First Phosphate Corp. ("First Phosphate" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a technology license agreement ("TLA") with Prayon SA of Engis, Belgium ("Prayon") for the technology to produce merchant grade phosphoric acid (MGA) from igneous apatite phosphate rock as well as high-purity gypsum.
Prayon will grant First Phosphate a license to use its technology to design, build, operate and maintain, within Canada, a Merchant Grade phosphoric acid (MGA) manufacturing plant with a production capacity of six hundred (600) metric tons of product per day of P2O5 (phosphate).
Further, First Phosphate has also selected Ballestra S.pA. of Milan, Italy ("Ballestra") from a group of official permanent licensees of Prayon to fulfill the service agreement ("SA") for the engineering services portion (FEED and EPC/EPCM) for the project.
Lastly, First Phosphate's relationship with Norfalco, a division of Glencore Canada, ("Norfalco-Glencore") dated July 2023, remains in place for secure supply of sulfuric acid for this future phosphoric acid facility.
"With these technology, engineering and sulfuric acid supply agreements in place, First Phosphate will have the ability to implement a process to convert approximately 500,000 tonnes per annum of igneous apatite originating from its future mining operations into upwards of 190,000 annual tonnes of value-added phosphoric acid," says Company CEO, John Passalacqua.
"Through the sale of this license, Prayon gives First Phosphate access to a world-renowned technology and highlights its commitment to transforming a critical, strategic material into high-value-added products, while recycling by-products in a well-established circular economy," says Benoît Van Massenhove of Prayon SA.
