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DIGGeRs & DeALeRs

Comprehensive Supply Chain Solutions

WA prepares for new

mineral industry

iven the State’s long, deep history in items have been ordered and are on their
Gmining, it is rare for a West Australian way. The crystalliser parts are on site now. It
mining executive to be at the vanguard of an is all getting very real now.”
entirely new industry but by early 2021, Salt The company plans to start dry commis-
Lake Potash Ltd (SO4) managing director sioning in January with full wet commission- SO4 now has 400ha of salts in ponds at its
Tony Swiericzuk should find himself in just ing to follow in February. Lake Way potash project
that position. The company is keeping a relentless de-
By March, SO4 plans to have shipped first velopment pace reminiscent of Swiericzuk’s operations demand water-soluble SoP and
product from its Lake Way potash project. previous employer Fortescue Metals Group a regular, stable supply of it.”
Once up and running, Lake Way will pro- Ltd. He admits to having plenty to keep him SO4 is aiming to place around 120,000
duce the first batches of sulphate-of-potash occupied but isn’t overawed by the chal- tpa of Lake Way’s production into the water-
(SoP) ever in the State. lenge. soluble market but Swiericzuk is conscious
With several other potash developers “There is always the worry that you miss of supply/demand dynamics.
close behind, there will be plenty of eyes on something because we have so many work “All of our annual production fits into that
SO4’s progress over the remainder of 2020. fronts open and I do go to bed pretty ex- high-quality product but we don’t want to
“We’re in the final sprint now and will tie up hausted every night but that is the advantage bomb that market, we want to maximise our
final approvals by mid-October,” Swiericzuk of a having an A-grade team. We’re going margins. Instead, we will also produce a low-
told Paydirt. gangbusters at the moment.” er-grade product and grow with the water-
SO4 is actually in the middle of a 24-month Even COVID-19 has failed to stem the soluble market.”
development ramp-up at Lake Way, near pace with EPC contractor GR Engineering With myriad product lines and shifting de-
Wiluna in the North Eastern Goldfields. The Services Ltd (GRES) able to continue work mand dynamics, the fertiliser market can be
company has already built 400ha of on-lake “basically non-stop” throughout the pan- confusing to the uninitiated. Swiericzuk said
solar evaporation ponds and trenches on the demic. the company’s job was to educate investors
project, the first of which has been under sun Outside of the construction risks of long- on the opportunities opening for the WA SoP
since early 2019. lead items, labour and weather, the next sector.
“The construction is 60% complete and major project challenge will be commission- “SoP is very different to MoP (muriate-of-
is on schedule and on budget,” Swiericzuk ing and achieving quality product out of the potash) and we have to make people aware
said. “Train 1 has been operating for 15 plant. of that,” he said. “The MoP market has been
months, Trains 2 and 3 are up and running “Our test work shows we are capable of very flat in recent years, so we have to differ-
now and we have 60km of trenches dug getting on-spec quickly,” Swiericzuk said. entiate our products which have increasing
feeding the ponds. “We are tuning the flotation circuits and demand.”
“It is all Control-C, Control-V stuff with the we’ve tested and optimised the crystalliser The company is hopeful some of that
ponds now – all very predictable and boring.” for temperature and time.” demand will come from domestic sources.
The major engineering task in front of SO4 SO4’s target is a product suitable for While SoP isn’t widely used in Australia,
is Lake Way’s processing plant which Swier- water-soluble fertigation, one of the highest- Swiericzuk does expect interest to increase
iczuk said was also progressing on time and growth agribusiness market segments. once a local supply chain is established.
budget. “It currently only makes up 10% of the “It will be interesting to see how the demand
“We finished pouring concrete early in Au- total SoP market but is growing at 10% an- side plays out locally when SoP production
gust and the steel erection started before the nually. This is the real high value farming starts in WA,” he said. “There hasn’t been a
end of that month,” he said. “All the long-lead – underground greenhouses – etc. These
stampede from farmers but those I’ve talked
to say it is difficult to access and when they
can get it, it is too expensive at $US1,000/t.
We want to look after local farmers and have
kept back 21,000 tpa for a local focus.”
SoP is not widely used in Australia with
most local farmers choosing to use the
cheaper and more widely available MoP.
However, with SO4 and the other potash
hopefuls capable of producing under $300/t,
there is potential for disruption in the domes-
tic fertiliser market.
“There is certainly something there which
we will look closely at once we are in produc-
tion,” Swiericzuk said.
– Dominic Piper
Construction of the Lake Way processing plant is on schedule with commissioning
set to begin in January
Page 48 OCTOBeR 2020 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT