Phosphate Rock Supply out of Northern Australia –
An Opportunity for Asian Phosphoric Acid and Yellow Phosphorus Producers
-
The Georgina
Basin in the Northern Territory of Australia hosts a number of very large
and shallow Phosphate Rock Resources that could be developed as a
proximate source of supply for Asia
- Verdant Minerals’
Ammaroo Phosphate Rock Project is one of these and the strategic intent is
to commence the project as a rock export project with a view of
participating in the development of downstream manufacturing, either in
Australia or the near region as a second stage of development
-
The Ammaroo
project will be fully authorised by both the Northern Territory and
Federal Governments by end of Q1 2025 to export up to 2 million tonnes per
annum of rock concentrate, and from a technical perspective be ready to
move rapidly into construction subject to financing and securing offtake
- The Ammaroo
project represents a unique opportunity for non-integrated regional
manufacturers to be part of a Joint Venture to develop the project
enabling ownership in the supply of rock, an opportunity which may not be
possible with other traditional suppliers.
Developing Europe´s Next Phosphate Mine
The largest layered intrusion in Western
Europe, the Bjerkreim-Sokndal Layered Intrusion located in Southern Norway has
through decades been subject to hundreds of scientific papers. However, only
after systematic exploration started in 2019 the economic potential of this
multi commodity deposit became evident. Following 86km of drilling and
beneficiation test work, a JORC
compliant resource of 4,5 billion tons of apatite, ilmenite and magnetite ore
was reported
After the resource base was established,
substantial mining and beneficiation studies were conducted defining the
optimal tradeoffs between apatite, ilmenite and magnetite production. A PFS was
concluded in 2024 for a 20 MTPA mine optimized for production of 1,25MT of
apatite concentrate with 39% P2O5, with Cd and U levels below 2ppm and Cl close
to the detection limit
Given the unique quality of the
phosphate to be produced combined with Europe´s dependency on phosphate import,
Norge Mineral is developing plans for downstream integration in support of the
European chemical industry. The focus of this work is the advantages the
concentrate presents especially given the strict European environmental
legislation.
Phosphates and Rare Earth Elements (REE)
as By-products from Iron Ore Mining
LKAB operates the world’s largest underground
iron ore mines, with phosphorus and REE in the ores, today not extracted and
deposited as part of the mine tailings. LKAB is building a demonstration plant
to scale up their unique extraction process, with the goal of moving toward a
final investment decision (FID) for full-scale production. The presentation
will cover progress to date and explore the challenges and hurdles to overcome
as LKAB moves forward with this project.