Legislature urges U.S. to approve Itafos Mine extension

Idaho’s Legislature is sending the federal government a strong message not to drag its feet in approving the expansion of the Itafos Conda project northeast of Soda Springs.

The Itafos phosphate fertilizer company, a major employer in southeast Idaho, wants to expand its current mining operation to two new mines – Husky 1 and North Dry Ridge – in the Caribou Range.

Both legislative chambers approved House Joint Memorial 11, which specifically calls upon the President, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Interior, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Idaho’s congressional delegation to request that the federal government “move forward to approve the Itafos Conda project in a timely and cost-effective manner to permit the development of the site.”

Rep. Marc Gibbs and Sen. Mark Harris sponsored HJM011, which the House passed on Jan. 30 and the Senate passed on Feb. 18. Both Gibbs and Harris represent District 32, where the Itafos Conda operation is located.

“Itafos Conda employs over 500 people in Caribou, Bear Lake and Franklin Counties,” Harris told the Idaho Business Review. “Their current mines were originally a five-year project and that was 10 years ago. To keep operating, they need to begin mining their other properties – and that keeps people employed at home in Soda Springs and the surrounding communities.”

Itafos Conda is part of the multinational Itafos phosphate fertilizer company, traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and is part of the Canadian benchmark S&P/TSX Composite index. In Idaho, they currently operate the Rasmussen Valley Mine and the adjacent Lanes Creek Mine, both in the Caribou Range east of Blackfoot Reservoir. They also have a phosphate processing plant in Conda, seven miles north of Soda Springs.

“Itafos puts $180 million into the local economy every year, and $335 million into the state overall,” Harris explained.

Itafos owns the mining leases on both state and federal lands in the Caribou Range for phosphate reserves on two more properties, North Dry Ridge and Husky 1, both to the south of the Rasmussen Valley and Lanes Creek Mines. The company has done all its geological exploration and capitalization for the expansion; the major hurdle now is getting its approvals and permits from the various government agencies with jurisdiction over mining.

“Federal feet-dragging is always a worry. The longer the permitting process is drawn out, the more worried the investors get. If you wait too long, market conditions can change so that it’s no longer economical,” Harris remarked. “That’s not good for keeping local jobs in southeastern Idaho. That’s why Itafos isn’t developing their Paris Hills property (west of Bear Lake). That will be an underground mine, but the price of phosphate dropped so it’s not profitable right now.”

In 2011, when Itafos was actively working to permit their Paris Hills property, the price of rock phosphate was over $200 per ton. Since then, the price has dropped, averaging around $100 between 2014 and 2019. The current price for phosphate is around $80 per ton. Underground mines are much more expensive to operate than surface mines like the ones proposed for North Dry Ridge and Husky 1.

The U.S. is the third largest producer of phosphate, after China and Morocco. Florida, North Carolina and Idaho are the country’s major producers of phosphate, which is used primarily for fertilizer. Idaho’s phosphate comes out of the aptly-named Phosphoria Formation, a phosphate-rich package of marine sedimentary rocks of Permian age.

Well known among Idaho fossil collectors for its Bear Lake County ammonites, the Phosphoria formation is exposed in the Great Basin and Northern Rockies. The portion of the formation that is economic to mine occurs in a belt that stretches from Garrison, Montana, to Vernal, Utah. All but one mine currently operating in the formation are located in Idaho.

Itafos is one of three companies currently mining the phosphate-rich sediments in southeastern Idaho, along with Simplot and Monsanto. The company owns other phosphate mines in Guinea Bissau (West Africa), Peru and Brazil.