4th Feb 2015 08:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sirius Minerals PLC Wednesday said it had got encouraging results from crop studies on silage corn that showed the effectiveness of the polyhalite product it hopes to produce from the York Potash project.
The company is primarily focused on developing a potash mine near York, and is trying to get planning permission for the site.
In the meantime, it is conducting a global crop trial using the product it hopes to produce - polyhalite powder and granulated product - to prove it is an effective yield enhancer for cereal, vegetable and animal feed crops.
Last year, it had said POLY4 proved to be an effective and valuable fertiliser based on yield and quality performance on major crops such as corn, cotton, oilseed rape and wheat. In also got "an outstanding set of results" in a trial on tomatoes, and said POLY4 could increase cabbage yields after a trial in which it outperformed an existing potash fertiliser and a potassium alternative.
On Wednesday, it said the results from the silage corn trials at the University of Warwick in the UK showed a 52% increase in nitrate use efficiency, and a 44% greater potassium uptake over muriate of potash, leading to a 38% increase in dry matter yield over muriate.
"Our latest study offers further validation of the agronomic benefits of polyhalite. The improvement polyhalite can offer to nitrogen use efficiency is very significant in terms of its benefit to both crop yields and the wider environment," Sirius Chief Executive Chris Fraser said in a statement.
"Following the success of our maiden animal feed sales agreement, it is also encouraging to see how the benefits of polyhalite's high nutrient value can be further shared across the food supply chain in such a major crop for animal feed," he added.
Silage corn is used as an animal feed.
Sirius Minerals said earlier this month that it had signed its first take-or-pay offtake agreement for the animal-feed mineral supplement market. Sirius said the deal is on a fixed-price basis which is competitive with established products in the animal-feed market.
It did that deal even though it hasn't yet got permission to develop the site. Earlier this month, it withdrawn an application for part of the project, saying it wanted to refine some of the options in the application covering harbour facilities. It also recently said the date for the determination on the planning application for the project has not yet been confirmed, but estimated it may not be handed down until May.
Sirius Minerals shares were down 1.8% at 7.56 pence early Wednesday.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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