Name of the Project
Elandsfontein phosphate project.

Location
Saldanha Bay, in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Project Owner/s
The Elandsfontein project is held by Kropz (70%), African Rainbow Capital, or ARC (25%), and a smaller empowerment partnership (5%). Ubuntu Botho Investments forms part of the ARC structure.

Project Description
The Elandsfontein  deposit is the biggest sedimentary phosphate deposit in South Africa.

The phosphate mineralisation is contained in the Varswater formation, with the phosphate occurring in phosphatised shell fragments and phosphorite pellets. The remainder of the deposit consists of silica sand and calcium oxide.

The project has an initial mine life of about 14 years and can deliver one-million tonnes a year of phosphate rock concentrate at steady state.

The processing plant will produce a final saleable concentrate to the expected specification of 68% bone phosphate of lime and about 31% phosphorus oxide using a flotation configuration of direct flotation, followed by a reverse flotation circuit.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated. 

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
Kropz has spent $120-million to bring its Elandsfontein phosphates mining and processing project into production and requires an additional $16-million to cover its augmentation.

Planned Start/End Date
First phosphate rock ore exports from Elandsfontein are expected in the first quarter of 2022.

Latest Developments
Kropz has reported that the Elandsfontein project is on schedule, albeit tight, and within the original projected capital budget for commissioning in December.

The company highlighted on November 23 that these achievements “have been realised against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic” and said site activities were divided between finalising the piping, electrical, control and instrumentation installation, as well as early commissioning activities.

Earthworks and civil construction are complete and have included the fabrication and erection of structural steel, platework and piping, as well as the installation of mechanical equipment.

Precommissioning activities are advancing well and largely entail testing signals from field instrumentation to the supervisory control and data acquisition operating system, testing input/output signals for instruments and the direction testing of electrical drives.

Cold commissioning has started in areas where installation is complete. Several tanks and thickeners have been filled with water to run through the leak detection process, before starting to pump water through the circuit, Kropz has said.

However, the piping installation progress was hampered by a nationwide industrial action by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) from October 5 to 21. The strike affected the off-site workshop-related work on the rubber-lined pipe closures, which in turn, affected site work.

Mitigation plans were put in place, but employees were intimidated and the mitigation efforts had to be halted, though Kropz has confirmed that no further impacts of the strike on the project schedule are anticipated.

Further, the delivery of the ‘first fill’ of imported reagents from the US is on track for mid-December.

While the delivery times for imported reagents remain under pressure, owing to global shipping challenges, recent feedback from shipping agents is that the freight demands are expected to ease after the Chinese New Year.

Additional orders have been placed to secure delivery for the first quarter of 2022.

Meanwhile, rail entity Transnet Freight Rail has provided Kropz with a draft port access agreement to support the long-term export of Elandsfontein’s phosphate rock through the Port of Saldanha Bay.

The contract is being finalised between the parties and will result in exports through Cape Town being required only for a maximum of 30% of Elandsfontein’s export production of about one-million tonnes a year, and only if capacity through Saldanha Bay is unavailable for a period.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
DRA (engineering, procurement and construction management); Minopex (processing plant operation); and VDM Transport.

Contact Details for Project Information
Kropz, tel +27 21 930 0927 or email info@kropz.com.