Salt Lake Potash (SLP) is pleased to announce that the Company...

Salt Lake Potash (SLP) is pleased to announce that the Company has entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Blackham Resources Limited (Blackham) to investigate the potential development of a Sulphate of Potash (SOP) operation based at Lake Way, near Wiluna.
SLP holds approximately 290km2 of tenure over the Lake Way Paleochannel, as part of the Goldfields Salt Lakes Project (GSLP). Blackham is the owner of the Matilda-Wiluna Gold Operation and holds approximately 64km2 at the Northern End of the Lake. This surrounds the former Williamson Pit, last mined in 2006 and now filled with brine at an exceptional grade of 25kg/m3 of SOP (see Figure 1).

Under the MOU, SLP will acquire Blackham’s brine rights and Blackham will acquire gold rights to SLP’s Lake Way holdings, with each company retaining a royalty on their respective holdings. The parties will also co-operate to exchange data and facilitate activities on each other properties.
SLP will investigate the development of an SOP operation at Lake Way, including initially a 40- 50,000tpa Demonstration Plant. SLP will sole fund the evaluation and development of any SOP operation at Lake Way. Lake Way has some compelling advantages which make it potentially an ideal site for an SOP operation, including:

• Substantial capital and operating savings from sharing overheads and infrastructure with the Wiluna Gold Mine, benefits which both Companies would capture. This includes potentially the accommodation camp, flights, power, maintenance, infrastructure and other costs.
• The site has an excellent freight solution, located 2km from Goldfields Highway, which is permitted for heavy haulage 4 trailer road trains to the railhead at Leonora. It is also adjacent to the Goldfields Gas Pipeline.
• A Demonstration Plant would likely be built on Blackham’s existing Mining Licences, already subject of a Native Title Agreement.
• SLP would dewater the existing Williamson Pit, prior to Blackham mining, planned for early 2019. The pit contains an estimated 1.2GL of brine at the exceptional grade of 25kg/m3 of SOP (Refer Appendix 1 for Williamson Pit brine samples details). This brine is potentially the ideal starter feed for evaporation ponds, having already evaporated from the normal Lake Way brine grade, which averages around 14kg/m3.
• The high grade brines at Lake Way will result in lower capital and operating costs due to lower extraction and evaporation requirements.
• There would be substantial savings to both parties from co-operating on activities on each other’s ground.
• Historical exploration and initial sampling indicate the presence of clays in the upper levels of the lake which should be amenable to low cost, on-lake evaporation pond construction.
  SLP will complete a Scoping Study for a potential SOP operation at Lake Way, including a Demonstration Plant, by mid-2018, in time to allow a decision on dewatering the Williamson Pit. There is substantial historical data available for Lake Way and the companies have already undertaken preliminary sampling in the Blackham area. Along with the extensive, high quality technical work undertaken at SLP’s other lakes, which has substantial application at Lake Way, a Scoping Study can be reliably undertaken in a much shorter timeframe than would normally be the case.