France will lend €240 million ($US306 million) to Morocco’s state phosphates company, Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP), to help finance a new pipeline project.
OCP Chief Executive Mostafa Terrab signed the agreement with the interim head of the French Development Agency Jean-Michel Debrat in Paris.
The 235 km slurry pipeline will transport phosphates from the Moroccan central mining region of Khouribga to the Jorf Lasfar industrial and port complex on the Atlantic coast. When complete, it will have a capacity of 38 MMt/a.
This pipeline forms part of a broader plan to enhance Morocco’s phosphates export capacity, to meet growing demand from China, India and Brazil, where phosphates are used as a fertiliser. Over the next 10 years, the OCP intends to invest €6.3 billion ($US8 billion) in increasing raw phosphate production from 28 MMt/a to 47 MMt/a.
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