PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Leigh Creek urea project, in South Australia, has become the world’s first large scale fertiliser project to achieve a carbon neutral status.
ASX-listed Leigh Creek Energy on Thursday told shareholders that from the first year of operations, the emissions generated at Leigh Creek will be offset from accredited international farming projects.
“Through our active participation in carbon offset projects, the Leigh Creek urea project has achieved carbon neutrality for 2022, the first large scale fertiliser project in the world to achieve this,” said MD Phil Staveley.
“Our commitment to reaching carbon neutrality eight years earlier than originally planned not only aligns with the UN Global Compact principles, but also promotes our values and purpose as an organisation.”
The company has now started work on an emissions reduction programme for the second year.
A 2020 prefeasibility study into the Leigh Creek project estimated that it would require a capital investment of some A$2.6-billion, to support an annual plant capacity of one-million tonnes a year, with scope to increase urea production capacity to two-million tonnes a year. The project is expected to have a commercial life of some 30 years.