The newly renamed PRL Ardmore operation in North-West Queensland is gearing up to ship phosphate to customers later this year as PRL Global confirms it has ticked all the boxes to take over the site.

PRL Global said today that all conditions precedent for the acquisition of Centrex, Agriflex and the Ardmore phosphate mine had been satisfied or waived.

The transaction will be realised within the next five business days, at which time PRL Global will acquire all issued shares in Centrex and Agriflex.

PRL Group also owns and operates a rock phosphate mine on Christmas Island, about 1500km west of the Australian mainland and 2600km from Perth.

The Ardmore mine, near Dajarra in North-West Queensland, went into care and maintenance in March after John Park and Joanne Dunn of FTI Consulting were appointed as voluntary administrators of mine owner Centrex and its subsidiary Agriflex.

“We take this opportunity to officially rebrand Centrex and Agriflex as ‘PRL Ardmore’, with Ardmore rock phosphate now joining PRL’s key phosphate portfolio together with Christmas Island rock phosphate,” PRL Global chairman David Somerville said.

Related: PRL Global a step closer to Ardmore mine acquisition

“Achieving this milestone, little more than six months after Centrex fell into administration, has involved enormous effort and dedication, commencing with the severely timelimited yet thorough due diligence, through to conducting extensive renegotiations of logistics arrangements, reworking the business model to profitability and finally to remobilising the operation so that it can operate and produce for customers.

“Based on the work undertaken, while significant challenges remain, the board is positive on the future growth prospects for PRL Ardmore, which will benefit not only PRG shareholders and customers but also staff, suppliers, the community and other stakeholders.”

A company snapshot of the current status of the Ardmore phosphate mine includes:

• Key logistics terms have been negotiated with final contracts to follow shortly
• Remobilisation of the mining operations has been underway for some time, with recent successes in obtaining the necessary approvals to restart operations
• PRL Ardmore has successfully processed phosphate through the crushing circuit and beneficiation plant
• Customer shipments are on track for later this year.

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