America Needs Fertilizer—Washington Funds It Too Late | Pat Varas - Sage Potash
The Deep Dive Oct 1, 2026 14:58
Summary
Sage Potash's Peterson 1 hole returned 36% KCl (potash) across a combined 13.1-metre Cycle 18 interval, including 3.3 metres at 52.5%.
Drilled a kilometre from the earlier Johnson 1 well, the hole matched it in thickness and depth, and the ore came back clean.
Varas argues potash needs far fewer drill holes than gold or copper, since evaporite basins precipitate continuously across huge areas.
At roughly 2.1 kilometres deep, Sage's deposit needs oil rigs and large-diameter core; the Peterson hole cost upwards of $4 million.
Varas expects a much larger 43-101 resource within weeks, then financing this fall and a pre-feasibility study targeted for the first half of 2027.
Steve Hyland's takeaways
- Top takeaway Frames the interview around whether Washington has done enough to encourage domestic potash production rather than relying on imports, and introduces Sage as one of the few publicly traded companies holding a potash resource on US soil.
- Presses on the forward path, asking for the development pipeline over the next 12 months — an updated resource estimate and possibly a PEA — and closes by congratulating Sage on the drill hole.
Pat Varas's takeaways
- Top takeaway Calls the Peterson 1 results 'fantastic', saying the hole confirmed high grades in both the upper and lower Cycle 18 beds: 36% KCl over about 8.1 metres in the upper bed, including 3.3 metres at 52.5% KCl, and 36% KCl over roughly 5 metres in the lower bed.
- Argues the matching grade and thickness between Peterson 1 and Johnson 1 one kilometre away mean little infill drilling is needed, so a small number of holes can support a resource in the hundreds of millions of tons.
- Argues potash takes far fewer and far more expensive holes than gold, silver or copper because evaporite beds precipitate continuously — in his experience continuous for hundreds of kilometres in Canada — and says 1 km drill spacing is already sufficient for a resource.
- Criticises US support programmes, saying the federal schemes are loan guarantees released only once a company is fully financed rather than grants for resource development, and that he is lobbying Utah and federal officials to put such programmes in place.
- Says a PEA is not the right next step and a pre-feasibility study is, and that any further drilling is meant to test mining methods — directional selective mining versus vertical cavern development — rather than to grow the resource.