Chatham Rock Phosphate is looking to develop a stand-alone 5Mtpa phosphate/fertiliser export facility at the Port of Townsville.

With the emerging changes in the world supply chain for fertilisers and phosphates, the low-cadmium phosphate from the Georgina Basin in North-West Queensland had the potential to fill the gap for low-cadmium phosphate in Europe, now no longer able to be sourced from Russia, the company said.

A Chatham subsidiary trading as Korella Terminals has kicked off a scoping study into the potential port development.

Chatham holds the  Korella mine and Korella South phosphate project about 150km south-east of Mount Isa.

A 1Mtpa mine is proposed based on its Korella South tenements to export direct shipping phosphate ore.

The company also a prefeasibility study underway for the production of Dicalcium Phosphate (DCP), used in animal feed.

Chatham said the need for a dedicated phosphate/fertiliser terminal at Townsville had been recognised for a considerable time.

“This long-needed export facility project also has the potential to attract Queensland and Federal Government funding. The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is one potential source,” it said in a statement on the plans.

The results of the scoping study are expected to be available in July 2022.