Potash growth and high margins

 Excerpt of interview regarding Potash:
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TER: There’s also been some development on the African continent, and a couple of Canadian juniors are working on projects there that are projected to go online in about five years. How are they progressing?

JA: Allana Potash Corp. (AAA:TSX; ALLRF:OTCQX) and Ethiopian Potash Corp (FED:TSX.V; FED.WT:TSX.V) are both working to develop greenfield potash projects in the Danakil depression in Northern Ethiopia. Allana is the much better capitalized of the two companies. It has published a large NI 43-101 resource based on its successful drill program over the last couple of years. The projects in Ethiopia are interesting in that the high year-round temperatures in the Danakil may allow for solar evaporation, thereby materially lowering energy costs in the solution-mining process. Ethiopia is also located relatively close to China and India, two important potash consumers.

Ethiopian projects face a major challenge, however, in that the logistics of moving thousands of tons of potash per day from the project site to the port at Djibouti some 600 kilometers (km) away over roads of varying quality may be a significant hurdle. We believe the transportation costs will end up being materially higher than current estimates.

Both Allana and Ethiopian Potash have seen their share prices languish over recent months and are both near 52-week lows. We believe both stocks have room to move up as the projects are derisked and as Allana moves toward a feasibility study in August of this year. While Ethiopian Potash has more leverage to positive developments given its smaller enterprise value, it is a much riskier investment given its very low cash levels. Allana, on the other hand, has more than $65M in cash on its balance sheet, providing it with a lot of time and resources to derisk its project and make it more attractive to potential suitors.

TER: Will Allana rely on a rail link to be built in order to get its product to market?

JA: There are plans in Ethiopia to build a rail network in the country, and that rail network is planned to approach Allana’s project site. We’ve met with the minister of transportation in Ethiopia on this topic. That project is probably a number of years away from completion, and for at least the first several years of production, Allana is going to need to find a way to transport its product by road via truck. You can’t assume the rail network is going to be ready in the next few years, in our view.

TER: What effect will trucking the material have on the project economics?

JA: Trucking will be much less economic than a rail network. Allana has published its own cost estimates for transporting the product from its project site to the port at Djibouti. We find its estimate of $12/t to be very low. We see a number closer to $50/t, based on the figures we’ve seen at other operations in existence today, such as those in Saskatchewan.

TER: Do you have any other interesting stories that our readers might find useful?

JA: The potash industry today is generating very high cash flow and strong returns on capital for incumbent producers. Potash Corp. generated a gross margin in its potash business last year of 68%. Apple Computer, by comparison, posted a gross margin of 41% in its fiscal 2011. The levels of free cash flow generated by this business and the strong secular trends in agriculture are going to attract capital and will ultimately lead to new greenfield production. With so many companies chasing so few quality projects though, we would caution investors to think carefully about the merits of each individual project. The size and grade of the deposit, the infrastructure in place, the proximity to major potash-consuming countries and the geopolitical risk are all critical drivers of value.

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rest of this report is at:  http://jutiagroup.com/20120209-whats-next-for-potash-producers-jaret-anderson/

Key take aways, are low operating costs and high margins in potash.  Also continued growth in markets until decade end.

The Goombarh is holding Eithiopian Potash (FED on the TSX, ETPHF)

Marco G.