Australian phosphate rock has been domestically exported for the first time. This month, Adelaide-based resources firm Centrex Metals, via its 100%-owned fertilizer subsidiary Agriflex Pty Ltd., completed its first bulk shipment of beneficiated phosphate rock via the port of Townsville, Queensland, to southern Australia.
The shipment, comprising an initial trial parcel of 7,200 mt of 34.5+% grade P2O5, was loaded and sold on an FOB basis. Further bulk shipments of 10,000 mt per month are expected to be made on an ongoing basis, Centrex Minerals said in an Oct. 12 ASX statement.
The rock was mined at the company’s Ardmore mine, located 128 km south of the city of Mount Isa in northwest Queensland, and transported to Townsville by rail. The company did not confirm the identity of the recipient of the cargo.
Mining started in August 2021, and the Ardmore beneficiation plant achieved metallurgical design performance of 70 mt/h of wet feed phosphate rock this past August.
Centrex CEO Robert Mencel, in an interview with Australia’s ABC News, said the shipment was “a significant day for the industry because previously phosphate rock was 100% imported.”
The CEO put Australia’s current phosphate rock imports at around 400,000 mt/y, with New Zealand importing around 600,000 mt/y.
The Ardmore project would provide an export opportunity for Australia and reduce its need for importation, he said.
Centrex is targeting to reach output of 125 mt/h by early 2023 and full annual production of 800,000 wet mt toward the end of next year.
The resources company signed a development deal with Incitec Pivot Ltd.’s (IPL) subsidiary Southern Cross Fertilisers Pte. Ltd. (SCF) in early 2017, under which Centrex agreed to develop the project (GM Feb. 3, 2017). Under the agreement, SCF retained an interest in the project via right of first refusal for up to 20% of the available production at market prices, as well as a 3% royalty.
However, under a settlement between Agriflex and SCF in November 2021 over an extension fee claim by SCF under the original Royalty Deed, Agriflex agreed to up the Royalty Deed from 3% to 3.5%, except during calculation periods where the average Morocco 72% BPL FOB phos rock benchmark is less than US$150 per ton, when the royalty will remain at 3%.
In addition, SCF’s first right of refusal over the available production was increased to 30%.
Centrex also has the remaining first three years of production at Ardmore allocated.
Agriflex inked agreements with New Zealand’s Ravensdown Ltd. and Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd. in April and May this year, respectively, for each New Zealand cooperative to buy a trial 5,000 mt shipment, and a first right of refusal for each to purchase 20% of available annual production for the first three years.
Ameropa Australia Pty. Ltd. in July this year inked a deal with Agriflex for the purchase of a trial 5,000 wet mt shipment and first right of refusal to purchase 10% of available annual production for the first three years.
A marketing term sheet was signed with South Korea’s Samsung C+T Corp. in October 2021 whereby Samsung has 20% first right of refusal over annual production – or 160,000 mt/y – for the first three years (GM Oct. 29, 2021). The marketing sheet duration is for the first three years of production. Under the deal, Samsung was appointed as sole and exclusive marketing representative for sales into Korea, Japan, Indonesia, India, and Mexico.
Ardmore is a satellite deposit to the main Duchess mining operations, which feeds the adjacent Phosphate Hill ammonium phosphate fertilizer plant owned by SCF/Incitec Pivot. Phosphate reserves at Ardmore provide for a 10-year mining life. The Duchess mine produces about 2.1 million mt/y, with more than 50 years of mine life remaining.