Chatham Rock Phosphate Ltd. executive director Colin Randall, the leader of the company’s RailPhos project, met with the 17 representative European Union delegation of economic and commercial counsellors in Cloncurry on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025.
The presentation made by Mr. Randall emphasized two major points.
The first point is the fact that Australian phosphate was low in cadmium and with its use by European fertilizer producers, it would be able to meet the increasingly stringent requirements for cadmium in phosphatic fertilizers set by the EU.
Europe had been dependent on Russian phosphate for almost 60 per cent of its low-cadmium phosphate. It was not possible to replace it with high-cadmium phosphate from Morocco/southwestern Sahara and therefore had been sourcing low-cadmium phosphate from South Africa, but it contains elevated levels of uranium and thorium.
With Australia’s demonstrated ability to mine and export bulk commodities, the mining and export phosphate from Queensland’s Georgina basin would provide a long-term stable supply to the EU of low-cadmium phosphate.
The second point emphasized was the ability to provide a low-cost transport system for supply of phosphate to Europe through the RailPhos project.
The RailPhos project includes common user rail-loading facilities, the Cloncurry to Port of Karumba rail line, a common user rail unloading and storage facility at Karumba, and barge loading for transport of phosphate to anchored ocean-going vessels in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
The ability to load ships in the Gulf of Carpentaria that had a capacity range of Panamax to Cape size enabled low-cost sea freight to the major European ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam. From there, smaller vessels and barges could supply the European phosphate market, including buyers such as Prayon in Leige, a major producer of phosphoric acid.
The delegation was interested to hear that Australia had low-cadmium phosphate that could be competitive in the European market.
The EU delegation visit to Mount Isa, Cloncurry and Townsville
The EU delegation visit to Queensland occurred on Aug. 18 to Aug. 22, 2025.
Representatives in the delegation were from:
EU delegation to Australia; Austrian consulate; Belgium mission; Wallonia trade agency; Cyprus high commission; Czech embassy; embassy of France; German embassy; consulate of Hungary; embassy of Lithuania; Latvia trade; embassy of Poland; Polish invest and trade; Slovak consulate; embassy of Slovenia; and the embassy of Sweden.
The visit to Mount Isa, Cloncurry and Townsville was organized by Mount Isa to the Townsville economic development zone, and its chief executive officer Maria James led the visit.
