Fertilizer International 525 Mar-Apr 2025
18 March 2025
Dead Sea Works – delivering a profitable and sustainable potash future
CENTRES OF P&K EXCELLENCE
Dead Sea Works – delivering a profitable and sustainable potash future
Potash is an essential and prized commodity that will always be in demand. ICL Group is investing in production from its unique potash assets to help secure global food security and contribute to a more sustainable world. The company uses a natural solar evaporation process at its Dead Sea Works plant to produce high-quality potash products, as Dr Patricia Imas ICL’s Agronomy Content Manager & Commodities Specialist, explains.
Introduction
Potash may be under the radar for many people outside the agricultural sector and minerals industries. Yet, its role in crop production is indispensable. This makes potash fertilizers the world’s most highly-valued and widely-used source of potassium – a key nutrient that is vital for healthy plant growth.
Indeed, with the world’s population surpassing eight billion and projected to reach 10.4 billion by the end of this century, the demand for potash has never been more crucial. It’s not merely a commodity either: the global production of potash is absolutely fundamental to global food security.
Potash has been an important commodity for centuries, being used in various industrial processes, including glass, ceramic, textile, and soap manufacture. While there are still important niche industrial applications for potash, the agricultural sector accounts for around 95% of potash demand. Along with nitrogen and phosphorus, potassium is a pillar of efficient, sustainable, and high yielding modern agriculture, as one of the three most essential crop nutrients.
This article explores the pivotal role that potash plays in industry and agriculture, and how this seemingly ordinary mineral helps to fuel our farms and feed the world. It also highlights the quality of potash products generated by ICL at its Dead Sea Works production site.
More than a world-class producer
ICL Group is one of the world’s leading potash producers and manufacturer of potash-based fertilizers. The company, originally formed a century ago to explore and develop mineral reserves in Israel’s Negev Desert, has unrivalled experience in managing potash mines and fertilizer production plants.
Israel is the world’s 6th largest producer of potash and ICL has access to the country’s vast Dead Sea reserves. It also mines potash in Spain through its ICL Iberia subsidiary. In total, the company currently extracts over 4.6 million tonnes of potash every year.
ICL has a strong presence in some of the largest global markets for potash and its fertilizer derivatives. These include China, Brazil, the EU, India, and South East Asia. The demand for potash is set to grow in many of these markets.
ICL potash operations in Israel and Spain have particularly reliable infrastructures and are located close to international cargo ports. The company – as well as being a major potash producer – is also a fertilizer industry leader when it comes to the integration of smart technologies, sustainable practices, and making progress towards net zero.
Agricultural importance
With the United Nations predicting global population to peak at 10.4 billion later this century, feeding every human on the planet will continue to be a major challenge. That’s especially true as we face issues like global warming, extreme weather events, soil erosion, and geopolitical instability.
An adequate supply of affordable and environmentally safe fertilizers is therefore crucial. Any increase in potash prices, for example, can result in rapid rises in the price of food staples and natural fabrics like cotton.
Potassium plays an important role both in plant and in soil health. Some of the major benefits of this macro nutrient include:
- Higher crop yields
- Increased nutritional density and value
- Better crop quality – with improvements in the taste, colour, and texture of fruits and vegetables
- Stronger, more robust plants with greater stress tolerance
- Improved plant resistance to disease
- Helping plants properly regulate their water use.
A distinctly different potash process
In contrast to conventional potash ore mining and processing, ICL uses a natural solar evaporation process at its Dead Sea Works site to produce exceptionally pure potash products. These are recognised worldwide for their premium quality, organic certification and significantly lower carbon footprint, versus the potash produced by other standard methods.
Potash production at Dead Sea Works involves extraction and precipitation of carnallite, a compound comprising potassium chloride (KCl) and magnesium chloride mixed with sodium chloride (NaCl), in some of the largest solar evaporation ponds in the world. Subsequently, the carnallite is transferred to production plants, where chemical and physical processing breaks down the carnallite crystals into potash using cold crystallisation and hot leach technologies.
The resulting potash end-products are among the most highly concentrated available on the market, in comparison to those offered by other producers, with a grade of around 62% K2O. The company also uses its potash as an in-house starting material for fertilizer production, including for granular NPK and water-soluble NPK fertilizers.
As well as having a focus on quality, ICL is equally committed to implementing sustainable practices in potash mining and fertilizer production. This includes transforming production plants to run on clean energy and developing profitable ‘circular’ business practices across its worldwide mineral extraction and production operations. This innovative approach to potash production helps to minimise environmental impacts and sets a high benchmark in sustainable fertilizer manufacturing.
