Name of the Project
Lake Disappointment sulphate of potash (SoP) project.

Location
The project is located 340 km east of Newman, in north-western Western Australia.

Project Owner/s
Reward Minerals.

Project Description
Lake Disappointment is ideally positioned to become the biggest brine SoP producer outside of China. It consists of a tenement package that covers more than 3 000 km²,  which hosts an indicated and inferred extractable mineral resource of 153-million tonnes of SoP grading 11.3 kg/m³ of SoP brine in sediments from surface to a depth of about 90 m.

The project entails the construction of a 400 000 t/y SoP processing facility.

Brine will be collected from a network of shallow trenches across the lake and then pumped into shallow evaporation ponds to concentrate the brine by evaporation, and crystalise about 18-million tonnes a year of solid waste salts (halite) and 2.9-million tonnes a year of crude potash salts.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return

The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of A$517.6-million and an internal rate of return of 18.8%, with a payback of 5.7 years.

Capital Expenditure
Initial capital expenditure is estimated at A$450.6-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Western Australian Minister for Environment Stephen Dawson has approved the Lake Disappointment project.

The Ministerial approval is the most significant milestone achieved to date for the project.

In achieving this milestone, Lake Disappointment has become only the second Western Australian SoP project to be approved.

“We remain optimistic that Commonwealth environmental approval for the project will be forthcoming in the near future in light of the state approval,” Reward CEO Greg Cochran has said.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
CPC Project Design (study management, process plant design, project implementation, capital and operating cost estimates); ERCOSPLAN Ingenieurbüro Anlagentechnik (independent process design and flowsheet review); Knight Piesold Australia (brine collection and pond layout and design, hydrological assessment and drainage design); AEthos Consulting (environmental-impact assessment); Global Groundwater (extractable resource estimation); Strategic Water Management (hydrological investigation and process-water bore field design and permitting); SBL Browne (metallurgical testwork, brine and sediment assay analysis); and Northshore Capital Advisors (financial modelling).

Contact Details for Project Information
Reward Minerals, tel +61 8 9386 46 99or email admin@rewardminerals.com.