The main investor in the Mina Muga project: "Here is a mine for a hundred years"Owen Hegarty, in charge of the Australian EMR fund, assures that the project has already finished the entire long processing phase, and that by early 2026 it will be removing material from the depositOwen Hegarty really wanted to return to Navarra. He had not been able to do it because of the covid. But, once the restrictions have been overcome, the man in charge of the powerful investment fund behind Mina Muga has returned to Sangüesa, to Javier. Over the seventies and with half of his professional life linked to the mining sector –very powerful in his country of origin, Australia–, Hegarty likes to verify in situ that the project, which adds up to ten years of slow processing, is on the right track. He modulates his Aussie accent to explain, plainly and far from the cryptic language of investors, the strengths of a project that will be "a before and after". The Muga Mine has potash for a hundred years and has something "that makes it unique": a network of nearby and quality infrastructures that "connects it to the market". Behind, a series of large investors who think in the long term and a professional background with traceability, with projects in seven countries and between 3 and 4 billion Australian dollars invested. In weeks the works will begin and at the beginning of 2026 production will begin.Have you ever visited the mine?-Clear. I have been to Navarra several times since 2014. Now I had come a little less, especially due to the forced stoppage of the covid. But I'm delighted to be here again. I see a lot of progress, I have spoken with the teams and I have a feeling that the best is yet to come.At what stage is the project?-In the last ten years we have come a long way. Keep in mind that we start from scratch, from exploration. And that we have had to do all the reports and tests imaginable on all aspects. Now we are in the last part of the procedures, which we already have at hand, and in the final part of the financing. We already see the end of what we could say the bureaucratic part, with everything in progress, and now we are going to get fully involved in the construction of everything the project needs.From when it was projected until now, has the project met expectations?-All expectations have been met. People have told us: you are taking a long time. But it is that this type of project takes a lot of time, because you have to constantly carry out evaluations of mining, infrastructure, water, logistics... In some aspects, the deposit has turned out even better than expected, because we think it can last even longer. At the end of all the calculations we have verified that the production cost is going to be very competitive with respect to Canada, Russia and Belarus, which have 70% of the potash production market. And then here is a very good thing, which is all the infrastructure at hand. The investor values that there are roads, gas, water intakes... everything, from the most basic. And you find that here.When are we going to see the production works in the mine?–Now we are in the bidding process for everything a mine needs, which is a lot, and we have several open fronts: the construction of the processing plant, the mine itself, and the water treatment and transportation, the supplies, logistics... It helps us a lot to have everything in our hands that the infrastructure is there: that there is a highway, that there is a train. I would say that we already have everything under control.When are people going to arrive to work there?–Next week we are going to resume certain works with the plant, and the commitment with the investors is that in the remainder of the year we will begin to build. It will be two and a half years of work, and at the beginning of 2026 we will be in production. The idea is, in these two and a half years, to have the teams hired and trained, some 500 workers first, then up to 800, and the total project will be around a thousand jobs.Will you have local labor?–There is a mining tradition in Spain, it is not something new. Here there are experts, engineers and there have been and are other potash projects. When we have spoken with the people of Pamplona, Sangüesa or Javier, the response has always been the same, which coincides with the response we find in the rest of the world: people want work, development and investment, for themselves and for their children. Part of the job of Ignacio [Salazar, CEO of Geoalcali, present in the interview] will be to locate those teams and profiles that can help us.
(20min delay)