LONDON– and Johannesburg-listed Kore Potash today unveiled former Newcrest mining engineer, Brad Sampson, as its new CEO after incumbent, Sean Bennett, announced earlier this year his work was done after raising capital for the firm’s feasibility study.
Kore has been studying the feasibility of developing a potash project in the Republic of Congo (RoC), known as Kola, since at least 2012. The company recently restructured in which it moved its primary listing to London and completed a secondary listing in Johannesburg under the auspices of chairman and former Mondi CEO, David Hathorn.
“He is a highly experienced mining engineer and CEO who has spent over a decade of his career building and managing projects on the African continent,” said Hathorn of Sampson, who was GM of Newcrest’s West African operations. He was until recently CEO of Tiger Resources, an Australian-listed firm which sold copper assets to a Chinese group for R250m in January. Sampson was also GM of Gold Fields South African and Australian operations.
“His appointment reflects the next chapter for Kore Potash as we approach the financing and project construction stages,” said Hathorn.
Commenting in April in an interview with Miningmx, Hathorn said the potash market was very liquid and growing. “The growth rates are consistent and there’s a consistent demand scenario.” According to Hathorn, the market is calibrated to world population growth, growing at about 2% to 3% annually. The supply side of the equation also points to some interesting potential in that it’s highly concentrated. About 60% of the 65 million tonnes/year in production is held by three companies.
A typical end user for potash is Brazil. Although an enormous country, its soils are poor in quality and need potash – made from potassium – to develop successful crops. “We have an advantage because in the RoC there is relatively good geographical access to Brazil,” said Hathorn. Shares in Kore Potash are down about 26% on a 12-month basis.
