Name of the Project
LD sulphate of potash (SoP) project.

Location
The LD SoP is located in the Little Sandy Desert, about 320 km east of Newman, in the Pilbara region of north-west Western Australia.

Client
Reward Minerals.

Project Description
A prefeasibility study (PFS) completed on the project has confirmed the project as the world’s largest SoP brine project outside China and that it is technically viable, with robust economics.

The project will extract brine from the surface of the playa using infiltration trenches. 

The brine will then be moved from to the main feed channel and a series of evaporation ponds.

The ponds will initially crystallise raw salt and, ultimately, crude potash salts, predominantly kainite. The crystallised crude potash salts will be dry-harvested and trucked to the process plant for further treatment.

The natural near-surface brines at LD have a total dissolved salt (TDS) concentration of about 300 000 mg/ℓ, which is about ten times the salinity of seawater and close to the salt saturation limit. 

The SoP concentration in the LD feed brine is about 13 000 mg/ℓ.

The ponds are designed to operate for 8 760 h/y, with harvesting occurring during ten months of the year.

The project is expected to have a 27-year mine life. Over its assumed initial operating life, the project is expected to produce 407 500 t/y for total product sales of nine-million tonnes of SoP.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at an 8% real discount rate, of A$460-million and an internal rate of return of 17.8%, with an after-tax payback of less than six years from the start of production.

Value
Initial capital expenditure has been estimated at A$345-million, including indirect and owners’ costs.

Duration
Full commercial production is expected in October 2023.

Latest Developments
The results of the LD SoP project PFS have given Reward the confidence to continue (subject to funding) on the path to development, with a short-term focus on securing adequate funding for the next immediate phase, as well as a resource upgrade, on-playa tests and process optimisation.

It will also continue its research and development activities to further improve the process flowsheet, possibly produce alternative by-products and assess other value-add opportunities.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
CPC Project Design (study management, process plant design, project implementation, capital and operating cost estimates); Survey Group/ADK Mining Services (access road and airstrip design, plant site bulk earthworks design); ERCOSPLAN Ingenieurbüro Anlagentechnik (independent review of process mass balance and flowsheet, design); Knight Piésold 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 borefield design and permitting); ATC Williams (camp geotechnical investigation); Pendragon Environmental Solutions (LD Playa geotechnical investigations, acid sulphate soil assessment and trench pumping trials); ADK Mining Services (mine closure cost estimate); SBL Browne (metallurgical testwork, brine and sediment assay analysis); ALS Laboratories (analytical services); BGC, MACA, Watpac and Piacentini (bulk earthworks and salts harvesting); Bennelongia (subterranean fauna and lake ecology studies); Terrestrial Ecosystems (terrestrial fauna); Botanica Consulting (flora and fauna studies and environmental submissions); Hydrobiology (aquatic toxicology and groundwater dependent vegetation); and Northshore Capital Advisors (financial modelling).

On Budget and on Time?
Too early to state.

Contact Details for Project Information
Reward Minerals, tel +61 8 9386 4699 or email admin@rewardminerals.com.