Centrex Ltd., Adelaide, South Australia, said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Agriflex Pty Ltd., has exported its first shipment of phosphate rock to Samsung C&T Corp. in South Korea, marking the first time an Australian company has supplied phosphate rock to the Asian market, according to a May 22 statement by the Australian firm.
Agriflex made the15,000 mt shipment to the South Korean company from Centrex’s Ardmore phosphate mine located just south of Mt. Isa in northwest Queensland under a binding marketing services agreement signed between the parties for the sale of Ardmore rock in February this year. The binding deal followed a conditional agreement signed in October 2021 (GM Oct. 29, 2021).
Under the agreement, Samsung C&T Corp. is the sole and exclusive agent for sales into Korea, Japan, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, and Mexico, with 20% of total production at Ardmore allocated under the deal. Ardmore has capacity to produce 800,000 mt/y.
Centrex so far has shipped a total of 59,290 mt of phosphate rock from the Ardmore mine, including the South Korean shipment.