It is one of the more remarkable turnarounds in recent memory. Shares of Amazon Mining Holding PLC, which bottomed out in penny-stock territory during the market crash, have staged a massive rebound as the company has put together an innovative potash development strategy and taken some crucial steps towards development.

Amazon completed a $16-million IPO in late 2007 and went looking for mineral deposits in Brazil. After not getting anywhere, it decided to stop drilling and try to source new opportunities.

Then the credit crisis hit. Since the company was not actively drilling at the time, it was an easy one to sell and many investors liquidated their positions. The result is that it traded at a laughable discount to its cash.

Meanwhile, chief executive Cristiano Veloso and VP of corporate development Jed Richardson decided to focus on the Cerrado Verde project, an unusual thermal potash opportunity in Brazil. Put simply, the company plans to heat the rock to almost 1,100 degrees Celsius, which releases the potash nutrients into the rock. The end product is a slow-release fertilizer.

This technique has never been attempted in potash, largely because it is very energy-intensive and potash prices were too cheap for a long time. But now it makes sense.

Amazon has worked hard to gain political support for the project, and has maintained a lot of core institutional support. Letter writer John Kaiser is also a big fan, and his support has drawn in the retail crowd. As the story started to come together, the stock turned around.

“We faced our weakness up front and were left with a lot of good shareholders,” Mr. Richardson said.

This week, Amazon reported an initial resource at Cerrado Verde of 105 million tones of potassium oxide with a grade of 10.3%. The grade is significantly higher than other known projects of this nature, and Mr. Veloso is confident that there is much more geological potential.

“We’ve been able to assemble a strong technical team,” he said.

The plan is to release a scoping study in the spring and a pre-feasibility study by the end of the year.

Peter Koven