Salt Lake Potash will move into 24-hour operations for constructing evaporation ponds at its Lake Way project to meet completion targets in Q2 2019.
Australia’s mineral exploration company, Salt Lake Potash Ltd. has recently entered into a binding split commodity & access agreement with gold producer Blackham Resources Ltd. for the development of the Lake Way Project.
Sources close to the move claim that Salt Lake Potash, under the agreement, will acquire Blackham Resources’ brine rights while Blackham Resources will obtain gold rights to Salt Lake’s Lake Way holdings. In addition, Salt Lake will also attain a 2% royalty on all gold production from the Salt Lake Potash tenements, while Blackham will register a 4% royalty on all brine production (counting SOP) from the Blackham tenements.
Reports cite that Salt Lake will also make a rehabilitation liability payment of $500,000 to Blackham by June 30, 2019, where the payment amount would be deducted from future brine royalties.
According to sources, Salt Lake Potash will be required to achieve several construction and production milestones, which include completion of the de-watering of the Williamson Pit by July 31st, 2019, commencing the construction of the SOP (Sulphate of Potash) processing plant by June 30th, 2020, and achieving first commercial production of SOP by December 31st, 2021. However, these dates can later be extended over mutual understanding and agreement, cite sources.
For the uninitiated, Lake Way Project is a high-grade salt-lake brine SOP operation in the northern goldfields region of Western Australia. The surface area of the Lake is estimated to be over 270 square kilometers whose northern end is largely covered by several mining leases owned by Blackham, the proprietor of the Wiluna Gold Mine.
As per reports, the company, under the construction update, has successfully started the construction of the first phase of the Lake Way Evaporation Ponds in early March 2019 which will help with de-watering the Williamson Pit. Moreover, the construction work is reported to progress well, with Salt Lake moving into 24-hour operations to achieve completion target in Q2 2019.