The government of Togo, West Africa, has awarded Elenilto, a global oil and gas and minerals company, an international tender to develop a phosphate mining and fertilisers plant project in Togo.

Elenilto, which leads and controls the consortium, is co-operating in this project with Wengfu as its strategic partner. Wengfu is one of the top leading international phosphate and fertilisers groups with vast experience in the phosphate chemical industry in China and favourable influence in the industry globally, said a statement from the company

Currently a number of global financial institutions are interested in financing the project. Discussions in purpose to assemble the financial consortium to support and provide the required financing to develop the project have already begun, it said.

Elenilto will establish one of the largest phosphate mining and beneficiation facilities to produce low cost phosphate concentrates utilising the connection to the natural gas pipeline of West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP), the short distance from the mine to port which is less than 30 km, and a high production rate of 5 million tonnes per year, to benefit the economies of scale and to maintain cost advantage in the international phosphate and fertiliser market, it added.

The company will also set up a downstream phosphoric acid and fertiliser plant to supply the required nutrients to the agricultures as the future suppliers of food, to the developing and increasing African and International fertilisers customers, and will also invest in distribution channels and required logistic facilities to bring the fertilisers to the farmers.

The project is located near Lome, Togo’s capital, and is probably the largest phosphate deposit south of the Sahara, with estimated resources exceeding 2 billion tonnes of phosphate and will generate sales of over $28 billion.

Thousands of local and foreign employees will be recruited to develop the project and tens of thousands of indirect jobs will be created, said the statement.

The execution of the final concession development agreement is expected to be during this month, and the sales of concentrates production is expected to begin within 3 years, it added.

Alon Avadani, CEO of Elenilto, said: “We have identified the local market shortage and demand for fertilisers products, and will supply the phosphate, the fertilisers and the phosphoric acid to Africa and the international market.”

“The fertilisers project is the first and the biggest of its kind in West Africa and shall enjoy relative low operating expenses due to the availability of gas from the WAGP, the close proximity to the port and the size of project,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service