An NGO close to the Polisario Front has announced that Australia's last importer of phosphate from the «disputed Boucraa mine in Western Sahara» will soon halt its purchases of the controversial mineral. «Australian imports of phosphate rock from Western Sahara have come to an end», the NGO, Western Sahara Resource Watch, claimed in a statement issued Tuesday. The group backed its assertion with a letter from Dyno Nobel, formerly known as Incitec Pivot. In the letter, a Dyno Nobel representative recalls that the company announced on May 12, 2025, an agreement to sell its fertilizer distribution business to Ridley Corporation, a company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. The sale is expected to be finalized before the end of September 2025. The same official also confirmed that the company's Geelong single superphosphate (SSP) production plant will cease operations and shut down by the end of 2025, with SSP production expected to stop as early as September. «With the sale of the distribution business and the closure of the Geelong facility, Dyno Nobel will lose all connection to the production or sale of SSP», the letter states. «We can confirm that Dyno Nobel will no longer purchase any phosphate rock shipments until the closure of the Geelong facility later this year». Prior to this decision, Dyno Nobel (then Incitec Pivot) had repeatedly resisted calls from Western Sahara Resource Watch to stop sourcing phosphate from Western Sahara. This is evidenced by a letter the NGO sent to the company's Australian management on September 20, 2022, urging them to halt the imports.
