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neWs

A new industry unlocked

Paydirt editor Dominic Piper posed all things potash to
Mark Savich (Agrimin), Tony Swiericzuk (SO4), Keren
Paterson (Trigg Mining), Matt Shackleton (Australian
Potash) and Rudolph van Niekerk (Kalium Lakes)

raditional commodity stories, particular- year (September 2021) with the success of came to the fore in Geoscience Australia’s
Tly in gold and nickel, have been hard to each project important in showcasing what Critical Minerals report (2018) whereby the
overlook in 2020 given the thematic driving the industry is about. brine potential of all the salt lakes in Aus-
positivity in each sector. “We are not mining hard rock, we are not tralia was highlighted.
It would have been remiss then for Pay- drilling and blasting, and we are not dig- “I think as part of that [report] also came
dirt Unlocked – Paydirt’s latest network- ging great holes in the ground; it is more the evolution of thinking of minerals and
ing initiative – not to have given the mov- about infrastructure and logistics. We are metals on rock to minerals in brine,” Trigg
ers and shakers in both sectors the floor at putting in short bores – 100m into an aqui- Mining Ltd managing director Keren Pat-
various times this year. But it was equally fer – bringing up brine, digging some quite erson said.
pertinent that the monthly lunch time gath- shallow trenches [5m],” SO4 managing di- “Going to university in WA, it was all
ering should acknowledge the burgeoning rector Tony Swiericzuk said. about hard rock miners who only think
sulphate of potash (SoP) sector. “The brine gets channelled by pumps about metals coming from rock – iron ore,
The richness of Australia’s mineral en- into large ponds [1.5-2m deep], so the gold, nickel – and it hasn’t really been until
dowment has long been celebrated and concept of mining the thing is not hard. It is recently finding minerals in water. There
now the select few aiming to pioneer the quite simple and once it is there, it is there; is also the whole good side of the story
industry believe SoP could emerge as a the infrastructure is fixed, and we are not where we’re talking about fertilisers, or-
significant and profitable sector, particu- moving diggers around the place. It is very ganics, the global mix of food security in
larly in Western Australia. different to a normal mine, but it is quite the international markets, so it is a new
A handful of companies are at various simple. I refer to it as basically – salt water thing for us.”
stages of exploration and development, plus sun makes fertiliser feed.” When setting out to find projects for
with Salt Lake Potash Ltd (SO4) on track It was agreed by all panellists there was Trigg, Paterson said involvement in a pro-
for commissioning at Lake Way in Q1. nothing complex about the nature of SoP ject that used solar evaporation to produce
After initially stuttering down the devel- operations, so why then is the industry a fertiliser ingredient suitable for organic
opment path at Beyondie, Kalium Lakes only starting to emerge now? food crops “ticked a few boxes” for her.
Ltd will follow SO4 into production next The significance of potash in Australia Trigg, with the infrastructure-assisted

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