Tag Archives: Australian Potash

Australian Potash enlists help of PWR Hybrid for Lake Wells renewable microgrid

Energy minerals, Environmental, Mineral project development, Mining services, Power supply for mines, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , ,

Australian Potash Ltd says PWR Hybrid has been awarded “Preferred Proponent status” to build, own and operate a circa-35 MW hybrid renewable microgrid at its Lake Wells sulphate of potash project (LSOP) in Western Australia.

The power purchase agreement will be finalised through the early contractor involvement process the companies will now progress, with an improved indicative levelised cost of energy to the recently published front end engineering design study, Australian Potash said.

PWR Hybrid brings over 28 years of experience in developing power solutions to remote sites across the globe, including more than 350 MW of solar installations, according to the company.

The company also commissioned an assessment of the LSOP’s greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint as part of its preparation for compliance with the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) regime, effective in Europe from March 10, 2021. This assessment, taking into consideration the power balance across the project and energy usage through to ports of loading in Western Australia, concluded that the LSOP will produce a CO2-e GHG that is materially lower than either a comparable Mannheim operation (LSOP<Mannheim by 69%) or solar-salt/brine operation (LSOP<other by 49%), the company said.

Australian Potash Managing Director and CEO, Matt Shackleton, said: “Strategically, we shifted the focus of the LSOP development and operations to a sustainable energy footing to capture and leverage the already low GHG footprint of a solar-salt project. With the benefit of time, and rigorous and methodical planning, several alternative configurations for the LSOP microgrid were presented and assessed.

“With our vision on the operational future of the LSOP, and therefore our end users, we consider it vital to address sustainable production of SOP as a critical path item. To that end, we have commissioned a formal, rigorous ESG audit of the LSOP which will further provide our distribution partners, end users and investors with third party validation of the project’s ESG qualities.”

The LSOP microgrid will be developed in a staged approach, with the thermal component to be completed within around 15 months of the company making a final investment decision. This timeline ensures power supply preparedness for steady-state operations.

PWR Hybrid’s Director, Ryan Green, said: “We’re extremely pleased to be awarded preferred bidder status by Australian Potash. This is further recognition of PWR Hybrid’s capabilities in the hybrid power station market.

“Having recently delivered a 12 MW gas-fired power station in Western Australia, and commenced work on the hybridisation of that project, the company is well-positioned to partner with Australian Potash to provide an industry-leading hybrid power station at the LSOP.”

Key outcomes from the 2019 definitive feasibility study on Lake Wells include:

  • 30-year mine life producing 150,000 t/y of premium grade SOP utilising approximately 21% of the total measured resource estimate;
  • Long mine life underpinned by 3.6 Mt reserve and 18.1 Mt measured resource estimate;
  • Development capex of A$208 million ($153 million) with capital intensity of A$1,387/t; and
  • First quartile industry operating costs of $262/t providing high cash operating margins.

Photo credit: juwi

Australian Potash adds renewable power to the Lake Wells SOP mix

Energy minerals, Environmental, Mineral project development, Mining project news, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , ,

Australian Potash says it has finalised the front-end engineering design (FEED) study for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of Australia’s first high penetration renewable power solution on a greenfield sulphate of potash (SOP) minerals project development.

The study outlined a base case renewable power penetration rate of 53% with potential to rise to 87%, the company said. This would result in a 50% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions to 21,700 t/y compared with the hydro-carbon power solution base case outlined in the 2019 definitive feasibility study (DFS) for its Lake Wells SOP project, in Western Australia.

According to the company, the Mannheim (industrial) SOP production route produces 300% more carbon emissions than the route outlined for the Lake Wells SOP project on an equivalent tonne’s basis, positioning the asset as the lowest CO2 emitting potash project development in Australia.

Australian Potash Managing Director and CEO, Matt Shackleton, said: “Solar-SOP projects naturally sit at the lower end of the CO2 emissions curve by virtue of the natural evaporative process involved, and we challenged our project team to model a renewable power solution to maximise the…[project]’s long-term environmental sustainability.

“We are running competitive tendering processes for the eight packages of work defined to develop the LSOP, and bids have been received for the Power Station EPC package. This package was scoped to include renewable power generation, battery storage and an LNG backup reserve.

“Very pleasingly, these bids exceeded our design criteria both in terms of the rate of penetration of renewable power, and the impact that the renewable power solution has on reducing the LSOP’s carbon emissions. These are benefits that accrue to both our shareholders and the broader stakeholder and investment base.

“Solar-SOP production competes on a cost basis with the industrial Mannheim process, sitting at the lowest end of the global cost of production curve. The Lake Wells SOP project will produce SOP into that lowest quartile, and will also be one of the lowest carbon footprint potash projects globally.

“The company is pursuing organic certification for the suite of products to be produced at the Lake Wells SOP project, which will truly make the K-Brite™ branded SOP long-term environmentally sustainable.”

Key outcomes from the 2019 DFS on Lake Wells include:

  • 30-year mine life producing 150,000 t/y of premium grade SOP utilising approximately 21% of the total measured resource estimate;
  • Long mine life underpinned by 3.6 Mt reserve and 18.1 Mt measured resource estimate;
  • Development capex of A$208 million ($146 million) with capital intensity of A$1,387/t; and
  • First quartile industry operating costs of $262/t providing high cash operating margins.

The current program of works for the Lake Wells SOP project would see construction commence in the March quarter of 2021.

Australian Potash close to sulphate of potash milestone at Lake Wells

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ASX-listed Australian Potash says it is poised to become the country’s first producer of sulphate of potash (SOP) from field evaporated salts after its pilot plant facility received 3 t of the final potassium-rich harvest salts from the Lake Wells pilot evaporation programme.

This announcement, made at the end of December, should lead to the company producing SOP from the project, in Western Australia, this month, according to Managing Director and CEO, Matt Shackleton.

“One area of focus for Australian Potash’s project team over the past 12 months has been to develop and refine the site evaporation model,” he said. “Understanding the chemistry of the salts that are produced through the natural evaporation cycle is crucial to planning both the commercial scale development and SOP processing strategies.”

“In January 2019, we plan to produce Australia’s first field evaporated SOP, which will be of enormous value to Australian Potash and our MOU (memorandum of understanding) offtake partners, as we will be able to detail the chemical composition of the SOP we can produce.”

Shackleton said 2019 was set to see the commissioning of a greenhouse SOP-MOP (muriate of potash) trial managed by the University of Western Australia’s School of Agriculture and Environment. “The trial will also be supported by field trials across at least five sites, examining the effect of SOP versus MOP,” he added.

Australian Potash expects to publish a definitive feasibility study on the Lake Wells potash project, around 500 km northeast of Kalgoorlie, in the second half of 2019. This will build on the results of a scoping study, which showed a stage one production rate of 150,000 t/y of “premium-priced” SOP (years one to five), a stage two production rate of 300,000 t/y of “premium-priced” SOP (years six to 20) and a pre-production capital expenditure of $135 million for stage one and $125 million for stage two.