Magadi Expansion Project

completed

Magadi Soda company Limited (MSC) is a Kenyan soda ash producer with 300,000 tpa of nominal capacity and 2001 sales of US$31 million. Magadi is one of Kenya''s oldest companies, operating for about 85 years utilizing Lake Magadi''s trona to produce sodium carbonate (soda ash). The project, an expansion of an existing IFC-financed project, consists of the construction of a new plant and associated off-plot projects that would produce up to 365,000 tons annually of high purity soda ash for export primarily to the glass packaging sector in Magadi''s existing markets. The new plant, which will be located in the company''s current premises but separate from the existing plant, will be constructed over a 27-month period. The existing plant would continue to operate at full capacity throughout project implementation, and, thereafter, produce about 75,000 tons annually of lower quality soda ash for about five ten (5-10) years after the new plant initiates commercial operations. To stay in business in the medium-to-longer term, Magadi needs to implement this project. Its existing grade soda ash product will face shrinking markets as demand shifts to high purity soda ash. Without this project, Kenya will lose one of its most important exports and leave unutilized a valuable renewable natural resource - the trona reserves in Lake Magadi. Moreover, the closure of the company''s operation in a remote part of Kenya would leave the surrounding community without basic life-sustaining services and development.