PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Potash developer Danakali has added a further 47 000 t/y of sulphate of potash output capacity at its Colluli project, in Eritrea, after a systematic debottlenecking of the processing plant configuration.
The ASX-listed company this week stated that the expected additional capacity had been confirmed by the front-end engineering design process (FEED).
The additional capacity will increase Stage 1 sulphate of potash output to 472 000 t/y, up from the planned 425 000 t/y identified in the project’s definitive feasibility study (DFS).
In addition to the increase in output, the value engineering and optimisation work has also identified further opportunities to reduce development capital and water consumption, which is being costed as part of the FEED process.
“This excellent result is a direct consequence of clever process plant design during the DFS,” said Danakali MD Paul Donaldson.
“The liberation of over 10% production capacity with no expected increase in capital costs is clearly value accretive relative to the DFS and further improves on the industry leading capital intensity and outstanding economics demonstrated by the project.”
A 2015 feasibility study estimated that the Stage 1 development of Colluli would require a capital investment of $442-million.
Donaldson said that refined and optimised pit schedules reflecting the optimised production rate will now be developed to support the mining contract tendering process.