British Sulphur prepared initial project capital and operating costs assuming sale prices for phosphate of $100/mt, $200/mt, $300/mt and $400/mt, all fob. The company noted that sales of Moroccan phosphate at $400/mt fob Morocco were recorded in March.

Legend International said its “historically defined” phosphate assets amount to 1,463 million mt at 16% P2O5 on its Queensland land holdings. British Sulphur has completed the preliminary scoping study based on parameters that include a 10 million mt/y phosphate rock mine; a beneficiation plant generating 5 million mt/y of phosphate rock concentrate; a 300-km slurry pipeline from Lady Annie to the Port of Karumba; development of a drying facility, plus loading and berthing areas at the Port of Karumba; and barge transfers from shallow- draft barges out to larger vessels moored off the coast in the Karumba Roadstead waters for shipment to Asian markets.

The company said it plans to begin confirmation of historical deposit estimates by drilling a number of twin holes across representative samples throughout the deposit zone, revalidating the metallurgical testwork by sending bench and pilot plant scale samples to an independent external engineering company to develop a flow sheet and final plant design, and conducting a full technical feasibility study and environmental impact statement. Capital costs for the project are estimated at $826.6 million.

Legend International Holdings is a junior resource development company focused on developing its phosphate deposits in the Georgina basin of Queensland, Australia. The company’s exploration licenses include approximately 5.2 million acres in Queensland and Northern Territory, Australia.