Canada's Capstone Copper has approved a $45 million pyrite recovery project at its Mantoverde copper operation in Chile that will cut the mine's sulphuric acid consumption by around 90,000 t/y, the company said in its second-quarter results on 30 July.
The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has signed a $5.7 million grant agreement with Morocco-based joint venture ORNX Laayoune 1 SASU (ORNX) to fund a pre-front end engineering and design (pre-FEED) study for a large-scale green ammonia plant.
China's Envision Energy has signed a low-carbon ammonia environmental attribute purchase agreement with PepsiCo APAC and delivered the first 1,000 tonnes of environmental attribute certificates (EACs) linked to its Chifeng Net Zero Industrial Park in Inner Mongolia.
Industry viewpoint: Dr MP Sukumaran Nair of the Centre for Green Technology & Management (CGTM) reviews the fertilizer industry's decarbonisation options.
Hynfra, a Polish developer of green hydrogen and ammonia projects, has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Philippine partner to build a green ammonia complex on the island of Mindoro.
A roadmap on phosphate and potash decarbonisation, developed by ERM and Systemiq in collaboration with IFA, was published on 16th July.
Koch Ag & Energy Solutions is buying a 50% share in Jorf Fertilizers Company I (JFC I) as part of a second joint venture with OCP Nutricrops.
The fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran broke down at the start of July, just three weeks after the signing of the June memorandum of understanding, after Iran fired at several vessels who had failed to notify them of their transit of the Strait of Hormuz, and the US retaliated with a missile barrage. While the two month negotiation period it had specified to solve all of the outstanding issues between the two parties had always seemed over-ambitious, market participants had at least expected to have that grace period to arrange for new cargoes and tranship them through the Strait. Now that the ceasefire has ended early, markets are truly entering uncharted waters.
Nickel Industries announced started up the sulphuric acid plant at its new Excelsior Nickel Cobalt (ENC) HPAL project in the final week of June. The ENC Project is a massive, multi-billion dollar high-pressure acid leach (HPAL) facility located in the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is operated by Australia’s Nickel Industries to supply battery-grade materials for the electric vehicle (EV) market. At capacity, it is expected to yield roughly 72,000 t/a of contained nickel equivalent as mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), nickel sulphate, and nickel cathode.
Russian gas producer Gazprom and fertilizer giant PhosAgro have signed a new five-year agreement for the supply of sulphur, according to a report from Interfax on 5 June. The deal, signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), will see Gazprom continue to supply the key raw material for PhosAgro’s phosphate fertilizer production. The document was signed by Gazprom Deputy Chairman Vitaly Markelov and PhosAgro CEO Alexander Gilgenberg.