Sulphate of Potash (SOP) specialist Kalium Lakes Limited (ASX:KLL) has announced the maiden Mineral Resource of 5.95 Mt @ 17,490 mg/L for the Ten Mile West project in Western Australia – the highest grade SOP resource in Australia.
Kalium Lakes acquired the Ten Mile West tenement, located directly adjacent to the existing Ten Mile operations, in 2019.
Trench pumping operations have been on-going Ten Mile Lake since the start of February from 5.92 km of trench. The trench pumps have produced an equivalent of 9,000 tonnes of SOP at an average rate of approximately 40 tonnes of SOP per day up to the end of May 2020
Managing Director, Brett Hazelden, said the average brine grade has been approximately 12,400 mg/L K (27,652 mg/L SOP). The trench production has meant less brine has been required to be pumped from the borefield.
Ten Mile West has continued to exceed our expectations with this additional 5.95 Mt of SOP Resource, increasing our total Mineral Resources by 36% to 25.37 Mt of SOP,” Mr Hazelden said.
“With construction at Beyondie continuing and operations now ramping up to our Phase 1 target of 90 ktpa SOP brine extraction rates, the company is well positioned to see an anticipated further increase in Ore Reserves and an extension to mine life or increased production rates or both.
“Being able to easily leverage off our existing trenches, bores, pipelines and supporting infrastructure at Ten Mile also provides a low-cost pathway to production,” he said.
The Ten Mile West tenement is located adjacent to the current granted mine tenure at Ten Mile. E69/3594 was granted in July 2019 and hosts 3025 ha of Ten Mile Lake area, approximately double the lake area on the granted mining lease. KLL’s Stage 1 of the BSOPP and Ten Mile West granted tenure is shown in Figure 1 below.
Ten Mile West is considered analogous with the existing Ten Mile Lake deposit. With similar lake surface and palaeovalley aquifer style SOP mineralisation. Reported grades to date at Ten Mile West suggest the brine grades in these areas is the highest at the BSOPP.
The exploration work to date at Ten Mile West has identified the lake surface and deep aquifer targets that may be used to extract brine from trenches and production bores in close proximity to the existing Ten Mile operation as part of future expansion of the BSOPP.
A potential trench layout of up to 20 km in length could be installed on the lake surface and either linked to Ten Mile trench or have a separate pumping location.