Australian sulfate of potash (SOP) junior Kalium Lakes Ltd. has become the country’s first SOP producer, producing its first batch of SOP on Oct. 4 during the product commissioning process at its Beyondie SOP project located 160 km southeast of Newman, in Western Australia.
The Balcatta, Western Australia-based company said this first batch of standard grade SOP achieved “the required product specification,” and product commissioning will continue until Ebtec – a partnership between Germany’s K-UTEC, the process plant’s designers, and Ebner – completes its performance test.
Kalium said commercial production ramp-up to nameplate capacity of 90,000 mt/y remains on track to be achieved in March 2022, while the first granular SOP product is expected to be produced in December.
Meanwhile, the first SOP sales to Germany’s K+S Group are scheduled for later this quarter. The Australian junior has a binding 10-year offtake agreement for Beyondie SOP with K+S for the purchase of up to 90,000 mt/y (GM March 29, 2019).
All of the SOP fertilizer currently used in Australia is imported, and Germany’s K+S supplies around 60 percent of the import volume.
Beyondie SOP will be trucked to Perth for collection by end-users on Australia’s West Coast, or taken to port for distribution to the East Coast of Australia and New Zealand. Kalium said excess product will be shipped to South East Asian markets.
The SOP junior said the total project cost remains in line with the revised May 2020 capital expenditure budget of A$280 million (approximately US$181 million at current exchange rates), which includes construction of trenches, pumping stations, ponds, processing plant, gas power station, camp, airstrip, access road, and an 80 km gas pipeline.
Kalium expects to complete a planned expansion of Beyondie to 120,000 mt/y in September/October 2022, “to take advantage of strong SOP pricing,” and is understood to have agreed an expanded 100 percent take or pay offtake deal with K+S.