Junior Potash Firms Venture To All-time Highs

On the TSX Venture Exchange, Passport Potash Inc. (PPI:TSX-V) vaulted to an all-time high of 84 cents on Thursday, closing at 75 cents, up 64.84% (+$ 0.295) on the day. Today it dropped a penny (-1.33%) to 74 cents a share.
Encanto Potash Corp. (EPO:TSX-V) also touched an all-time high on Thursday, reaching 56 cents a share. It closed Thursday trading at 54 cents, up 17.39% (+$ 0.08), and closed out the week at 51 cents a share, giving back 3 cents (-5.56%) during the Friday session.
And Allana Potash Corp. (AAA:TSX-V) touched an all-time high of $ 1.90 a share today before closing at $ 1.80, down 3 cents (-1.64%) on the day.
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (POT:TSX), whose stock is set to split 3-for-1 on February 16 pending regulatory approval, set a new 52-week high of $ 182.66 per share on Wednesday and closed out the Friday session at $ 179.16 a share. Last week, Potash CEO Bill Doyles predicted that by the end of 2011, the price of potash for international spot market buyers will climb to at least US$ 500 a tonne delivered.
Meanwhile, Potash Corp. rival BHP Billiton (BHP:NYSE), whose $ 39 billion hostile bid for Potash Corp. was rejected by the Canadian government last year, announced on Wednesday that their proposed Saskatchewan potash mine, the Jansen Project, had moved from the pre-feasibility to the feasibility stage. If this project progresses on schedule, the Jansen mine will begin production in 2015 and will be expected to produce approximately 3.37 billion tonnes of potash over 70 yearsmaking BHP a major player in the potash sector.
Over in Russia, a merger of major potash firms OAO Silvanit and OAO Uralkali has moved to the shareholder approval stage, after a legal maneuver on the part of a Silvinit shareholder to prevent the meeting was rejected by a court of arbitration. The deal is expected to go through, as Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov acquired majority stakes in both firms last year and launched the merger bid himself.
Analysts expect the merger, which will create the worlds third-largest potash producer after Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan and Mosaic Co., will decrease competition in the potash sector and increase potash prices worldwide.