PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Western Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety has given ASX-listed Salt Lake Potash the go-ahead to construct a pond system to dewater the Williamson pit, at its Lake Way project.
The Williamson pond will be the first operational scale sulphate of potash (SoP) evaporation ponds built on a salt lake in Australia, and are an important part of the staged de-risking and development of the Lake Way project, as well as across the Goldfields Salt Lakes project, Salt Lake Potash said on Monday.
“This approval is an important milestone in our plans for staged development at Lake Way and across the Goldfields Salt Lakes project more broadly,” said Salt Lake CEO Matt Syme.
“Our objective is to build the most sustainable and rewarding fertilizer project in the world and low cost, environmentally friendly on-lake ponds are an important part of our business model. Construction and filling of the Williamson ponds will provide very strong validation of that model.”
The Williamson pit has a Joint Ore Reserves Committeee-compliant mineral resource of 1.26 GL of brine, at an average SoP grade of 25 kg/m3. Under an agreement with owner Blackham Resources, Salt Lake will dewater the pit ahead of Blackham re-entering the pit for mining.