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Comprehensive Supply Chain Solutions

Presenting the case for potash

t’s not typical for a Diggers & Dealers speak- ured resource is because it comprises of
Ier to preface their presentation with an ex- 60,000m of drill data over 700,000m of pas-
planation of how their project’s resource will sive seismic data.
be mined, but Australian Potash Ltd (APL) “We’ve done a significant amount of work
managing director Matt Shackleton was left over the last five years in de-risking this very
with little choice. integral part of a solar salt operation which
With only 15 minutes to win over a crowd is ensuring you can find brine and pump it
so accustomed to gold stories, and more efficiently.
recently battery minerals plays, Shackleton “Australia can produce gold, nickel and all
had a lot of ground to cover in detailing his the rare earth elements, and so on. How-
company’s ambition to begin construction of ever, we’ve never produced potash.”
its Lake Wells project in Q4 of next year. APL’s quest to debut Australia onto the
De-risking was the prevalent theme in SoP scene would place it in a 7 mtpa global
Shackleton’s presentation, stressing that market valued at $US4 billion. Lake Wells is
Australia has never produced sulphate of currently on track for commissioning in Q4 Matt Shackleton
potash (SoP) before, and when it did, it had 2024. Shackleton said.
to be done right. Debt facilities and other project financing “We heard in the keynote speech this
Lake Wells boasts the country’s largest packages are in their final stages. morning the importance of fertilisers and
measured potassium SoP resource and is When Lake Wells enters production, its particularly potash for the pending hun-
currently forecast to produce 170,000 tpa exports are likely to be quickly snapped up ger pandemic. We’ve also heard about the
over 30 years. as 90% of the proposed output has already threat of climate change from the same key-
Shackleton hopes de-risking the project been inked with both local and overseas en- note speaker, and this SoP project, directly
via years of rigorous data collection will put tities, including partnerships with Redox Pty addresses both of those points.
the minds of both himself and shareholders Ltd, Mitsui & Co, Migao International Pte Ltd “It’s a brand-new industry for Australia, so
at ease. and HELM AG. we can’t afford any mistakes. We have to get
“We don’t have any indicated or inferred “It’s always been a supply-constrained this right.”
resource,” Shackleton said. “The reason mineral, it’s non-substitutable and is es-
that we stress the fact that it’s a meas- sential for the horticultural industry globally,” – Fraser Palamara

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