The Gafsa Phosphate Company (CPG) will take delivery at the beginning of September of the first batch of equipment and machinery purchased as part of an investment programme worth 236 million dinars approved last May by the National Security Council on Phosphate Production, chaired by President Kaïs Saied. This equipment is intended to consolidate the system for the extraction of raw phosphate and the production of commercial phosphate. In a statement to TAP, CPG's Director of Information and Communication, Ali Al-Hoshati, said the company will take delivery of the first batch of equipment at the beginning of September and in stages to improve its capacity to extract raw phosphate from open-cast mines in the delegations of Oum Larayes, Metlaoui, Mdhilla and Redayef. The equipment includes 18 60-tonne trucks, 6 hydraulic machines, 3 rotary machines and 6 4.5-cubic-metre wheel loaders, as well as equipment to increase the company's capacity to transport raw phosphate and extract commercial phosphate, purchased at a cost of 65 million dinars. CPG also plans to announce a tender next month for the purchase of a new batch of machinery and equipment worth 183 million dinars. This will include 36 large and medium-sized machines, trucks, rotary and hydraulic excavators and other equipment. As part of this investment programme, which will run until 2024, the company aims to renew 30% of its fleet of mining equipment, thereby increasing its capacity to extract raw phosphate from open-cast mines. According to the company's communications officer, increasing the company's extraction capacity will ensure that commercial phosphate production units can operate "smoothly and sustainably" with raw phosphate. Since 2011, CPG has suffered a dramatic decline in phosphate production due to social tensions and protests in the mining base region. The annual rate of commercial phosphate production from 2011 to 2022 did not exceed 3.5 million tonnes, compared to 8 million tonnes in 2010 alone. The obsolescence and low availability of production units are also reasons why the company has not yet recovered its usual production rate. The production capacity of the company's 10 washing plants has been reduced to 5.5 million tonnes per year by 2022.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse