Chatham Rock Phosphate Ltd. welcomes the Supreme Court decision released this week in respect to the Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) application to mine up to 50 million tonnes of vanadium-rich sand a year about 20 kilometres off the west coast of the North Island.
In the company’s view, the decision is not a show stopper.
To the contrary, it clarifies and eliminates the uncertainties arising from earlier decisions.
It now makes it easier for Chatham to frame its own reapplication for a marine consent to recover low-cadmium, organic rock phosphate from the Chatham Rise, off the east coast of the South Island.
As Alan Eggers, the TTR executive chairman, noted last week, the company now knows what needs to be done.
It can now confidently move forward to reapply for a marine consent and will do so as soon as it is sufficiently financed to commence the process. The company expects this financing to be sourced either from a cornerstone investor, from operating cash flows generated by Avenir Makatea, the on-shore phosphate project it recently acquired in French Polynesia, or other potential fully permitted phosphate mine acquisitions.
Chatham intends to be an environmentally sensitive and ethical supplier of direct application low-cadmium phosphate to the global agricultural sector.
It is passionate about the benefit of direct application fertilizer to sustainable farming and agricultural practices.
With its current low-cadmium projects in New Zealand and French Polynesia and now prospective phosphate mines in Australia and Canada, its is growing its capability to meet the global demand originating from organic and regenerative farmers.
