PhosAgro and UNESCO Launch Green Chemistry for Life Partnership for Harnessing Talents of Young Scientists
MOSCOW, March 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
PhosAgro ("the Company") (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), a leading global vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producer, today signed a partnership agreement with UNESCO establishing a grants programme to support promising projects proposed by young scientists as part of the joint Green Chemistry for Life project.
UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, and PhosAgro CEO, Maxim Volkov, signed the partnership agreement at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The Permanent Delegate of the Russian Federation to UNESCO Eleonora Mitrofanova, the Executive Secretary of UNESCO's International Basic Sciences Programme (IBSP) Maciej Nalecz, and the President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Professor Nicole Mareau were also in attendance at the signing ceremony.
The objective of the partnership between PhosAgro and UNESCO, to be implemented in close cooperation with IUPAC, is to enhance global international capacity to harness green chemistry to help address today's global sustainable development challenges.
Financial and scientific support will be given to young scientists from around the world who are working on development and application of advanced chemistry technologies for issues like environmental protection, human health, food supplies and the use of natural resources. Projects proposed by young scientists will be evaluated, selected and launched by an international scientific jury.
This initiative represents the first time in the history of UNESCO and the entire United Nations system that a Russian Company is providing extra-budgetary funding for a project. The total financing from PhosAgro for the five-year Green Chemistry for Life project, which may be prolonged, is USD 1.4 million.
PhosAgro Management Board Chairman Maxim Volkov said: "I am extremely pleased to launch this project, which is the first of its kind to be sponsored by a Russian company. We view the Green Chemistry for Life project as an investment in the whole planet, and a successful example of how science and industry can unite under the auspices of UNESCO to create new knowledge aimed at protecting the environment. I also believe that this project will help improve the prestige of chemistry and lead to more young scientists choosing to study this promising science. It is these young scientists who will be the source of future breakthroughs in green chemistry."
In January 2011, during the official opening ceremony of the International Year of Chemistry at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, PhosAgro first took the initiative to propose the launching of a partnership with UNESCO for harnessing the talents of young scientists in green chemistry.
Notes to Editors
PhosAgro is a leading global vertically integrated phosphate-based fertiliser producer. The Group focuses on the production of phosphate-based fertilisers, feed phosphate and high-grade phosphate rock (with P2O5 content of not less than 39 percent), as well as ammonia and nitrogen-based fertilisers.
The Group is the largest phosphate-based fertiliser producer in Europe, the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock worldwide and the second largest MAP/DAP producer in the world (excluding China), according to Fertecon. PhosAgro is also a leading producer of MCP feed phosphates in Europe, and the only producer in Russia.
PhosAgro has 2.1 billion tonnes of resources (according to JORC) of high quality apatite-nepheline ore, representing over 75 years of production. The Group also controls substantial Al2O3 resources and has 41% of Russia's rare earth oxides resources according to the G.P. Luzin Institute of Economic Problems of the Kolskiy Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2010).
The Group's mines and phosphate rock production facilities are located in the mountainous areas of the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk region of northwest Russia, whereas its fertiliser and feed phosphate production assets are located near the city of Cherepovets in the Vologda region and near the city of Balakovo in the Saratov region of southwest part of European Russia. PhosAgro's 2011 IFRS revenue was over USD 3.4 bln and EBITDA was USD 1.2 bln. The Сompany's net debt/EBITDA ratio was 0.43 at 31 December 2011.
For further information on PhosAgro please visit: http://www.PhosAgro.com
For further information please contact:
OJSC PhosAgro
+7-495-231-2747
Irina Evstigneeva, Head of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations
Timur Belov, Press Officer
M:Communications
Sam VanDerlip
vanderlip@mcomgroup.com
+44(0)20-7920-2356
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