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Mardie salt project, Australia

26th January 2018

By: Sheila Barradas

Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Name of the Project
Mardie salt project.

Location
The project comprises two granted and two pending exploration licences over 832 km2 between Dampier and Onslow, in the north-west of Western Australia – Australia’s major solar salt production and export region.

Client
BC Iron (BCI).

Project Description
A scoping study has demonstrated the potential technical and economic viability of the project. The study envisages the development of a three-million-tonne-a-year to 3.5-million-tonne-a-year operation producing high-purity industrial-grade sodium chloride salt from seawater using solar evaporation, crystallisation and raw salt purification for the chloralkali industry.

Dry harvesting, with a dedicated harvester that runs along the top of the crust cutting into the floor and conveying the harvested salt into a truck running alongside the harvester, will be used. Three mechanical harvesters and nine B-Double trucks operating day shifts only are envisaged. A fixed pumpstation will be installed at the mouth of the tidal creek and pump seawater about 800 m into a settling pond. The settling pond will remove suspended solids from the seawater before entering the concentration pond.

A configuration of nine concentrator ponds using the continuous flow methodology has been adopted for the scoping study. Ponds are staged in series, with progressively smaller areas as the salt concentration rises. The concentrator ponds are operated continuously, with the flows between ponds increased or decreased based on density or the magnesium content in each pond. The concentrator ponds concentrate the brine close to the sodium chloride (NaCl) saturation point.
Concentrated brine will be transferred from the final concentrator pond into the crystallisers at a density of about 1.211 g/cm3.

The concentration process continues in the crystalliser ponds until NaCl crystallises and precipitates at about 1.228 g/cm3. The remaining ‘bitterns’ solution will then be removed from the crystallisers.

At the purification plant, trucks will bottom-discharge raw salt directly into the feed system for the process plant or the intermediate stockpile. Raw salt will be reclaimed from the intermediate stockpile using a front-end loader when the harvesters are offline.

The raw salt will be cleaned in a purification plant using the Hydrosal-XP process. This process is expected to reduce total processing and transport losses to 7%, compared with 20% for a traditional salt washing process, and deliver a higher-purity product.

Following processing, purified wet salt will be conveyed to a stacking system and accumulated in stockpiles, with a total capacity of about one-million tonnes to 1.5-million tonnes a year. The salt stockpiles drain over several months, bringing the product moisture and chemical content into specification for shipment. The salt will be exported through BCI’s proposed Cape Preston East transshipment port facility and is proposed to be connected to the Mardie site by a 70 km private heavy-haulage road.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of between A$290- and A$380-million and an internal rate of return of between 25% and 27%, with a payback of about five years.

Value
The project cost is estimated at between A$225-million and $255-million.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
BCI Minerals’ significantly progressed prefeasibility study (PFS) has provided further validation for the viability of its Mardie salt project.

Over the past six months, BCI has completed material environmental, heritage and geotechnical activities, the results of which have informed the design and engineering work required to finalise the PFS by the second quarter of 2018.

During the next year, BCI plans to advance feasibility studies and consider partnerships ahead of a final investment decision.

Following the interim positive outcomes of the PFS, a contract is being finalised with an international firm for the best practice design of a salt processing and purification plant.

Further, BCI has awarded German engineering group K-UTEC a contract to undertake detailed investigations into the production of valuable by-products, including sulphate of potash.

Subject to positive PFS results, BCI will then consider proceeding with a feasibility study, with completion targeted in the first half of 2019. This could allow for construction to start during the second half of 2019 and the production of first export of salt product in 2022.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
BCI, tel +61 8 6311 3400, fax +61 8 6311 3449 or email info@bciron.com.au.
 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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