Potash and Magnesium Products Business Segment
| Key figures | 2011 | 2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenues | € million | 2,131.9 | 1.867.0 |
| Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) | € million | 833.8 | 567.1 |
| Operating earnings (EBIT I) | € million | 739.5 | 475.9 |
| Capital expenditure | € million | 162.1 | 96.9 |
| Employees as of 31.12. | number | 8,188 | 7,900 |
Through K+S KALI GmbH, the Potash and Magnesium Products business segment extracts potash and magnesium crude salts at six mines in Germany with an annual production output at full capacity of up to 7.5 million tonnes of goods.
Competence in potassium and magnesium
On the basis of the unique raw material composition of our deposits we offer a product range which is not offered in such variety by any other potash producer worldwide. We are the world’s fifth-largest potash producer, the leading supplier in Western Europe and in 2011, we enjoyed a share of about 10% in global potash sales volumes.
The Legacy Project: New potash deposit strengthens international competitiveness
Legacy is a well advanced greenfield project for the construction of a potash production on the basis of solution mining. K+S had acquired the former owner of the Legacy Project, Canadian exploration and development company Potash One, at the start of 2011.
In the first two expansion phases of the new potash site, K+S will invest a total of CAN$ 3.25 billion (about € 2.4 billion). The first volumes should be available at the end of 2015 and the two-million-tonne mark should be achieved in 2017. This will be followed by the gradual expansion of production capacity to 2.86 million tonnes per annum in 2023. In the third expansion phase, a total output of an annual maximum of four million tonnes of potassium chloride would then be possible about ten years later.
The Legacy Project supplements the existing German production network of K+S with an important North American location. In future, the new location will be the starting point primarily for sales to the emerging growth markets of Asia and South America, as well as to North America too.
