New Zealand agricultural cooperative Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd. has taken delivery of the first shipment of phosphate rock from Queensland, Australia, according to New Zealand’s Rural News. The shipment follows an initial feasibility trial of a small parcel of rock from the Ardmore project near Mount Isa in July 2018.
Mining began at the Ardmore mine, located some located 128 km south of Mount Isa in northwest Queensland, in August 2021 (GM Oct. 14, p. 29). Adelaide-based resources firm Centrex Metals owns the mine.
Through its 100%-owned fertilizer subsidiary Agriflex Pty Ltd., Centrex inked agreements with Ballance in May this year, and with New Zealand’s other agricultural cooperative Ravensdown Ltd. in April, for each to buy a trial 5,000 mt shipment. The two cooperatives also have a first right of refusal for each to purchase 20% of available annual production for the first three years.
Ballance has been looking to diversify its sources of phosphate rock, and find a source closer to New Zealand to help mitigate supply chain disruptions, the report cited Ballance General Manager Operations and Supply Chain Shane Dufaur as saying.
Ballance expects to schedule further shipments from Ardmore next year and beyond following a successful production trial of the current consignment.
Ravensdown is currently trialling its 5,000 mt shipment from the Ardmore mine, Rural News reported in a separate report this week.
Ravensdown General Manager Supply Chain said the trial shipment will undergo rigorous quality tests in the country, and he was hopeful of the potential for the source of rock to form a part of the cooperative’s nutrient offering and firm up local supply of high-quality superphosphate for New Zealand farmers and growers.
Both Ravensdown and Ballance are currently heavily reliant on phosphate rock from the disputed Western Sahara region, and have been under pressure from activist groups to diversify away from the contentious source. The disputed Western Sahara territory is controlled by Morocco, but is claimed by the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Centrex CEO Robert Mencel, in an October interview with Australia’s ABC News, put New Zealand’s current phosphate rock imports at around 600,000 mt/y.
According to Belgium-based Western Sahara Research Watch, which monitors Morocco’s exports of phosphates from occupied Western Sahara, Ballance in 2021 took delivery of five shipments of rock totalling 292,000 mt from the disputed region and Ravensdown took one shipment of 55,000 mt. WSRW advocates for the rights of the Saharawi people of the disputed Western Sahara territory controlled by Morocco.
Centrex/Agriflex made Australia’s first domestic export of phosphate rock in October, completing a bulk shipment of beneficiated rock to southern Australia. The companies did not confirm the identity of the recipient of the cargo. Rock is railed from the Ardmore mine to the port of Townsville, Queensland.
Phosphate reserves at Ardmore provide for a 10-year mining life.