http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/56423/south-boulder-mines-affirms-sulphate-of-potash-production-using-colluli-salts-56423.html
South Boulder Mines affirms sulphate of potash production using Colluli
salts
Tuesday, July 22, 2014 by Proactive Investors
The Colluli resource is a unique combination of potassium bearing salts
suitable for the production of potassium fertilisers.
South Boulder Mines's (ASX:STB) 50/50 JV with the Eritrean National Mining
Company (ENAMCO) delivered many positives during FY14.
This included finalisation of the CMSC shareholders agreement,
re-evaluation of resource development options for the project,
re-establishing the feasibility study with an alternate development
strategy, assigning key consultants to all major work streams and
allocation of the transport corridor and land for the product export
facility.
The joint venture company is known as the Colluli Mining Share Company
(CMSC).
The project benefits from being a very large, long life, at surface deposit
that is highly amenable to open pit mining methods, while also being
located near key infrastructure, including close proximity to the Red Sea
shipping corridor.
Only 75 kilometres separates the mine site and the coastline.
South Boulder and ENAMCO have recently commenced discussions with a number
of third parties interested in becoming involved in the Colluli Potash
Project.
The company said that these discussions are at an early stage or subject to
confidentiality agreements.
The Colluli Potash Project
The Colluli resource is a unique combination of potassium bearing salts
suitable for the production of potassium fertilisers.
It hosts 1 billion tonnes of potassium salts and has a current JORC
Compliant Measured, Indicated and Inferred Resource.
This is comprised of 261.81Mt at 17.94% KCl or 11.33% K2O of Measured
Resources, 674.48Mt at 17.98% KCl or 11.36% K2O of Indicated Resources and
143.50Mt at 18.00% KCl or 11.37% K2O of Inferred Resources.
The total is 1,080 Mt at 18.0% KCl or 11.35% K2O (total contained potash of
194.09Mt KCl or 122.61Mt K2O).
Work Program over the next 12 to 18 months
Feasibility work has commenced to support the alternate processing
strategy. This includes laboratory testing of specific components of the
processing plant, infrastructure and mining design.
Terms of reference are currently being formulated for pilot testing of the
process design.
Key items to be addressed over the next 12 months include:
- Liberation and mineralisation tests.
- Laboratory scale processing tests.
- Finalisation of the process plant design.
- Piloting relevant sections of the processing plant.
- Transfer of the resource model from Ercosplan to AMC Consultants.
- Finalisation of the mining method based on material characterisation work.
- Infrastructure design.
- Capital and operating costs versus processing plant size (pre-feasibility
and feasibility level).
- Submission of baseline environmental studies.
South Boulder said that of particular importance is the consolidation of
the management of all of the project work streams to Perth which has an
immediate cost benefit and has positively impacted delivery times.
Analysis
The revised development strategy for Colluli includes the processing all
forms of potassium bearing salts, which reduces mining costs significantly.
Process testing of salts from Colluli has commenced to determine the most
suitable processing circuit.
South Boulder has indicated that the combination of all salts can produce
potassium sulphate, a potash fertiliser which currently sells at twice the
price of the more common potassium chloride.
Key catalysts will be the Pre-Feasibility Study which will be followed by a
Definitive Feasibility Study.
The company is well-funded with $9.3 million in cash at 01 June 2014.
Received on Tue Jul 22 2014 - 16:14:06 EDT