The Vital Fertilizer That’s Driving Multibillion-Dollar Bets
- Potash is key to growing crops and meeting world’s food needs
- It’s part of miners’ shift to commodities of the future
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BHP Group’s go-ahead to spend $5.7 billion on a giant Canadian potash mine is shining a spotlight on a commodity vital to feeding the world.
Prices of the nutrient essential to producing food for growing populations soared after a crop rally helped farmers boost fertilizer purchases. Unlike oil or most metals and grains, potash trade is focused on annual contracts or in the spot market, rather than on a futures exchange -- and supplies are mostly controlled by just a handful of producers.