Centrex Metals will schedule scheduling production of concentrates from its Ardmore trial mine project in mid to late 2021.
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In an ASX announcement on June 29. Centrex said they anticipated production from the full Ardmore phosphate project in 2022, following an expected lift in phosphate prices 2021.
Centrex last year completed on-site assembly of a 70-tonne-per-hour start-up plant, 130km south of Mount Isa.
The plant is designed to expand to a 140tph throughput to produce 800,000 wet tonnes of phosphate rock per annum from the site.
They had planned to start full-scale operations in 2020 but things started to go wrong even before COVID-19 when it announced cost-cutting measures and sacked its CEO in November.
Centrex now says they are in discussions with parties to provide funding for Ardmore.
"The Covid 19 pandemic continues to inject uncertainty regarding future phosphate prices, exchange rates, the lifting of state and country lock-downs and accordingly project construction timelines, making forecasting outcomes uncertain," the company said.
Marketing of concentrates from the proposed trial mining operation and also from full production continues.
"Centrex is pleased by the interest in its proposed future phosphate production and is working towards obtaining commitments for future production," the company reported.
It said it would revise the Ardmore phosphate project definitive feasibility study to include updated financial parameters.
"Centrex is currently scheduling production of concentrates from the trial mine project at Ardmore will now occur in mid to late 2021, with production from the full Ardmore project commencing in mid to late 2022. The recovery in phosphate prices is forecast to commence later in 2021," they said.
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