The Itafos Conda Project is a vertically integrated phosphate fertilizer project currently operational in Idaho, USA.
The project is owned by Itafos Conda, a wholly owned subsidiary of Itafos. The project consists of four mines: the Rasmussen Valley Mine (RVM), the Lanes Creek Mine (LCM), the Husky 1 South Maybe Canyon (H1SMC), and the North Dry Ridge (NDR) Mine.
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The project has experienced several shutdowns, restarts, and ownership acquisitions.
The LCM stopped operations in mid-2020 and is currently under reclamation. The H1SMC and NDR mines are in the final stages of planning and permitting. Currently, only RVM is supplying ore to the Conda Phosphate Plant (CPP).
In December 2020, Conda received the Notice of Intent (NOI) for preparing the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the H1SMC/NDR project.
The draft and final Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for the H1SMC and NDR were published in October 2021 and November 2022 respectively.
In September 2023, a Monoammonium Phosphate (MAP) offtake agreement was signed by Itafos with J.R. Simplot, an international food and agriculture company.
Under the agreement, 100% of the produced MAP from the project is being sold to Simplot. The agreement commenced in January 2024 and is valid for five years.
As per the technical report published by the owner in February 2024, the project will be mined through mid-2037.
Approximately 550,000 short tons per year (tpy) of MAP, MAP with micronutrients (MAP +), Super Phosphoric Acid (SPA), Ammonium Polyphosphate (APP), Merchant Grade Phosphoric acid (MGA), and Hydro Fluoro Silicic Acid (HFSA) are produced by the CPP.
The mined phosphate ore is loaded to rail and transported through the Union Pacific Rail Road (UPRR) to the CPP.
Itafos Conda Location
The Conda Project is located about 24.14km (15 miles) east/northeast of the town of Soda Springs in Idaho.
Itafos holds mineral rights on 4901.35 hectares (ha) (± 12,111.5 acres) in Caribou County of Idaho through Itafos Conda. The mines of the project cover 1153.35ha (± 2,850 acres).
Itafos controls an additional 3752.24ha (± 9,272 acres) of land under lease as exploration targets and owns an additional 2583.10ha (6,383 acres) of land within Caribou.
These additional claims are associated with the CPP, the Wooley Valley (WV) Tipple, and other acquired properties.
The Paris Hills (PH) Project, located 56.32km (35 miles) from Conda, was included in the 2019 technical report of the project.
The PH concession was a part of Itafos but was ended after the completion of the 2019 report. Currently, PH is not a part of Itafos.
Soda Springs can be reached by Interstate Highway 15 and US Highway 30. The project is located at the intersection of Highways 30 and 34. The CPP can be reached from State Highway 34 and Conda Road.
The primary access roads to reach mines of the project are Blackfoot River Road, Rasmussen Valley Road, Blackfoot Narrows, Lanes Creek Road, Slug Creek, Dry Valley, Diamond Creek, and Steward Canyon roads.
The project is intersected by several gravel roads (Caribou County and/or United States Forest Service (USFS). UPRR runs through Soda Springs parallel to Highway 30.
Ownership History
The exploration and mining of phosphate in Caribou County started in the 1920s. The CPP is producing almost for the last 60 years.
All the mines of the project are under lease granting surface access and phosphate mineral mining rights.
The RVM mine is located on a federal lease and a part of a state lease. J.A. Tereling & Sons was issued the first federal lease on RVM ore deposit in 1955.
The lease was acquired by the Stauffer Chemical in 1968. It was acquired by FMC and then by Astaris Production in 2000. In 2004, Agrium purchased the lease.
The LCM mine is located on private lands of Bear Lake Grazing. LCM was a part of a 161.87ha (400-acre) patented land. The land was acquired by George M. Pugmire in 1888 under the Desert Land Act.
The mine was transferred to Bear Lake Grazing Association, a cooperative of local ranchers and the predecessor of Bear Lake Grazing.
The original land patent was leased from Bear Lake Grazing by John Archer in the early 1970. Archer sold it to Alumet, a partnership between National Steel (40%), Southwire (40%), and Earth Science (20%).
Archer had an asset interest with the rights of participation (overriding royalty) in the lease.
The LCM lease and Alumet phosphate holdings were acquired by Simplot in 1997. Simplot maintained the inactive status of LCM and conducted reclamation and stabilisation activities of the overburden storage area.
Under Lease Exchange Agreement (LEA), Agrium acquired the lease of LCM from Simplot in 2015 and received approval from the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) to mine the lease.
The H1SMC and NDR leases were held by several companies. Both were acquired by Agrium in 1995 after acquiring Nu-West Industries.
Nutrien (previously Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan) had the lease of Maybe Canyon. Itafos acquired the parts of the lease covering North Maybe Mine and South Maybe Canyon Mine.
Agrium merged with Nutrien and they were acquired by Itafos in January 2018.
Geology and Mineralisation
The phosphate mineralisation is sedimentary and deposited during the primary depositional processes. It is hosted within the Meade Peak Member (MPM) of the Permian Phosphoria Formation.
The mineralisation is in a conformable sequence of alternating phosphatic and weakly-to-non phosphatic mudstone, shale, carbonate, and chert beds.
Within the MPM, the mineralisation is stratigraphic and represents an example of a marine sedimentary phosphate deposit.
