K+S to Expand Potash Production in Germany

German fertilizer producer K+S is examining the possibility of opening two potash mining pits in Germany to meet rising demand worldwide, its chief executive told a weekly magazine.

"We are thinking about the pits at Siegfried Giesen in Lower Saxony and the one at Rossleben in Thuringia," Norbert Steiner told WirtschaftsWoche.

The company has already started a feasibility study on a pit at Siegfried Giesen in Lower Saxony and this should be completed in the coming European summer, he added.

The two potash mining pits were mothballed decades ago but some of their infrastructure is still in place.

K+S in late November said it was planning to buy Potash One for $431.8 million.