A report out of the PDAC (Prospectors and Developers Association Conference) this week in Toronto is that potash prices are nearly three times what they were a year ago, despite most commodity prices tanking in the same period.
Global demand is continuing and it takes 7 years to develop new mines which cost an average of $2.8 billion, so it will take a while for supply to catch up. Interestingly, there hasn't been an entirely new mine developed in the past 30 years.
Companies have leased up large tracts in Arizona's Holbrook basin where AZGS calculates as much as 2.2 billion tons of potash recoverable.
Potash is a potassium carbonate [photo credit USGS] used widely in manufacturing but heavily in agriculture.