The mineralisation comprises oolites, apatite pellets in the form of carbonate fluorapatite, and sand grains.
The individual beds of the MPM are distributed over significant distances in a lateral continuous fashion. The thickness and geometry of the beds vary due to the impact of primary depositional variability, post-depositional structural modification, and regional and deposit scale faulting and faulting.
Mineral Resource Estimates
The mineral resource estimates of the Itafos Conda Project include both Upper Phosphate Zone (UPZ) and Lower Phosphate Zone (LPZ).
The measured mineral resources are 34.6Mt (dry) and 38.8Mt (wet) containing 524.1 million bank cubic feet (mbcf) of P2O5, Magnesium Oxide (MgO), Iron (III) Oxide (Fe2O3), and Aluminium Oxide (Al2O3) at gradings of 24.86%, 0.97%, 0.91%, and 2.36% respectively.
The indicated mineral resources of the project are 10.3Mt (dry) and 11.6Mt (wet) containing 157mbcf of P2O5, MgO, Fe2O3, and Al2O3 at gradings of 24.64%, 0.98%, 0.90%, and 2.23%.
The total (measured + indicated) mineral resources are 44.9Mt (dry) and 50.4Mt (wet) containing 681.1mbcf of P2O5, MgO, Fe2O3, and Al2O3 at gradings of 24.81%, 0.97%, 0.91%, and 2.33%.
The inferred mineral resources of the mine are 1.5Mt (dry) and 1.7Mt (wet) containing 22.6mbcf of P2O5, MgO, Fe2O3, and Al2O3 at gradings of 24.73%, 0.89%, 0.86%, and 2.16% respectively.
Mineral Reserves
The proven mineral reserves of the mine are 27.9Mt (dry) and 31.4Mt (wet) containing 401.3mbcf of P2O5, MgO, Fe2O3, and Al2O3 at gradings of 25%, 0.90%, 0.9%, and 2.4%.
The probable mineral reserves are 5.7Mt (dry) and 6.4Mt (wet) containing 87mbcf of P2O5, MgO, Fe2O3, and Al2O3 at gradings of 24.8%, 0.97%, 0.9%, and 2.2%.
The total (proven + probable) mineral reserves of Itafos Conda are 33.7Mt (dry) and 37.8Mt (wet) containing 488.3mbcf of P2O5, MgO, Fe2O3, and Al2O3 at gradings of 25%, 0.91%, 0.9%, and 2.4% respectively.
Mining and Processing Methods
Itafos Conda is mined using conventional open pit truck and shovel methods. To recover phosphate ore and remove waste, four hydraulic excavators, a Hitachi 2600, a Cat 6020, a Cat 6015, and a Cat 395, were used at NDR, RVM, and H1SMC.
An additional CAT 6020 was added to the loading fleet in the latter half of 2018 due to the increasing strip ratio and the inability of the fleet to recover ore.
The mined ore would be loaded into 100-ton haul trucks. The trucks would haul the material to the tipple.
The tipple hopper receives the ore from front-end loaders and trucks to be loaded into rail cars. The loaded train transports the ore to the CPP for crushing, sizing, and beneficiation.
Under beneficiation, the mined ore is unloaded, sorted for blending, and washed in the wash plant. The existing wash plant was designed in the 1960s. For processing the ore from H1SMC, the wash plant will be upgraded.
The washed ore and stockpile are grinded in a ball mill and the slurry is transferred to the Prayon Reactor (PAP Plant).
The PAP plant produces more than 30% P2O5, less than 10% Silicon Dioxide (SiO2), and a Minor Element Ratio (MER) of less than 0.12 size.
Project Infrastructure
The infrastructure of Itafos Conda includes an explosive storage facility, a cinder storage shed, an analytical laboratory, and power infrastructure etc.
The WV Tipple of the mine receives power from the local grid via a 46kV transmission line. The RVM and LCM mines receive power from diesel generators.
Itafos Conda Contractors and Agreements
The 2024 technical report of the Itafos Conda Project was prepared by WSP USA, WSP Canada, Arcadis, and Adjanor and Associates.
JESA Technologies, a mining services provider, prepared the process design basis and criteria for the modified wash plant plans.
The 2019 independent technical report of the Conda and Paris Hills deposits was prepared by Golder Associates.
Itafos entered into a credit and guaranty agreement in September 2019 with funds managed by BlackRock Financial Management and its affiliates and a syndicate of companies including CL Fertilizers Holding, and Cortland Capital Market Services.
Itafos signed the agreement via its wholly owned subsidiaries, Itafos Brazil Holdings, Itafos International Holdings Cooperatie UA, Itafos Ltd., Itafos II LP and Itafos Conda Holdings. The agreement was signed to raise flexible working capital for the project.
Bentley delivered its AssetWise platform to digitise asset data collection, monitoring, and maintenance of the manufacturing plant of the project to manage over 9,000 active assets efficiently.
The contract mining services were delivered to the mine by Kiewit.
The scope of the contract included the delivery of the mining equipment fleet consisting of a 16-cubic-yard mass excavator, one 11-cubic-yard excavator, eighteen 100-ton end dump trucks, and a 21-cubic-yard front shovel.
Agapito Associates was one of the contractors of the project.
