Fertilizer International 527 Jul-Aug 2025
7 July 2025
Government revives Slavkaliy project
The Belarusian government has nationalised and is fast-tracking the two million t/a capacity Slavkaliy project, according to local media reports on 23rd May, re-naming it Nedra Nezhin.
Having originally been due to enter production in July 2025, inaugural production from the project is now scheduled for 2026. Nedra Nezhin will then ramp up over the next few years.
During an inspection visit to the mining and processing complex (Nezhinsky GOK) in Lyubansky district, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko personally backed the completion of construction by the end of this year.
“We will finish the construction this year, as the construction manager promises… in the spring, at such a time, next year, we will already, as he says, drink champagne here,” said Lukashenko, the Sputnik news agency reported
“A private investor, investing his money, began construction. Then sanctions were imposed against him – Western sanctions – the Americans and Europeans. Then my decision was made: we will build ourselves,” Lukashenko added.
The Belarusian president inspected the construction of the mining and processing plant on 23rd May. Two production lines with a potassium chloride (MOP) design capacity of one million t/a tons are being built, with one line said to be about 90% complete. The project has also already commenced potash ore mining. More than three dozen Belarusian organizations are said to be involved in the construction efforts.
During the visit, Lukashenko also claimed that Belarusian potash fertilizer sales had now returned to their pre-sanction levels.
“They have imposed sanctions against potash fertilizers and what happened? Today [Belaruskali Director General] Andrei Rybakov reports that the potash fertilizer sales have reached the sales the pre-sanction levels. It is impossible to restrain the development of any country, even a small one, by sanctions. It is simply impossible,” Lukashenko said.
