OREANDA-NEWS. Potash Ridge has bought Valleyfield Fertilizer, which is developing an SOP project in Quebec that will utilize the Mannheim process to produce the specialty potash fertilizer.

The plant will be located in Valleyfield, Quebec, about 30 miles west of Montreal. Initial production is estimated at 40,000 t/yr SOP, potentially increasing to 120,000 t/yr. Construction, which should last a year, is expected to begin within six months of securing necessary financing.

The Mannheim process produces SOP by reacting MOP with sulfuric acid at high temperatures. The process also results in hydrochloric acid, and Potash Ridge said it has signed a memorandum of understanding for offtake of the byproduct. The Mannheim process is used mainly in China and Europe. Compass Minerals, the lone operating US SOP producer, uses solar evaporation in Utah, while supplementing that output with a proprietary method that uses MOP as feedstock.

Valleyfield has been headed for two years by Jay Hussey, who previously worked for Migao, a Chinese producer of SOP via the Mannheim process. Hussey will remain with Potash Ridge in order to develop the Valleyfield project.

The acquisition gives Potash Ridge a lower-cost SOP project in addition to its larger Blawn Mountain mine development in Utah. Valleyfield's estimated capital cost is about $25mn, Hussey said. Blawn Mountain's installed SOP capital cost has been projected at $1.1bn.

"While we remain committed to the development of Blawn Mountain in Utah, the Valleyfield project will allow Potash Ridge to become a producer of SOP in an accelerated timeline and at a very manageable capital cost," Potash Ridge chief executive Guy Bentinck said. "The Valleyfield Project is also strategically located to supply SOP to currently underserved markets in North America."

Blawn Mountain is estimated to produce 770,000 st/yr SOP (699,000 t/yr) by processing alunite ore. Unlike the Valleyfield project, Blawn Mountain will produce sulfuric acid as a byproduct of SOP production.