Work is continuing at the BHP Billiton potash mine site in Saskatchewan despite a potential delay in formal approval of the project.
Spokesperson Bronwyn Wilkinson said June 4 that comments made by company chief executive officer Marius Kloppers last week, which led to speculation the approval for the Jansen project won’t come this year, were not new.
Kloppers told Chinese media company Caixin that the company would not approve any of its megaprojects within the next six months, and that the economics of some of the projects had changed.
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“I think for the next two years, 18 months perhaps, we will just wait and see how things develop,” he reportedly told Caixin.
BHP has said in the past that it expected approval for Jansen within 2012.
In February, concerns the project would be delayed or not proceed were also fueled by comments Kloppers made to an Australian newspaper.
Since then, work has steadily proceeded at the site between LeRoy and Jansen.
“There is nothing new in what our CEO has said,” Wilkinson said in an e-mail. “The sequencing of our investment pipeline is currently being looked at in the context of our five-year planning process. We will approve projects in a sequence that maximizes value, reduces risk and balances the consideration of short and long-term returns.”
BHP has already allocated spending of at least $2 billion on the $12-billion project.
Wilkinson said the company is “focused on getting the engineering right while we sink the shafts and will go to the board when the necessary studies are complete.”
About 400 people are working on site. The production and service shafts have been excavated to 45 metres and are ready for excavation to one kilometre.
Work has also begun on the nearby work camp. The first 500 beds will be ready later this year.
The company has said the mine would open in 2015.
Still, potash prices are dropping, which continues to fuel speculation the project won’t ultimately go ahead.
BHP has other Saskatchewan potash projects in the works.
A concept study at Young, Sask., has been completed. As well, a concept study at Melville, Sask., is underway. The results of both will determine whether the projects have potential.
