Isle of Man-based Emmerson Plc reported that the environmental approval for its Khemisset potash and salt project in northern Morocco has now been referred to a national ministerial committee after the local regional committee was unable to approve the application due to concerns about the project’s impact on water resources (GM April 21, p. 28).
“In particular, the issues raised have centred around the disposal of brines through deep well injection; the storage of salt tailings at surface; the use of water from local sources; and the impact of the Khemisset project on local highways and land users,” Emmerson said in a July 6 statement.
The company reiterated that it has invested considerable resources into developing “robust solutions” in all these areas, including using dry stack tailings and sourcing waste water rather than fresh water from nearby reservoirs.
In addition, it said it has committed to completing in-situ injectivity test work before construction to confirm the feasibility of deep well injection as a means of disposing of brines, while examining alternative means to process brines in order to minimize, or even eliminate, the requirement of brine disposal.
Emmerson CEO Graham Clarke said he remains confident the national committee will take into account the company’s efforts to minimize the environmental impact of the project. The company also said that basic engineering studies at Khemisset are reaching completion with final reports and designs due shortly.
Once completed, the information will be incorporated into an updated Bank Feasibility Study (BFS), which will take roughly six months to complete and will be started once the environmental approval has been received. Project finance due diligence will run in parallel with the updated BFS.
Emmerson is targeting production of 800,000 mt/y of potash and 1 million mt/y of salt at Khemisset.