Aussie mine to harvest phosphate along Namibian coast

AN Australian diamond mining company with offshore mining experience says it has found substantial reserves of phosphate along the Namibian coast, which would making dredging the ocean bed across 1 000 square kilometres a viable undertaking.

Yesterday, Bonaparte Diamond Mines announced that preliminary sampling results for the EPL 3323 area provided an estimate of 196,1 million tonnes at grades ranging from 13,4 to 18,1 per cent marine phosphate content. The offshore exploration area stretches from Walvis Bay south to Meob Bay.
Phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in agriculture and industry. Phosphorus used in fertilisers comes from the fossilised remains of ancient marine life.
Bonaparte’s Managing Director, Mike Woodborne, said in a statement posted on Bonaparte’s website: ‘We have determined that the Meob Project has significant phosphate resource potential for rapid development into production.’
The Meob Project forms part of a joint venture in October 2008 between Bonaparte and Namibian partners, Tungeni Investments and Union Resources. The joint venture incorporates Union’s adjacent Sandpiper marine phosphate project next to that of Bonaparte.
Licences held by Union in its Sandpiper project and those held by Bonaparte/Tungeni will be transferred to a joint venture company. This will be owned with 42,5 per cent each by Union and Bonaparte and 15 per cent by Tungeni.
Bonaparte, Union and Tungeni management consider the joint venture projects to have the potential to be brought into production by 2011 and will focus plans for the rapid development of an initial 3 million ton a year rock phosphate operation as the top priority, anticipating substantial increase to 6 million ton from the combined areas, subject to market demand.
The deposits lie within reach of modern dredging technology and Union has a current agreement with a major dredging company to deliver a mining proposal for seabed mining utilising one of its existing dredging vessels. Substantial previous work has been done on samples from the Sandpiper project.
‘Value addition of the material appears to be relatively straightforward with concentrate for an initial pilot plant investigation having been prepared. An initial pilot plant investigation on material from the area has reportedly shown that a good merchant grade phosphoric acid can be produced via standard phosphoric acid circuits,’ Bonaparte said in the statement.
The name of the new joint venture company will be PhosCo. The Joint Venture agreement will be governed by the laws of Western Australia.