BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company, said prospective partners for its proposed Jansen potash mine in Canada may be deterred by current market conditions for the crop nutrient.
While BHP would like a partner to help develop the project, “we are not in a hurry and we have to take account of how current market conditions have perhaps made some of the potential partners less interested than they might have been,” Chief Executive Officer Andrew MacKenzie told reporters in London. “It’s a long-term game for us.”
The global potash market has been in flux over the past year after Russia’s OAO Uralkali (URKA), the biggest producer, quit a marketing joint venture with Belarus. The move sent the price of the commodity and shares of producers plunging and prompted output cuts in Canada.