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 RONPhos Logo | |
| Company type | State-owned enterprise |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | |
Key people |
|
| Products | Phosphate mining |
| Website | http://ronphos.com.au/ |
TheRepublic of Nauru Phosphate Corporation (RONPhos) is a government-owned company controllingphosphate mining inNauru. The company was previously known as theNauru Phosphate Corporation (NPC).
On 1 July 1970, the ownership and management of Nauru's phosphate was transferred from the British Phosphate Commission (BPC) to the Nauru Phosphate Corporation.[2]
In the early years of the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Development Trust, it financed the construction of two of five high-rise luxury condos inHawaii (on the island ofOahu). The five towers (two completed as of October 2005) are on primeHonolulureal estate with ocean views and represent a benchmark in Honolulu luxury high-rises. Other investments includedNauru House inMelbourne andHawaiki Tower in Honolulu. These luxury properties were only part of an international real estateportfolio that stretched into countries includingAustralia, thePhilippines,Fiji,Guam,Samoa, theUS,New Zealand, and theUnited Kingdom.
Financial mismanagement and extravagant government spending (i.e., investing A$4 million in aLondon play,Leonardo the Musical: A Portrait of Love, aboutLeonardo da Vinci's love life which flopped after weeks of bad reviews) led to increased spending—and increased loans—which were levied upon the real estate holdings of the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust. One loan, of A$236 million fromGeneral Electric, which was used as a loan to pay off all other loans, could not be paid back by the government. This led to GE seizing Nauru's international real estate developments, including thetrademarkNauru House in Australia.
Following the collapse of phosphate mining in 2002 due to the virtual exhaustion of financially viable resources, repatriation of many foreign workers began. From 2004 to 2005, foreign workers were reduced from 1,478 to 470. Most of the workers were fromKiribati andTuvalu.
On July 1, 2005, during a managerial restructuring, the Nauru Phosphate Corporation formally changed its name to the Republic of Nauru Phosphate Corporation to signal change. Today, RONPhos currently employs 20.4 per cent of the working population of the Republic of Nauru.
Although the initial layer of phosphate has been mined out (approximately 100 million tonnes), a secondary level of phosphate is believed to exist, holding nearly 20 million tonnes of minable resources. RONPhos is beginning[when?] to develop plans for its economical extraction.