Morocco hosts largest phosphate washing plant in world

Moroccan king Mohammed VI Moroccan king Mohammed VI on Wednesday launche a new phosphate washing plant in Beni Wakil Al-Halasa, downtown Al-Fakih Bensaleh. The 3.4 billion dirham project will enable the largest plant in the world to achieve the maximum recovery rate in extracting phosphate, and valuation of all classes with low levels of phosphorus, as well as recycling more than 80 per cent of used water.
It consists of two lines of washing with a capacity of 1600 tonnes per hour for each of them, a floating workshop, six mills, 120 hectare barriers for water recovery, three basins for mud deposition and three basins for product deposition. The plant which will reach maximise its production capacity to 12 million tonnes a year has been programmed to start functioning in the summer of 2013.
Al-Halasa is one out of three mines in Khouribga Province that will be opened within the industrial strategy of OCP group in Awalad Abdoun, which represents a total investment of two billion dirhams with 630 eployment opportunities from 2013. The plant's total cost is 2.5 Billion dirhams.
Eight-seven per cent of the used water will be recycled and 70 per cent of its annual requirement will be covered. Three new mills will represent 20 million extra tonnes of phosphate by 2020, and thus total production will be 38 million tonnes instead of the current 18 million.  The construction of three washing plants with the latest technology will improve production and reduces water and power usage.