Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Potash hopeful South Boulder Mines has secured access to Anfile Bay, in Eritrea, that would allow the company to store and ship products from its Colluli potash project.
The Eritrean Ministry of Energy and Mines has made the area available in recognition of the "considerable work undertaken by the company for the completion of prefeasibility and feasibility studies" on the Colluli project, South Boulder said.
The Ministry acknowledged the need for certainty with regard to a suitable export terminal for the Colluli project.
MD Paul Donaldson said on Wednesday that the allocation of Anfile Bay demonstrated the value of a joint venture partnership with the Eritrean National Mining Company in developing Colluli.
Donaldson added that the company would now complete metallurgical testwork to confirm that the three types of potassium-bearing mineralisation in the resource could be simultaneously processed into potash.
These results, along with the technical and economic implications of Anfile Bay, would form part of the prefeasibility study due for completion by the end of this year.
In 2013, South Boulder announced the results of a staged development model for the Colluli project, which examined the potential economics of starting production at a rate of one-million tonnes a year and expanding to two-million tons a year after five years.
The staged development model pegged the start of construction for 2014, with expansion capital only required by 2017, if potash production started in 2016. The project was expected to reach a steady-state production of two-million tons a year by 2020.
The use of the Anfile Bay area was conditional upon the completion of environmental- and social-impact studies, which were currently under way, as well as the approval of these by the relevant government authorities.