The Santa Quitéria Project, aimed at producing fertilizers, is undergoing environmental licensing and hearings are being held in Ceará
The Santa Quitéria Project is developed from the consortium between the state-owned Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB) and the private company Galvani, a fertilizer manufacturer from Bahia, and aims to build and operate a mining-industrial complex for the extraction of phosphate and uranium in the Itataia quarry, in the state of Ceará.
Currently, the project is in the environmental licensing phase and public hearings are being held on the 7th, 8th and 9th of this month in the municipalities of Santa Quitéria, Itatira (in the Lagoa do Mato District) and Canindé, respectively.
The operation of this initiative will expand the supply of fertilizers for Brazilian crops, which is extremely important for reducing the country's dependence on imports of these products. Today, more than 85% of the fertilizers consumed here come from foreign trade.
Under this bias, the full operation of the Itataia deposit, located in Santa Quitéria, Ceará, will provide the production of around 1,05 million tons of phosphate fertilizers annually. In this way, if we add the current production of the company Galvani – one of the makers of Consórcio Santa Quitéria -, the manufactured volume will correspond to 25% of the demand of Northeast regions and North.
2.800 new jobs will be created during the operational phase of the project in Ceará
During the works, around 8.400 direct jobs and indirect, while, in the period of operation of the mining-industrial complex, Ceará will be contemplated with 2.800 new job opportunities. The investment destined to the Santa Quitéria Project, in turn, is equivalent to more than R$ 2,3 billion.
Furthermore, the Santa Quitéria Project will also produce 220 thousand tons per year of dicalcium phosphate for cattle feed, an amount corresponding to 50% of the current demand for these inputs in the North and Northeast regions.
In view of this, it is possible to note the important role played by the Santa Quitéria Project for the National Fertilizer Plan (Pop), the Investment Partnerships Program (PPI) and the National Energy Plan (PNE), being included in the Strategic Pro-Minerals Policy.
About the Itataia quarry
The Itataia deposit consists of a Brazilian reserve of phosphate and uranium, being one of the projects of the Federal government aimed at reducing the country's dependence on obtaining fertilizers from the international market. As already mentioned, the deposit is located in the municipality of Santa Quitéria (Ceará), about 210 km from Fortaleza.
The reserve contains phosphate, which can be used as a raw material for agribusiness, and uranium, a potential fuel for nuclear power plants. The first is predominant in Itataia, since it is equivalent to 90% of the deposit, where approximately 8,9 million tons of the mineral are found. Uranium, in turn, is estimated at 80 thousand tons.
The consortium formed by Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB) and Galvani has been qualified to explore the deposit since 2011. In 2017, the companies presented the Environmental Impact Report (Rima) and hope that the approval can be accelerated, since the National Fertilizer Plan (PNF) has already started.
Finally, it is very important to note that the Itataia deposit has the highest phosphate content in Brazil, in addition to also having, as a by-product, the largest uranium reserve in the country.
