Mosaic idles Brazilian phosphate plants in major restructure

At Patrocínio, the company is simultaneously pressing ahead with the development of a potentially significant niobium opportunity. The technical assessment work for this, including sampling and analysis, is nearing completion.

The shuttering of the two Brazilian sites, announced on 8 April, will reduce annual phosphate production at Mosaic Fertilizantes by approximately one million tonnes.

The financial backdrop

The strategic rationale is clear from Mosaic’s full year 2025 results released on 24 February 2026. While the company posted full year earnings (adjusted EBITDA) of $2.4 billion — up 10% on 2024 — its Brazilian operations came under severe cost pressures in the year’s final quarter. Sulphur price benchmarks surged above $500/t towards the end 2025, with sulphur consumption contributing an average of $306/t to the cost of goods sold by Mosaic in the fourth quarter.

Mosaic estimates that every $10/t increase in sulphur costs reduces quarterly earnings (EBITDA) by approximately $10 million. The company had already temporarily curtailed SSP production at its Fospar joint venture and Araxá site in Brazil in response to soaring sulphur costs — production units that together account for approximately 30% of Mosaic’s production in Brazil.

The company’s latest announcement makes Araxá’s curtailment permanent.

The write-down

Mosaic expects to record a pre-tax book impact of $350-400 million in Q1 2026. This will include $275-300 million for asset impairments and write-offs, with the remainder covering severance costs, contract terminations, and other idling costs. Offsetting this, annual capital expenditure savings of $20-30 million and operating cost reductions of $70-80 million per year are anticipated, following the completion of a potential sale.

Part of a bigger pattern — but not an exit from fertilisers

The 8 April 2026 announcement is the latest in a series of non-core asset disposals stretching back to early 2025, as Mosaic systematically sheds assets that require capital it believes is better deployed elsewhere:

• 13 January 2025: Agreement to sell the Patos de Minas phosphate mine to Fosfatados Centro for $125 million, completing on 6 October 2025.
• 13 August 2025: Agreement to sell the Taquari-Vassouras potash mine in Brazil to VL Mineração for up to $27 million, completing 4 November 2025.
• 22 December 2025: Agreement to sell its Carlsbad, New Mexico SOPM business — including the K-Mag and Dynamate brands — to newly formed International Minerals Carlsbad for $30 million.

Those three completed transactions are expected to yield approximately $230 million in total consideration, reduce asset retirement obligations by $60 million, and deliver meaningful annual capital expenditure avoidance. The Araxá idling and potential sale, if completed, would add a further $20-30 million in annual capex savings and $70-80 million in operating cost reductions.

Critically, the freed capital is being reinvested into the core business, not away from it. Mosaic is targeting phosphate production of seven million tonnes or above in 2026 — up from 6.3 million tonnes in 2024 — supported by investments in asset reliability and infrastructure. The company’s potash production of 8.8 million tonnes in 2025 marked its highest output since 2019, with the Esterhazy mine delivering its strongest finished product performance since 2022 and Belle Plaine setting a new production record, according to Mosaic’s latest annual report.

New revenue streams alongside the core

Mosaic is investing in adjacent, higher-value businesses alongside its fertilizer operations. Mosaic Biosciences — its biological products business unit — more than doubled net sales to $68 million in 2025 and is targeting a further doubling in 2026. The company is also partnering with Rainbow Rare Earths to extract high-value materials such as neodymium and praseodymium from phosphogypsum, a byproduct of its phosphate fertilizer production, targeting commercial output by 2030.

The Patrocínio niobium development fits squarely within this strategy. Niobium is a high-value transition metal used primarily as an additive in high-strength steel, where a 0.03–0.05% addition can increase steel strength by more than 30%, according to Stanford Advanced Materials. It is also critical in jet engine superalloys, medical implants, and mobile phone components, the Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center notes. Brazil is by far the world’s dominant supplier — according to the US Geological Survey, the country accounts for approximately 90% of global production. The leading producer is CBMM — Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineração — which, according to its own corporate data, holds more than 70% of the world’s known niobium reserves and operates its flagship mine in Araxá, in the same state of Minas Gerais as Mosaic’s Patrocínio complex.

President and CEO Bruce Bodine said: “This decision reflects Mosaic’s continued focus on discipline around capital allocation and returns. We are grateful for our employees at both locations — their years of dedication to safety and contributions to helping the world grow the food it needs have been critical to our success.”