas like Brazil are more prone to stresses caused by droughts, heat and other crop-damaging effects from nutrient-deficient soils.

 

However, Brazil’s IBD Certifications has just given its stamp of approval for a new form of potash that will work well with the country’s soil composition: ThermoPotash.

 

ThermoPotash was developed as an alternative source to potash. According to Verde Potash , ThermoPotash is a controlled-release, non-chloride, multi-nutrient fertilizer that is perfect for use on soils that cannot take the chlorine component of regular potash. Research into ThermoPotash has been in the works since the 1980s; Verde Potash took over in 2009, building on the research until it completed successful agronomic field trials with the help of several universities and stakeholders in Brazil’s agriculture sector.

 

Before ThermoPotash could be delivered to the masses in Brazil, it had to be tested. For 30 months, this new form of potash was used on coffee crops, where it was found that using ThermoPotash provides soil with more potassium than regular potassium chloride (KCl). The end result was an equivalent coffee yield for both ThermoPotash and regular KCl plots, despite the ThermoPotash plots using only 36 percent of the potash, as per Verde.

 

In June 2013, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture approved the use and sale of ThermoPotash. On November 25, IBD Certifications certified ThermoPotash for use on organic crops. In 2012, Brazil’s organic product industry was valued at US$385 million, and is only expected to rise.

 

 

TSX-listed Verde Potash likens the process of ThermoPotash to the pyro portion of its KCl process whereby the potassium silicate rock is heated in a rotary kiln with limestone. Unlike regular potash processing, evaporation and crystallization are not part of the equation. The company is moving ahead with a design for a Flex Plant that will have a capacity of roughly 1,000 tonnes per day of ThermoPotash, as well as doubling over to fulfil the first stage of its potash production. In the end, Verde expects a lower intial capital cost compared to its previous larger-scale facility.

 

The end goal with ThermoPotash is to compete against premium non-chloride potash fertilizers like sulfate of potash or potassium nitrate, both of which are commonly used in Brazil. Furthermore, given Brazil’s less than favorable soil composition, the expectation is that the added limestone in ThermoPotash will cut back on the high acidity of the soil. That’s a move most coffee drinkers will undoubtedly appreciate, considering Brazil is a top coffee producer.