2nd Apr 2015 07:57
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sirius Minerals PLC Thursday said it has got encouraging results from crop studies on potatoes 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.
The latest update from its ongoing global crop study programme focused on potato studies at three separate universities: the Scottish Agricultural College, the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin.
Sirius said potatoes are sensitive to harmful chlorides, making them an ideal crop for polyhalite which is essentially chloride-free. Potatoes also have a large need for sulphur, one of the main nutrients in polyhalite, said Sirius.
The trials conducted by the three universities showed that polyhalite improved emergence by measuring stand counts by 13% and reduced glucose content by 20% which is important for potato frying. Sirius said the results showed significant yield increases of between 9% and 10%, similar to other trials.
One of the trials compared sulfate of potash, muriate of potash and polyhalite as potassium sources in a nutrient balanced trial whilst another was a magnesium rate response trial using polyhalite as the magnesium source was compared to the fully balanced muriate of potash alternative. The third trial saw a balanced straights and blends study be executed.
"By carrying out these trials in these important markets like the United States and UK, where potatoes are a key crop, we continue to validate the effectiveness and value of polyhalite," said Chirs Fraser, managing director and chief executive of Sirius.
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.
In February, it also reported encouraging results from 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.
Toward the end of February, it said results from a completed corn study at the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Science and a rice study undertaken with Nanjing Institute of Soil Science showed that polyhalite increased plant yields and vitality compared with using muriate of potash.
The corn study compared muriate of potash with polyhalite as the potassium source and measured the above ground corn biomass, plant height, cob height and resistance to disease. The study revealed a decrease of 14% of yellow leaves, and an increase of healthy green leaves by 8%, Sirius said.
The rice study, which was carried out in March, also compared muriate against polyhalite as the potassium, but also measured the percentages of individual nutrient uptake for both the macro- and micro-nutrients. Polyhalite supported a 4% yield premium at recommended 90 kilogramme K2O/hectare over muriate and increased nutrient uptake of potassium by 38%, the company said. Polyhalite was also shown to improve the micro-nutrient uptake of manganese by 27%.
Sirius Minerals submitted the necessary supplementary environmental information related to the York potash project plans to relevant local authorities in February. Sirius said it does not expect to have to provide any further substantive information to the authorities and is now looking towards a decision being made on its application for the project in Yorkshire, north east England in the "near future".
Sirius shares were up 4.3% to 9.39 pence per share on Thursday morning.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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