OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2012--
Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP) has purchased the mining rights to
approximately 100 million tons of salt reserves in the Chilean Atacama
Desert. The company invested $6.5 million for the rights and will pay a
small per-ton production royalty to the private seller if extraction
commences in the future. After 15 years, Compass Minerals will have the
option to buy out the royalties obligation and maintain the mining
interest outright. The site would require significant infrastructure
development to establish extraction capabilities.
The new assets further diversify Compass Minerals’ rock salt mineral
reserves and could enhance the company’s North American highway deicing
business as well as its consumer and industrial business, which
processes rock salt to make many of its products.
“This is another strategic investment in the long-term future of Compass
Minerals following our recent expansion of the world’s largest rock salt
mine in Goderich, Ontario, and the ongoing, multi-phased expansion of
our sulfate of potash specialty fertilizer production capabilities at
the Great Salt Lake in Utah,” said Angelo Brisimitzakis, Compass
Minerals president and CEO. “We have been evaluating strategic salt
deposits for many years, and this is one of the highest-quality reserves
we have located. This acquisition secures our access to one of the
lowest-cost mining regions in the Western Hemisphere. It nicely
complements our existing salt businesses and provides the potential to
further expand our highway deicing service footprint through
cost-effective surface-quarrying extraction and efficient ocean
transportation.”
Compass Minerals currently has the capability to produce approximately
14 million tons of rock salt each year at its three underground mines
located in Goderich, Ontario; Cote Blanche, Louisiana; and Cheshire,
U.K. The company also produces approximately one million tons of
higher-purity mechanically evaporated salt at four locations in North
America and 1.5 million tons of solar-evaporated salt at the Great Salt
Lake near Ogden, Utah.
About Compass Minerals
Based in the Kansas City metropolitan area, Compass Minerals is a
leading producer of minerals, including salt, sulfate of potash
specialty fertilizer and magnesium chloride. The company provides
highway deicing salt to customers in North America and the United
Kingdom and specialty fertilizer to growers worldwide. Compass Minerals
also produces consumer deicing, water conditioning and pool products,
ingredients used in consumer and commercial foods, and other
mineral-based products for consumer, agricultural and industrial
applications. The company also provides records management services to
businesses throughout the U.K. For more information, visit www.compassminerals.com.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
statements are based on the company's current expectations and involve
risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to
differ materially. The differences could be caused by a number of
factors including those factors identified in the "Risk Factors"
sections of our Annual and Quarterly Reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q. The
company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking
statements made in this press release to reflect future events or
developments.
Source: Compass Minerals
Compass Minerals
Peggy Landon, 913-344-9315
Director of
Investor Relations and
Corporate Communications