PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed South Boulder Mines has moved a step closer to production at its Colluli potash project, in Eritrea, announcing this week that it had completed and submitted the first tranche of environmental baseline assessments to the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The remaining assessments would be submitted in two further tranches and would be followed by the submission of a draft social- and environmental-impact assessment, which would be completed as part of the feasibility study.
“This is a significant milestone for the project as it represents the first step in the approval process for the mining licence for Colluli,” said South Boulder MD Paul Donaldson.
The definitive feasibility study has to be completed and submitted prior to the licence being allocated; however, Donaldson noted that getting an early start on the environmental submissions would support the compression of the project timelines.
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 tonnes 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 tonnes a year by 2020.