Morocco-focused Emmerson has submitted an updated environmental- and social-impact assessment (ESIA) incorporating optimisation from the Khemisset Multimineral Process (KMP) that the company has developed.

The ESIA is now under review by Morocco’s Commission Régionale Unifiée de l’Investissement (CRUI).

Emmerson, which owns 100% of the Khemisset potash project, says it has demonstrated the effectiveness of KMP products as sources of phosphate through crop trials. 

Further trials are planned to confirm the benefits of the additional contained micronutrients magnesium and iron.

The company has also signed an offtake memorandum of understanding with Hexagon Group for KMP products, in addition to existing agreements for potash and salt.

Hexagon plans to buy up to 300 000 t/y of struvite-based products and 50 000 t/y of vivianite-based products from Emmerson.

Moreover, Emmerson has submitted a patent application for its KMP method in Morocco and the UK. These patent applications, which will be extended more widely once approved, give important commercial protections over the intellectual property relating to this valuable innovation.

CE Graham Clarke says that, following the positive news at the end of the first quarter that the company’s recourse application for the environmental approval had been upheld and would be referred back to the CRUI for reconsideration, the company successfully updated its ESIA to show the significant improvements brought about by the KMP optimisations – in addition to previous design optimisations.

“The overall environmental credentials of the project are now even more robust and, together with the compelling economics of the KMP update, should mean that we can obtain the necessary approvals and move forward with the project swiftly,” he states.

While Ememerson has been holding back from any major workstreams pending timing clarification of the ESIA approval process, the company has nonetheless made important progress on new KMP products to be marketed.

“The crop trials, which were completed in June, confirmed the effectiveness of the new KMP fertiliser products as sources of phosphate and will be followed up with further trials looking at the benefits of the other micronutrients they contain, as well as their slow-release properties,” Clarke explains.

He adds that the agreements signed for the offtake of a significant quantity of the new KMP products confirm the marketability of these multinutrient fertilisers.

The key priority for the company in the third quarter is obtaining environmental approval for Khemisset, and continuing with testwork related to KMP crop trials, technical workshops and product optimisations in both Morocco and the UK.