Indorama Holdings BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Indorama Corp., has held talks with the Uzbekistan government to implement a project to mine phosphate rock at the country’s Dzheroy-Sardara phosphate deposit, according to a fertilizerdaily report.
The mining project is understood to be part of Indorama’s ongoing project to modernize the Kokand Superphosphate Plant, based in Uzbekistan’s eastern city of Kokand.
Indorama Holdings acquired a 95.4% stake in the plant in 2019 through a government privatization process. In 2020, the company secured a $12.5 million loan from the International Finance Corp. (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to finance the modernization project (GM July 2, 2020).
The modernization program is aimed at restarting the plant with a production capacity of 350,000 mt/y of super phosphate and 290,000 mt/y of ammoniated super phosphate, according to the JSC Indorama Kokand Fertilizers and Chemicals’ website.
The plant, built in 1935, had been expected to restart in the first quarter of 2021. It originally was designed to process phosphate from the Dzheroy-Sardara deposit.
At the time Indorama’s participation in the Kokand Superphosphate Plant was first announced, plans for a second-phase project were reported to also include the production of other mineral fertilizers not previously produced in Uzbekistan, such as dicalcium phosphate and potassium sulfate (GM Jan. 9, 2017).