JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The permitting and approvals process for the Lake Wells sulphate of potash (SoP) project, in Western Australia, is well advanced with final Ministerial approval expected in the second half of the year.
In an update to shareholders, Australian Potash reported on Tuesday that the project would be assessed on the “second-least stringent level of assessment”, which is an environmental review without public comment.
This level of assessment would require Australian Potash to submit sufficient information for the Environmental Protection Association (EPA) to understand how the project would be developed and what impacts the development would have on the surrounding environment.
The Lake Wells SoP development area does not have any native title claims over it and the mining leases applied for in 2016 had been recommended for grant.
“The company has in place licences to build bores, licences to abstract water, permits to build and operate evaporation ponds and an approved project management plan. We will continue to work with the EPA to complete the assessment process in parallel with assessment by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety of a mining proposal and mine closure plan so as to finalise all approvals for the project,” said executive chairperson Matt Shackleton.
The scoping study on the Lake Wells project, which was completed in March last year, established that the project could produce at a rate of 150 000 t/y of premium-priced S0P for the first five years of operations and at 300 000 t/y for years six to 20.
The project has a mineral resource estimate of 14.7-million tonnes of SoP, including 12.7-million tonnes in the indicated category.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
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