ASEAN Potash mining proceeds to produce cheap fertilizer for farmers

BANGKOK, March 12 (TNA) - The Thai government has given a nod to an ASEAN potash mining project to produce fertilizer for farmers. The Thai Cabinet ordered the Industry Ministry on February 6, 2015 to give the mining license to ASEAN Potash Mining Public Company Limited and the company received it on March 3 to run the business in Bamnet Narong District of Chaiyaphum Province in the Thai Northeast. The project resulted from a resolution of a meeting of ASEAN economic ministers in 1989, in which the governments of six member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, hold shares in the company, with the Thai government, through the Finance Ministry, holding a 20 per cent stake. The 40-billion-baht mining project is the first of its kind in Thailand, covering a 9,700 rai-plot of land in Ban Tan, Ban Phet and Hua Thalay Sub-districts, where potash deposits are estimated at 430 million tons. The mine is expected to produce 17.33 million tons of potassium chloride fertilizer over a period of 25 years, or about 1.1 million tons annually. The construction of the mine will begin later this year and fertilizer production is set to start in 2019. Locals welcome the project for its job creation and its prospect of helping stop Thailand's imports of potassium chloride fertilizer, worth about 10 billion baht yearly, but urging concerned authorities to prevent negative environmental impacts on local farmlands. (TNA)