PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) has completed a strategic assessment of the Ardmore phosphate rock project, in Queensland, and will now proceed to a due diligence investigation, ASX-listed Centrex Metals said on Thursday.
An optimised definitive feasibility study recently estimated that the Ardmore project would require a capital investment of A$69-million to support a yearly production of 800 000 t/y with a mine life of ten years.
Centrex is targeting an initial 30 000 t of production from the plant to provide potential customers with 5 000 t trial shipments in order to secure offtake to support full-scale project financing.
The company told shareholders on Thursday that the A$5-billion NAIF had not yet made a decision to offer a loan or provide financial assistance of any sort for the Ardmore project, but added that the company would continue to work with the NAIF and provide the necessary assistance with the due diligence process.