Author: richardhands

Upcycle Minerals Inc. has launched a brine to potassium sulphate fertilizer with carbon capture project in south-central Saskatchewan. The company says that it plans to use its mineral assets, including the Tuxford potash mineral permit and the Whiteshore and Lydden Lake Alkali Leases as feedstock for its patented process. Along with the production of potassium sulphate (SoP), the process also generates two co-products with established markets; ammonium sulphate fertilizer and precipitated calcium carbonate. Upcycle says that it intends to become an ecologically conscious, low-cost producer of SoP with low net CO2 emissions.

In addition to the above deal with Morocco, the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), part of the Bangladesh Ministry of Agriculture, has signed a contract to import both triple superphosphate (TSP) and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilisers from Malaysia. The agreement was signed on 17 July 2025 in Kuala Lumpur by Mohammed Ruhul Amin Khan, chairman of BADC, and representatives of Selcra Niaga. Under the contract, BADC will import 280,000 tonnes of TSP and 280,000 tonnes of DAP from Malaysia. According to BADC officials, this landmark deal is expected to play a crucial role in ensuring the timely delivery of non-urea fertilisers to farmers. The move aims to strengthen Bangladesh's efforts toward building an efficient and sustainable agricultural system.

Sulphur output in North America continues to decline due to refinery closures and conversions at the same time that acid demand is increasing for metals processing projects.

This issue of Sulphur magazine contains a preview of CRU’s Sulphur + Sulphuric Acid conference in Woodlands, Texas, which is being held from November 3rd to 5th this year, giving delegates the opportunity to meet and discuss some of the trends which are continuing to change the sulphur and sulphuric acid industries. Some of this is echoed in our editorial coverage this issue; the rise of electric vehicles and the continuing electrification of society is changing demand for metals and impacting upon both sulphur and sulphuric acid markets alike. As CRU’s principal analyst Peter Harrison discusses on pages 36-37, battery demand for nickel is leading to a surge in new nickel leaching capacity in Indonesia which is drawing in greatly increased volumes of sulphur, while rising demand for copper is leading to additional volumes of smelter acid from China, India and Indonesia which are impacting the merchant market for acid, as detailed by CRU’s Viviana Alvorado on pages 38-40. In the United States, new lithium mines will require additional sulphur (see pages 22-23). Rare earths and battery metal recovery will form a major topic on the first day of the Sulphur + Sulphuric Acid conference, with speakers from Lithium Americas, one of the pioneers of the new US lithium industry.

Gunnison has started producing pure copper cathodes at its Johnson Camp Mine (JCM) in southeast Arizona, United States, from a solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) circuit and using leaching technology from Rio Tinto-owned Nuton. As well as giving Gunnison exclusive rights to deploy the proprietary process on run-of-mine ore, Nuton is a financial partner of the Phoenix-headquartered mine developer which has restarted copper production at past-producing JCM. The company’s next goal is to ramp-up to nameplate plant capacity of 25 million lbs/year (11,300 t/a) of finished copper.

South America has become the largest importing region for nitrogen fertilizers, with Brazil overtaking India as the world’s largest urea importer. While there have been attempts to use local gas to develop a domestic nitrogen industry, these have faced challenges on a number of fronts.

The past few years have seen a rapid increase in attempts to generate ammonia from streams of nitrate polluted wastewater, but how practical are these methods?

Nitric acid demand continues to be dominated by fertilizer uses via various nitrate and NPK fertilizers, but industrial chemical production, metallurgical uses and explosives production are continuing to contribute to growth, especially in Asia.

At the end of this year, the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will move from its transitional phase into its ‘definitive’ phase, whereby the carbon costs of goods entering the EU will need to be priced in. CBAM requires suppliers to calculate the carbon emissions of their fertilizer (and other, e.g. steel) products, including indirect emissions, for example from electricity consumed in the process, and emissions of precursor or raw materials. They will then need to purchase CBAM certificates to cover embedded emissions above the established free allowance benchmark rates determined by the European Commission: 1.57 tonnes CO2e/tonne ammonia and 0.23 tCO2e/t nitric acid.

The Methanol Institute (MI) has appointed Alexander Döll as its new Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds Greg Dolan , who is retiring after nearly 30 years of service and leadership. Döll brings more than 25 years of international experience across the energy, chemicals, and sustainability sectors. He has held senior positions at leading companies such as Dow and OCI Global, with a strong focus on public affairs, policy, and commercial strategy. His career spans Europe, the United States, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia; regions that are key to the future of the methanol industry. Before this appointment, he served as MI’s Chief Operating Officer, helping to guide the organisation during a period of significant growth and momentum.