P O TA S H
AUSTRALIA SEEDS FIRST POTASH PRODUCTION D
The Australian potash industry is on the verge of entering its maiden years of production across multiple sites thanks to a wave of rapidly developing projects in Western Australia.
emand from the agricultural industry for an effective plant fertiliser boils down to one mineral:
potash. Potash is crucial for ensuring the pH level of soil is stable, which allows for more crops to grow – and with world populations increasing, more crops must be harvested for consumption. In addition, mining companies must find more sustainable methods to extract a critical mineral such as potash. The resource is currently mined and processed predominantly in countries like Canada and Russia using the Mannheim process. This is regarded by some as an inefficient way to produce potash as it converts muriate of potash (MOP) into
Kalium Lakes celebrating its milestone of reaching production.
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sulphate of potash (SOP) by mixing it with sulphuric acid and heating it to 600 degrees. However, in salt lakes such as what exist in Western Australia, SOP occurs naturally. There has been a push for domestic potash projects to come online over the past decade, with companies like Australian Potash, Kalium Lakes and Agrimin ramping up developments. The flagship projects from all three companies are aiming to produce – or have already produced – SOP. Australia’s first wave of potash developments can be traced back to 2013 when Geoscience Australia’s identified a series of potential potash deposits from salt lakes across the country as part of its
Mineral Systems of Australia project. The aspiring Australian developers are aiming to extract potash from brine in salt lakes rather than using the Mannheim process to enable a lower carbon footprint. By introducing a domestic supply of potash, Australia will be self-sufficient in providing locally extracted potash for its agricultural industry. Kalium Lakes took the baton as the first-ever mining company in Australia to produce SOP in October. The SOP product was produced at the Beyondie project in Western Australia. Despite the recency of the milestone, the company is already looking at expansion, raising $50 million in October to boost its annual production from 90,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 120,000tpa. “It sets us up now from being a project developer to producer,” Kalium Lakes chief executive officer Rudolph van Niekerk tells Australian Resources & Investment. “It’s been seven hard years of working towards something new that’s never been done in Australia.” Kalium Lakes was founded in September 2014 after the company formulated plans following the release of Geoscience Australia’s report. Within years, the company had taken its first steps in moving Beyondie towards production, establishing a 50-year mine life at the project site. The project comprises 16 exploration licences and two mining leases across 1800 square kilometres, and unlike the Mannheim method, Kalium produces SOP using an evaporation and processing method after sub-surface brine is extracted through trenching and bores. According to van Niekerk, this puts Kalium Lakes ahead of overseas producers in terms of cost benefits and quality. “I think primary producers of potash have a major advantage over the Mannheim
