Israel Chemicals Ltd. is weighing a $500 million offshore phosphate mine, according to a report in today’s The Marker, economic daily newspaper. The report said that an ICL team is looking at sites in Vietnam, Kazakhstan, China, the U.S., Brazil and even Togo. The newspaper said that ICL wanted to make a decision on the investment by the end of 2013.
ICL would not comment on the report. However, it comes less than a week after Israel’s new Health Minister Yael German came out strongly against the proposed phosphate mine at Sde Barir near the town of Arad in southern Israel on health grounds. Earlier this month ICL CEO Stefan Borgas warned that the company had reached an important crossroads regarding the future of Israel’s phosphate industry and that without the new mine local phosphate operations would halt within ten years.
Workers at Rotem Amfert, the ICL phosphate and fertilizer subsidiary, have launched a protest campaign against the Health Ministry and its position on the new mine.