Aurora Employees Teach Marines About Phosphate Operations

The II Marine Expeditionary Force and their Aurora plant tour guides stand in front of a dragline bucket at PotashCorp’s Aurora, North Carolina facility.

When the US Marines needed to understand how to safely and efficiently run a phosphate operation, in order to help restart a mine in western Iraq, they turned to the experts — PotashCorp.

In November 2006, the II Marine Expeditionary Force visited our phosphate plant in Aurora, North Carolina to learn about such operations before its scheduled deployment to Iraq this year.

The Marines flew in by helicopter and met with key personnel, toured the mine and the dragline, and were escorted through the chemical plants. Along the way, they gained insight into the electrical, labor, safety and distribution components of phosphate operations and how to safely and profitably run such a plant. One of their missions will be to help get an Iraqi facility working, efficiently producing phosphate products.

"Every aspect of the visit was hugely valuable to us for our upcoming deployment purposes in Iraq. We truly learned... but it was much more (than an education) about a single facility, it was about a successful industrial team, managed by visionary leaders," said Brigadier General John R. Allen.

The Marines said they chose to visit Aurora not only because of its proximity to their headquarters in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, but because it is "one of the most productive phosphate processing facilities in the nation."

"We were proud to show them our facilities because we know that what the Marines learned will greatly benefit the Iraqi people in the near future," said Richard Atwood, General Manager at Aurora.