Harvest Minerals Limited (LON:HMI) has revealed that agronomic test work at its Arapua fertiliser project in Brazil has confirmed that its product, KPfértil, increases the potassium, phosphate, silicate, calcium, and magnesium in the pH of the local soil and corrects the soil acidity.
Visual comparisons of the recently harvested rice crop show that larger, healthier plants develop when KPfértil applied.
WATCH: Harvest Minerals' Brian McMaster on the 'excellent' agronomic efficiency results for KPfértil
The results indicate that KPfértil works effectively as a multi-nutrient, slow release remineraliser.
Harvest has already produced 50,000 tonnes of KPfértil under a trial mining permit, but the current resource stands at 13 million tonnes so there is plenty of mine life left.
The plan now is to make an application to the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply in the current quarter of this year, with the aim of certifying KPfértil as a remineraliser by the end of 2017.
Within that target, the company also hopes to achieve its first sales in the current quarter.
"The agronomic efficiency results for KPfértil, our multi-nutrient, direct application natural fertiliser, are excellent, especially considering KPfértil can be a replacement for conventional sources of phosphate and potassium,” said Harvest’s executive chairman Brian McMaster.
"We are excited about the prospects of KPfértil due to the many distinct advantages over imported products: it is a multi-nutrient, direct application, natural fertiliser composed of weathered potassium and phosphate-rich lava; and it is excavated at surface and processed on site, translating into a low cost, low capex operation.”