Phosphate exports to India ramp up from Centrex mine

The burgeoning Centrex phosphate mine in Queensland’s North West Mineral Province is ramping up exports of the critical mineral needed to produce high-quality fertilisers.

The phosphate rock processing plant established by Centrex at Ardmore.

The burgeoning Centrex phosphate mine in Queensland’s North West Mineral Province is ramping up exports of the critical mineral needed to produce high-quality fertilisers.

ASX-listed Centrex has announced its first export of high-grade phosphate concentrate to India, which needs huge amounts of fertiliser to meet growing food demand.

The 25,000 tonne shipment is expected to leave Port of Townsville at the end of this month, and follows the company’s other exports to South Korea and New Zealand.

India, the world’s most populous country, is heavily reliant on imported phosphate to meet local demand and imports hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of phosphate per annum, mostly from western Africa. Centrex is currently upgrading its Ardmore Phosphate Rock Mine in the Georgina Basin in northwest Queensland to boost production further.

Centrex managing director Robert Mencel said the Indian deal reflected the long-held conviction by many that the Georgina Basin would one day be major contributor towards global food security, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Global markets are making calculated decisions about long-term and sustainable food security, and we have access to a high-quality supply of the most critical raw mineral in agriculture and food production,” said Mr Mencel.

Centrex CEO Robert Mencel stands in front of the phosphate rock processing plants at Ardmore near Mount Isa.

The company is Australia’s only producer of high quality phosphate that can be manufactured into superphosphate for use in dairy, sheep and beef ­pastures.

“Phosphate use is a good barometer of economic growth,” he said. “If you look at where demand is coming from, it’s Africa, India and some of the former Soviet republics.

“What generally happens is that as people get richer they demand high-quality food in the form of dairy and protein.”

He said Australia was a small supplier of phosphate at the moment, with the only other domestic producer being Incitec Pivot’s Phosphate Hill, which produces lower-grade material.

He said global phosphate prices had been boosted in recent years by export quotas imposed in China in order to protect the country’s own food production.

China is a major phosphate producer but lags behind Morocco, which produces 40 per cent of the world’s supply. Centrex’s supply contract will be handled by Samsung C&T Corp, which has marketing services agreements for sales of phosphate rock products into various major global markets including Korea, Japan, Indonesia, India, Mexico and Taiwan.

He said the company’s product was ideally positioned as it not only offered a high percentage of phosphorus but was very low in the toxic element cadmium – a desired combination that is becoming increasingly important in India and other markets.

The deal also benefits from the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) which has paved the way for tariff-free exports of Australian goods to India.

The Queensland government has conditionally approved funding of up to $2m for the mine upgrade under the Mount Isa Transition Fund (MITF).

The MITF aims to support workers affected by the pending closure of Glencore’s Mount Isa copper mine and copper concentrator as well as the Lady Loretta zinc mine.

Originally published as Phosphate exports to India ramp up from Centrex mine