http://www.miningweekly.com/article/significant-upside-to-colluli-potash---south-boulder-2012-06-29
Significant upside to Colluli potash - South Boulder
By: Esmarie Swanepoel
29th June 2012
PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Preliminary findings from a definitive feasibility study (DFS) into the Colluli potash project, in Eritrea, has shown significant opportunities to optimise capital and operating costs, ASX-listed South Boulder Mines said on Friday.
The Colluli project currently has a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource of 194-million tons of contained potash, of which some 20% was attributed to carnallite mineralisation.
South Boulder said on Friday that this represented a substantial upside for the project, as mining and processing of the carnallite was not included in the initial scoping study.
Early investigations have indicated that a simple solar decomposition circuit could be added to the processing route to allow potash to be extracted from carnallite mineralisation in the same processing facility, and South Boulder noted that processing costs for carnallite would only be marginally higher than the processing costs for sylvinite mineralisation.
MD Lorry Hughes said in a statement that the preliminary findings from the DFS highlighted the world-class potential of the Colluli project.
“The economics of this already-robust project continue to improve as the technical studies progress. The increased resource and the positive findings from additional studies are indicating a mine life significantly longer than indicated in the scoping study,” he said.
Hughes added that South Boulder was confident that the DFS would prove Colluli to be an attractive investment proposition for financiers, paving the way for rapid development and the start of production and cash flow.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
Received on Fri Jun 29 2012 - 14:14:39 EDT
