Name of the Project
Dougou extension (DX) project.

Location
The DX deposit is located within Kore Potash’s Dougou mining permit, south-west of the company’s flagship Kola sylvinite deposit, in Congo-Brazzaville, which will be a separate development.

Project Owner/s
Kore Potash.

Project Description
A scoping study has demonstrated the low technical risk and attractive economics of the project.

The base case economic evaluation proposes a mine life of about 17 years based on solution mining of 52-million tonnes of indicated mineral resources grading 43.1% potassium chloride from a total indicated mineral resource base of 111-million tonnes grading 37.2% potassium chloride.

Total mineral resources are estimated at 232-million tonnes grading 38.1% potassium chloride.

The project proposes a selective dissolution mining method using vertically drilled dual-well caverns, which involves two single-well caverns that are solution-mined until the caverns merge. The project aims to produce 400 000 t/y of white granular muriate of potash.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
In the base case, the project has an after-tax net present value, at a 10% discount rate, of $221-million and an internal rate of return of 19.3%, with a payback of 4.25 years from first production.

Capital Expenditure
The project is estimated at $327-million.

Planned Start/End Date
The project is expected to take two years to construct.

Latest Developments
The prefeasibility study (PFS) for Kore Potash’s DX project is on track to be completed on budget in April 2020, with potentially improved financial outcomes.

Technical studies completed to date have identified several improvements over the scoping study, with the potential to reduce the capital and operating costs of the project compared to the scoping study, the company has said.

Some of these improvements include a reduction of about 40% in the circulating brine flow rates, potential gas requirement reduction of up to 40% and an increase in the cavern footprint of up to 27%.

Further, Kore has said that the life of the project extraction ratio might be improved with the potential to increase initial project life to 25 years, while the processing of the two-dimensional seismic survey data has reinforced and improved upon earlier interpretations of the sylvinite boundaries within the deposit.

With the current focus on the development of the lower capital cost of the DX project, the company has said that it will continue to explore options to reduce the Kola capital cost but has noted that it will not be planning further expenditure on the optimisation of Kola in the near-term.

In the interim, however, the Kola bill of quantities exercise has identified capital savings of more than $300-million, compared with the definitive feasibility study capital cost.

Discussions with European engineering and construction groups have also indicated that further optimisation activity, including design revisions, are likely to generate additional capital cost reductions.

Shifting Kore's focus onto a smaller, less capital-intensive project within the wider Sintoukola basin should allow the company to get to production faster and preserves optionality on the other deposits, Kore CE Brad Sampson has concluded.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Innovare Technologies (mining, drilling methodology, process design and owner’s team); Agapito Associates (mineral and ore reserves and general technical support consultants).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Kore Potash, tel +27 11469 9144 or email info@korepotash.com.