A scoping study for the Ardmore phosphate project has revealed strong potential returns, Centrex Metals has told the ASX this week.
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Australian company Centrex is developing a phosphate rock operation at Ardmore near Dajarra to supply feed to fertiliser plants for Australia and export.
The scoping study said Ardmore would require a ten-year openpit mining operation, with ore being crushed and deslimed to produce 776,000 dry tonnes of premium 35% Phosphorus pentoxide and cadmium phosphate rock product a year.
The phosphate would be trucked 90km to Duchess then railed to the Port of Townsville with product to be shipped around Australia, New Zealand and India.
Centrex say the total capital cost of the project is $55-61 million with a three-year payback and they were in discussion with “several parties” about funding options.
Centrex managing director and CEO Ben Hammond said a feasibility study for the project will be completed in mid-2018 with preliminary scale operations by end 2018 and first shipments to customer in 2019.
“It’s great we’ve been able to complete the scoping study for Ardmore in parallel with the more detailed feasibility study (and) these interim scoping level results hopefully demonstrate why we are so excited about Ardmore,” Mr Hammond said.
“It is one of the few undeveloped high-grade phosphate rock projects in the world.”
Centrex said the world demand for phosphate is growing in industrial fertilisers as the world population continues to grow, with India the largest importer and Morocco the largest exporter.
The Ardmore figure of 776,000 tonnes of production a year would represent three percent of the world traded market.
The Ardmore leases bisect the Boulia Road, 130km south of Mount Isa, 23km north of Dajarra in arid scrubland used for cattle grazing with mining agreements in place with the two properties on the lease, which is on both Boulia and Cloncurry Shire Council lands.
A highway diversion of a a couple of kilometers would be required to accommodate the pit and waste dump and there would be an 80-person camp on site.
Since Centrex bought the lease in 2017 from Southern Cross Fertilisers they have completed a large infill RC drilling program of 319 holes.
In December they told the ASX that Ardmore had a defined total mineral resources of 14.2 million tonnes at 28.7 percent phosphorus pentoxide.