A massive market
The global potash market is hugely valuable – being measured in billions of dollars – due to its vital role as a crop nutrient and the scale of demand internationally. Niche industrial requirements aside, sufficient potash supplies are essential to meet the extra requirements of an agricultural sector that is ever expanding – in response to the increased demand for crops grown for human consumption, animal feed, and clothing like cotton.
“ICL uses a natural solar evaporation process at its Dead Sea Works site to produce exceptionally pure potash products. These are recognised worldwide for their premium quality and significantly lower carbon footprint.”
The reason potassium is such an essential plant nutrient – vital for plant health, growth, and resilience – is because it participates in unique metabolic functions with no known substitutes. This irreplaceability underscores an urgent message: sustainable supplies of potash are necessary to guarantee global food security. Given its unparalleled value, ICL believes that the quest for sustainable potash extraction methods, in tandem with efficient agricultural usage, is becoming ever more crucial.
While its price per tonne will fluctuate like any other commodity, potash is an essential and prized asset that will always be in demand. Market forecasters all envisage long-term growth for potash from all segments of the supply chain – from extraction to manufacturing and retail sales.
Indeed, the global potash market is already experiencing significant growth. The market size was estimated at around $60 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% between 2024 and 2032. This growth is driven by a rising global population and the corresponding demand for food and agricultural products.
ICL’s extraction and processing operations
Potassium, in its various forms, makes up 2.6% of the earth’s crust. There are major potash basins, viable economic deposits and potash mines scattered across the world, while potential reserves below the seabed have barely begun to be explored.
ICL extracts potash at its Dead Sea Works production site in Israel. This employs over 1,500 full-time staff with annual potash extraction alone exceeding four million tonnes. Bromine, sodium chloride, and other minerals extracted from the Dead Sea are also processed for international shipping.
The company’s Dead Sea operations are becoming increasingly energy- and water-efficient thanks to a continuous focus on sustainability. Five dedicated sustainability teams are tasked with improving and innovating in the following areas:
- The circular economy
- Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and energy efficiency
- Waste reduction and green procurement
- Biodiversity
- Human resources.
ICL Iberia, meanwhile, extracts sylvinite ore from 900 metres below the ground at its Catalonian potash mine in Suria near Barcelona. This is processed into potash and salt at nearby production plants and then shipped to international markets via a dedicated state-of-the-art potash terminal at the Port of Barcelona.
The new terminal, inaugurated in 2020, is partly powered by rooftop solar panels, and offers an annual ship loading capacity of four million tonnes. Long-term agreements with the Catalan Railway Authority are cutting carbon by shifting potash and salt transportation between Suria and the terminal away from trucks and onto rail.
An investment opportunity
Agriculture is arguably the single most important sector of the global economy. After all, without a functioning agricultural system there is nothing. Potash is an integral component of global agriculture, being vital for growing abundant and nutritious staple crops, both as food for humans and feed for animals. Demand for food products is expected to rise – accompanied by potash market growth – as the human population expands and standards of living rise.
“Potash is an essential and prized asset that will always be in demand. Market forecasters all envisage long-term growth for potash from all segments of the supply chain -from extraction to manufacturing through to retail sales.”
As already stated, the potash market has a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% and is expected to exceed $90 billion in value by 2032. This places companies such as ICL, that can optimise potash extraction and production by adopting ‘smart’ technologies and also benefit from access to superior logistics, at a significant advantage.
Ready for potash market growth
As already suggested, potash market predictions are largely positive and companies that can extract or process potash efficiently therefore have plenty of lucrative markets to target.
ICL is not dependent on one single source of raw materials. Neither is it dependent on any single market for its sales of potash fertilizers and other niche potash products. The company also aims to drive down its potash production costs through the use of smart operations, the implementation of circular economy practices, and capturing economies of scale.
As part of ICL’s commitment to achieving global food security (in line with the United Nations’ Second Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger), the company is investing heavily in agricultural technology and developing effective crop nutrient and agronomic solutions for marginal land. ICL has abundant reserves of potash and intends to use this basic natural resource to benefit humanity as a whole. Its unique portfolio of precision potash-based fertilizers is one example of how technology and innovation are already helping to feed the world.
Ready to invest in a future where profitability meets sustainability? Then please contact ICL to learn more about investment opportunities that support potash growth, help secure global food security, and contribute to a more sustainable world.
