London-listed Emmerson’s patent application for the Khemisset multimineral process (KMP), titled ‘Processing of Evaporite Minerals (Application No. 2315003.0)’, has been granted by the UK Intellectual Property (IP) Office.  

This patent provides IP protection for the core KMP process and its optimised derivative products.

The KMP was primarily developed by Emmerson for use at its Khemisset potash project, in Morocco, but is also expected to have potential for application across a wider number of potash deposits globally.

Through its advisers, Gill Jennings & Every, Emmerson filed a portfolio of patent applications intended to protect its IP in those regions of greatest commercial interest.

Emmerson previously announced the KMP as a “breakthrough” processing route for the Khemisset project.

The introduction of the KMP reduced the project’s water requirements by 50%, increased the recovery rate of muriate of potash from 85% to about 91% and created two new high-value, slow-release multinutrient fertilisers of struvite and vivianite.

In addition to their commercial value, these fertiliser products have considerable environmental and sustainability benefits owing to their slow-release characteristic, which reduces phosphate run-off to watercourses and enables less frequent application by farmers, Emmerson points out.

On April 30, 2025, the company’s direct and indirect subsidiaries Khemisset UK and Potasse de Khemisset filed a request for arbitration (RFA) with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

The ICSID secretary-general registered the RFA on May 23, 2025. The claimants filed their memorial in the arbitration, together with documentary, witness and expert evidence, on March 27 this year.

The claimants seek compensation of $1.22-billion net of local taxes and including interest, citing loss and damage sustained as a result of Morocco’s breaches of its obligations under the agreement between government of the UK of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the government of the Kingdom of Morocco for the promotion and protection of Investments (BIT), including Morocco’s expropriation of the project in violation of Article 6(1) of the BIT; and Morocco’s breach of its obligations to accord the claimants fair and equitable treatment, to provide full protection and security to the claimants and their investments, and to refrain from impairing the claimants’ investments by discriminatory measures under Article 2(2) of the BIT.