Emmerson to launch potash factory in Morocco

British potash manufacturer Emmerson is set to launch a potash factory in Morocco. This move the firm says follows a successful completion of the project’s feasibility studies.

Emmerson first announced the venture back in 2019, and after raising $47 million, the British company says it is ready to start work on the first potash plant in Morocco. The decision comes at a time when the price of potash has soared since the start of the Ukraine war. The mineral is used primarily as a fertilizer.

The factory will be set up in Khemisset, a town 100 kilometers off of Rabat. Emmerson has obtained the necessary mining license through a local company. Lahcen Alloubane, Emmerson’s general manager in Morocco said the factory would be “the first potash production unit in Africa”.

Production output

The initial investment for the manufacturing unit is currently estimated at $415 million. The statement further specifies that it could be revised upwards to $450 or $500 million. Emmerson now holds a 19-year potash exploration license. Throughout the period of the license, the company is expected to invest around $2.5 billion.

After conducting the feasibility studies, the company concluded that the annual turnover from the investment post-tax would reach $1.4 billion, with an annual potash production set at 810,000 tonnes. In addition, the company says that Khemisset “has demonstrated an incredibly low pre-production capital cost of $387 million,” which is “less than half of its global peer average capital intensity.”

In terms of production output, the Khemisset factory “is ideally located to benefit from the expected high growth in demand for fertilizers on the African Continent,” says the British company. It further adds that the factory is well located to export to European, Brazilian, and US markets.