Angola's Agricultural Future with Cabinda Phosphate Project

‍Focus on Fertilizer in Angola:

1. 43% of Angola's population is under the age of 16, suggesting a growing future demand for food.
2. Angola has the potential for a robust agricultural sector, with the necessary land, water, energy, and policies.
3. Minbos aims to be a key player in this sector, providing the necessary nutrients and fertilizers to bolster food production.

Cabinda Phosphate Project:

1. Minbos Resources is working on the Cabinda phosphate project, which is uniquely beneficial to Angola.
2. Angola, and Central Africa in general, lacks a fertilizer factory despite having a population of over 200 million.
3. The specific type of phosphate rock in Cabinda seems to be perfectly suited for Angola's conditions, and the trials have shown significant yield improvements for farmers.

Importance of Agriculture in Angola's Future:

1. Agriculture has the potential to surpass oil as a major economic contributor in Angola.
2. Minbos has partnered with Kahinyo, a large food aggregator, aiming to close the "prosperity loop" by providing fertilizers to farmers and then buying their produce.

Angola has enormous potential to become an agricultural powerhouse in Africa and the world, with its abundant land, water, energy, people and supportive government policies. Minbos Resources' Cabinda Phosphate Project and strategic partnerships can catalyze this transformation by enabling smallholder farmers to triple crop yields. Investment in Minbos presents a compelling opportunity to participate in Angola's prosperity.

Realizing Angola's Massive Agricultural Potential

Angola is blessed with tremendous agricultural potential. With over 57 million hectares of arable land and ample rainfall across much of the country, Angola is well positioned to substantially expand agricultural production. However, currently, only around 5 million hectares are under cultivation. Angola has one of the youngest and fastest growing populations in Africa, with 43% below age 16. In the coming generation, there will be many more mouths to feed as the population booms.

Angola's land and water resources could enable it to become a global breadbasket. By applying best practices from more developed agricultural economies like Brazil, analyses show that putting just 3 million more hectares into highly productive cultivation could drive economic activity on the scale of Angola's oil sector. Yet Angola has 20 times that amount of quality land available for farming, presenting massive upside potential.

Strategically Located Phosphate Deposit

Minbos Resources' Cabinda Phosphate Project, located in the Angolan territory of Cabinda, is strategically positioned both geographically and geologically to help unlock the country's agricultural promise. Cabinda shares a border with the Democratic Republic of Congo and is separated from the rest of Angola by a strip of DRC land. However its proximity to Angola enables integrated phosphate fertilizer production near to where it will be consumed.

The phosphate deposit offers key advantages. It is high-grade and easily mined, enabling low-cost production. The phosphate rock is reactive, meaning it naturally dissolves to be absorbed by plants at an ideal rate. With a long mine life of over 40 years, the project offers sustained low-cost output potential.

Perfectly Suited to Solve Angola's Soil Nutrient Deficiencies

In addition to its strategic location, the particular characteristics of the Cabinda phosphate deposit make it perfectly suited to address the soil nutrient deficiencies limiting agricultural yields across much of Angola. The country's soils tend to be quite acidic, with pH levels generally below 6. Acidic soils require phosphate rock that can dissolve appropriately to feed plants. Cabinda's phosphate dissolves rapidly in acid soils, especially in Angola's high rainfall conditions.

Moreover, most Angolan soils suffer from extremely low native phosphorus levels. As phosphorus is the most constrained nutrient for Angolan agriculture, applying phosphorus fertilizer is critical to achieve high yields. But Angola's high aluminium, acidic soils tend to tightly bind soluble phosphorus fertilizers through a process called phosphorus fixation. The farmer applies fertilizer, but the phosphorus never reaches the plant. Cabinda's phosphate rock avoids this problem through the direct application that slowly dissolves across seasons.

Transforming Smallholder Farmer Livelihoods

With 99% of Angola's farmers being smallholder subsistence farmers, improving their productivity and livelihoods is essential to boost broad-based economic development. Field trials conducted by Minbos and partners across 6 Angolan provinces have demonstrated that applying Cabinda phosphate rock can triple yields of staple cereal crops like corn and sorghum in the first year with just a single application.

Unlike soluble fertilizers which rapidly leach away, the slow phosphorus release of Cabinda rock then enables higher yields to be sustained for two to three years without needing additional fertilizer. For cash-constrained smallholder farmers, this represents an affordable solution that provides lasting impact. The potential to triple yields could dramatically improve farmer incomes, food security and quality of life for millions of rural Angolans.

Strategic Partnerships to Empower Smallholder Farmers

While phosphate fertilizer is crucial, fully empowering smallholder farmers requires an integrated solution. Beyond inputs, farmers need training, improved seeds, access to equipment, affordable transport and logistics, crop storage and processing, and reliable markets to sell their surplus products.

Recognizing this need, Minbos Resources has partnered with agricultural firm Cohine to combine its fertilizer production with programs supporting one million smallholder farming families across Angola over the next decade. Minbos Resources supplies the fertilizer to boost yields, while Cohine provides farmer organization, training, equipment leasing, transport, storage, processing and guaranteed crop purchase agreements.

The government is also supporting such partnerships through initiatives like loan guarantees that enable integrated investment in agricultural infrastructure and farmer support systems. This is helping close the agricultural prosperity loop across the value chain.

Advancing the Cabinda Phosphate Project

Minbos Resources is progressing with engineering design, early works construction and contracting to advance the Cabinda Phosphate Project. The aim is to begin producing and selling phosphate rock fertilizer by mid-2023. The company is working to finalize financing arrangements and off-take agreements in a manner that limits equity dilution for existing shareholders. Debt and pre-sale funding are being prioritized.

Several strategic partnerships are being pursued to integrate phosphate fertilizer production capacity with in-country value-added processing of fertilizers tailored to specific crops and soils. The project team is anticipated to ramp up to around 100 people by the time production commences. Realizing the agricultural promise of Angola would transform rural livelihoods and establish the country as a global breadbasket. By capitalizing on its strategic location and partnerships, Minbos Resources aims to catalyze this agricultural revolution starting in Cabinda.