State lines up about 230 million dollars to restart Gafsa phosphates

Parliament's finance and budget committee approved two financings on 21 July: a 110-million-euro EBRD loan to the Compagnie des phosphates de Gafsa for mining equipment, fleet renewal and high-pressure filtration units for industrial water, and a 120-million-dollar facility from the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation to the Groupe chimique tunisien to import sulphur and ammonia. CPG expects to raise extraction capacity by around 30 percent and lift water recovery from about 60 percent to over 90 percent, though its own management puts the full turnaround at five to seven years. Phosphates are one of the few levers Tunisia has to earn hard currency without borrowing more abroad, which makes that timetable the crux of it.

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