PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Potash developer Salt Lake Potash has inked a binding term-sheet with trading and investment giant Mitsui & Co for the sale of sulphate of potash (SoP) from its Lake Way project, in Western Australia, into Bangladesh, Cambodia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Taiwan.
The sales agreement will span a period of five years, and will see Salt Lake initially provide 4 000 t/y of SoP to Mitsui.
The two companies are also developing a further agreement for additional tonnes of water soluble SoP to be sold into emerging markets, with the soluble market providing premiums of up to 20% above the standard SoP pricing.
With the Mitsui & Co contract now signed, Salt Lake has secured offtake for 224 000 t/y of the 245 000 t/y planned production at Lake Way, with the remaining tonnes to be sold into the local and spot markets.
Salt Lake is developing the A$254-million Lake Way project, in Western Australia, which is expected to produce 245 000 t/y of SoP over a mine life of 20 years, based on the high grade probable ore reserve of 5.4-million tonnes SoP.