Intrepid Potash Inc. announced on July 10 that it has completed the Well 45 and Well 46 drilling projects at its solar solution potash mine in Moab, Utah, in time for the 2023 evaporation season. The company said both projects were completed on schedule and build on the success of its Phase One HB Injection Pipeline Project, which was announced on June 21 (GM June 23, p. 1).
Intrepid said Well 45 and Well 46 will help it deliver on key goals of maximizing brine availability and underground brine residence time, which is expected to lead to improved brine grade and higher and more consistent production. The company continues to expect its 2023 capital program to be in the range of $60-75 million.
“Successfully executing both projects required a very high level of technical expertise and our new design for Well 45 led to significant cost savings compared to our previous horizontal caverns due to the single-well design,” said Bob Jornayvaz, Intrepid’s Executive Chairman and CEO.
Intrepid said Well 45 is a newly designed, single-well cavern system with three interlocking laterals that targets new ore in Potash Bed 9. This single-well cavern is designed to have a long operational life with the laterals completed over approximately 18,000 feet of horizontal drilling. The company said brine measurements have shown good availability of high-grade ore.
After cavern development, Intrepid said it will switch to injecting salt-saturated brine and begin selective solution mining, with the benefit of Well 45 beginning in the 2024 evaporation season. The total capital cost of Well 45 was approximately $11.5 million, which Intrepid said was approximately 40% lower than its previous two-well cavern systems.
Intrepid said Well 46 is a horizontal drilling project designed to target a high-grade brine pool in the original mine workings in Potash Bed 5, which was previously accessed by a nearly 50-year-old well that was plugged-and-abandoned. The capital cost was approximately $5 million.
Intrepid said it expects Well 46 to contribute to its 2023 potash production when harvest begins in the third quarter; create medium- to longer-term wellbore access to drill additional laterals to target unmined ore in Potash Bed 5 or access other stranded brine pools; and serve as a backup for other injection/extraction wells.
“While our Moab potash operation has been our most consistent production asset, these projects are expected to help ensure this continues to be a world-class operation for many years to come,” Jornayvaz said. “Our focus continues to be successful project execution across our operations, and I’m very encouraged by the results so far.”