Ann: Australia's First Sulphate Of Potash Producer, page-69

a big thanks to you MR Smoothie in your roll in finding KLL .!?!
i do believe your on another winner with maybe RTR drilling 45 meters off your boundary???

ABC Rural
Potash a promising find for Pilbara pilot and pastoralist

By Eliza Wood
Posted Wed 30 Nov 2016 at 1:37pmWednesday 30 Nov 2016 at 1:37pm, updated Wed 30 Nov 2016 at 1:41pmWednesday 30 Nov 2016 at 1:41pm

A sample hole is prepared at Lake Beyondie.(
Supplied: Kalium Lakes
)
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Pilbara chopper pilot, pastoralist, and now miner, Brent Smoothy gained his "geology degree" while flying geologists around the resource-rich region.
When they got talking about potash mineralisation, a site on one of his own pastoral leases came to mind.
"They told us how potash was formed in inland rivers flowing into terminal lakes," he said.
"I thought, well I've been out there chasing cattle, and that water flows inland. There's a salt lake there, so I wonder if there's potash?
"I went out there with my shovel, dug it up and got a sample, sent it to my old mate in Perth, and here we are."
Kalium Lakes, of which Mr Smoothy is a founder, plans to develop a sulphate of potash evaporation and processing plant 160km south-east of Newman.
He said he had always hoped to fly over an undiscovered resource.
"I've always had an eye out, looking for outcrops of iron ore, like the old Lang Hancock stories.
"You know, hoping one day you might find a bit of gold behind a cow's hoof — but we ended up finding a potash mine instead."

Pastoralist, pilot, and miner, Brent Smoothy from the Pilbara.(
Supplied: Kalium Lakes
)
There are two kinds of potash: muriate of potash (MOP) and sulphate of potash (SOP). Both are used as fertilisers in agriculture, but the premium-priced SOP is considered more suitable for sensitive crops.
Mr Smoothy said he was confident demand for sulphate of potash was only going to grow.
"I think that we could all agree that the country we're using now is the country that we've got," he said.
"The only way we're ever going to get more out of the ground is to fertilise it and look after it.
"There's no doubt the population is increasing, and the middle class is going to rise."
Potash production

The potash at Kalium Lakes' Beyondie Potash Project, situated not far from the old Beyondie homestead, will be extracted through brine processing.
"We've got a lot of underlying sand, and this sand causes a big drainage channel, and so we penetrate that with bores, just like your traditional sort of bore," Mr Smoothy said.
"That will be gravel packed, and then basically you use a series of big pumps."

Trial evaporation ponds at the Beyondie Potash Project site, 160km south-east of Newman.(
Supplied: Kalium Lakes
)
The brine is then evaporated in ponds, and the potash later separated from the unwanted salts.
"We've engaged a company from Germany that has got 60-plus years of experience, and they have designed and done all the engineering on a plant for us," he said.
"It will be all done onsite and by the time it leaves it will be the final product."
Transport and marketing

Mr Smoothy said the company was planning to transport the potash on road trains to the Port of Geraldton, 860km away.
The product will be marketed both domestically and overseas.
"We would like to capture the Australian market first, obviously and help out the home-grown boys.
"Then after that if we have got excess supply and it is not absorbed here we will turn to export markets."