AUTAZES, Brazil-In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, workers are preparing to dig a vertical shaft as wide as a subway tunnel half a mile down into the ground.
It isn't gold or oil hidden here in a grassy clearing between indigenous lands, but fertilizer-something arguably just as precious to this vast farming nation.
As global trade tensions flare, Brazil has replaced a growing share of U.S. agricultural exports to China, which has shunned American soybeans in response to Trump administration tariffs. The Trump administration's imposition of 50% tariffs on Brazil this year raised the stakes for the country's globally dominant agriculture industry to carry Latin America's largest economy through the trade war.
But fertilizer remains Brazil's Achilles' heel. Brazil imports some 90% of the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium nutrients it needs, primarily from Russia, whose war in Ukraine plus Western sanctions have made supplies precarious.
A solution lies in the world's largest rainforest.
The Toronto-based miner Brazil Potash Corp. is investing $2.5 billion to build an underground potash mine near the town of Autazes, a few miles from the banks of the Madeira River, tapping into the vast Amazon Potash Basin, one of the world's largest.
Raphael Bloise, head of Brazil Potash operations in Brazil, with samples of mineral layers from the site of the future potash mine.
Discovered by accident more than 50 years ago when Brazil's state oil company Petrobras was drilling for oil, the pinkish-orange slab of potassium chloride stretches for some 250 miles deep beneath the jungle-the dried-up remnants of an ancient ocean.
Production at the company's Autazes mine, estimated at 2.4 million tons a year, is slated to begin in 2030. Destined entirely for use in Brazil, that output would supply roughly a fifth of the country's potash needs over the mine's 30-year lifespan. The basin itself holds enough deposits to allow Brazil to become close to self-sufficient in potash.
A dedicated potash supply would help shield Brazil's harvests from geopolitical shocks like Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when record potash prices sent panic through the country's farm belt. In turn, it would give Brazil an edge at times like this, when U.S.-China tensions are rerouting trade flows and raising demand for Brazil's agricultural products.
"We have a gift from God here, and we need to make the most of it," said Raphael Bloise, head of the project in Brazil. The U.S.-listed miner plans another site at Fazendinha, close to where the Madeira meets the Amazon River, Bloise said.
Brazil needs more fertilizer than other agricultural giants to sustain its current output. Blessed with a climate that allows year-round farming, Brazil's soils are quickly depleted of nutrients. Its clay-rich soil also struggles to retain fertilizer during heavy rains.
A dedicated potash supply would help shield Brazil's harvests from geopolitical shocks like Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when record potash prices sent panic through the country's farm belt. In turn, it would give Brazil an edge at times like this, when U.S.-China tensions are rerouting trade flows and raising demand for Brazil's agricultural products.
"We have a gift from God here, and we need to make the most of it," said Raphael Bloise, head of the project in Brazil. The U.S.-listed miner plans another site at Fazendinha, close to where the Madeira meets the Amazon River, Bloise said.
Brazil needs more fertilizer than other agricultural giants to sustain its current output. Blessed with a climate that allows year-round farming, Brazil's soils are quickly depleted of nutrients. Its clay-rich soil also struggles to retain fertilizer during heavy rains.
