PERTH (miningweekly.com) – An independent technical review of the Mackay potash project, in Western Australia, has cleared the way for project developer Agrimin to seek debt funding for the project.
Agrimin on Tuesday told shareholders that the independent technical review had concluded that the project would be financially viable, particularly given the front-end engineering design work programmes and mitigations that are planned prior to making a final investment decision.
“The successful completion of the independent technical review is a key milestone to enable Agrimin to access significant debt finance for development of the Mackay potash project. We are now in the process of distributing the report to short-listed potential financiers,” said CEO Mark Savich.
“In addition, negotiations with a number of globally recognised fertilizer groups are continuing in relation to binding offtake agreements. We expect to close these out in the near term, which will further support project financing.”
Agrimin plans to produce up to 426 000 t/y of premium sulphate of potash (SoP) over its 20-year life, at an estimated capital cost of $409-million. This will make the project one of the largest global suppliers of SoP fertiliser, generating estimated annual sales revenue of A$315-million.