Sulfate of potash (SOP) junior Kalium Lakes Ltd., Balcatta, Western Australia, this week reported a potential production capacity upgrade for its Beyondie SOP project located 160 km southeast of Newman, in Western Australia.
The company said a “debottlenecking” style review of the design of the SOP purification plant, combined with performance to date from the brine supply and evaporation ponds, indicates that steady state production of at least 100,000 mt/y of SOP is achievable.
Kalium cited better-than-expected potassium grades in brines that will improve the quality of the plant feed salts, improvements in forecast availability and utilization of the SOP purification plant, and conservatism in the plant design as behind its raised capacity estimates.
It believes the current evaporation ponds’ performance indicates that this production rate can be achieved by mid-2022.
Kalium also revealed that additional work is underway to increase production beyond 100,000 mt/y, and that the potential to increase throughput up to 120,000 mt/y has been identified through some short-term, low capital intensity improvements.
The company has hitherto been targeting a 90,000 mt/y SOP stage 1 production facility at Beyondie (GM June 19, 2020).