BHP Delivers Environmental Study on Canada Potash Mine, Sees 70-Year Life

BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, submitted an environmental impact statement on its planned Jansen potash project in Canada and estimated the mine may operate for about 70 years.

The project is being designed to produce 8 million metric tons of potash a year at full capacity, Melbourne-based BHP said today in an e-mailed statement. The study was delivered to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment and is expected to be released for public comment in the first half of 2011, it said.

BHP last month scrapped a $40 billion bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. following opposition from Canada. Jansen may cost $11.2 billion to build, according to Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd., and BHP has said output may start in 2015. The project may deliver C$90 billion ($89 billion) of royalties during the mine’s lifespan, BHP said in October.

“Jansen is the first and the most advanced of our potash growth options,” Graham Kerr, president of BHP’s diamonds and specialty products unit, said in the statement, describing Jansen as a “world-class ore body.”

Drilling at the project to prepare for the ground-freezing process required to sink the production and service shafts has begun, BHP said. The company is scheduled to make a final investment decision on the project by late 2011.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jesse Riseborough in London at jriseborough@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Amanda Jordan at ajordan11@bloomberg.net.

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