A supplier for pumps and mill circuit equipment, Weir Minerals, is eying exploiting demand for construction equipment in Morocco. Weir Minerals will now run a service center at Khouribga to support equipment customers across Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and Egypt.
To capture large production plants and sites, pumps and cyclones from Weir Minerals were last year supplied to a Turkish contractor Tekfen to support activities in the world’s longest ever phosphate slurry pipeline. This pipeline belongs to Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), a state-owned company running Morocco’s phosphorus mines.
Weir Minerals has been majorly supplying sizeable phosphate production industry in Morocco for the last 25 years, but a surge in economic growth for the last two years and a projected 3.8% economic growth in 2014 is good news.
New quarries are opening up rapidly across Morocco, as domestic demand for construction materials such as cement surges. According to Aggregates Business International, the opening up of many quarries will push up the demand for mill circuit equipment.
Demand for process equipment is not only being witnessed in Moroccan Phosphate mining sector according to Bouchra Mouti of Weir Minerals: there is a growing demand for the same around the world, because phosphate mining plays an essential role in agricultural fertilizer production.
Weir Minerals will seek to exploit demands of equipment to feed companies exploiting, among others, 75% of global phosphorus reserves in the country, with Morocco being the world’s third largest producer of phosphates. Presence of large phosphorus reserves is assurance that the country will enjoy booming mining earnings from this mineral.
Apart from OCP, Weir Minerals has also supplied 3 other phosphate processing plants feeding the OCP’s slurry pipeline.
The service center at Khouribga will make it possible for the company to offer repairs both on and off customer sites, repair and maintenance through a team of engineers; and provide spare parts in order to achieve lesser turnaround time. The main target is equipment supplied to OCP and Managem Group, but also to benefit will be their customers Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and Egypt.
