The Ethiopian Ministry of Mines announced that five international companies have invested 6.5 billion US dollars in the Ethiopia potash mining industry.
The five companies are G and B Central Africa Resource Limited, Saynic Potash, Nova Potash, Allana Potash and BHP Belton World Exploration Ethiopia. All of these companies have based their activites in Dalol.
Potash deposits from three points in the South Western part of its claims were made by Allana Potash last week according to company sources.
The latest holes in combination with holes previously dug establish an area of potash mineralization occurring at depths of 75-200 meters under ground the company announced.
With relatively shallow potash deposit Allana will consider open pit mining method in addition to solution mining. The company expects that by the end of this year technical and economic parameters of open pit and solution mining methods will have been examined so that the management can determine what the optimal mining method is at the initial production stage.
Late in August, Allana Potash Corp. had awarded an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Study (ESIA) on its Ethiopia potash project to Environmental Resources Management (ERM).
Additional equipment is being mobilized to the site and expansion of the camp is underway according to Farhad Abasov, president and CEO of Allana.
Potash is used as an agricultural fertilizer as a source of soluble potassium a plant nutrient. Studies have discovered that there are large deposits of potash in Ethiopia.
Source: The Africa Report