Business News: 2022-03-25 - BCI boss Alwyn Vorster has hinted...

Business News: 2022-03-25 - BCI boss Alwyn Vorster has hinted the salt and potash play entertained buying Salt Lake Potash’s flagship after the asset was put up for sale by receivers this month.

(incomplete extract - own formatting, dyor)

Mardie's ceremony today was attended by WA Premier Mark McGowan as well as the BCI Minerals board and leadership team to mark the start of main construction works. But media were told the Premier would not be taking questions ahead of the sod-turning event. Mardie is tipped to be the largest solar salt project in Australia and the third in scale globally. With main construction officially underway, it is estimated to produce over 5 million tonnes per annum of salt and 140,000 tonnes per annum of potash once operational from 2024. It's a landmark project for the relatively junior potash industry in WA, with major BCI Minerals shareholder Mr Stokes on track to become one of the sector's key players.

Mr Stokes, through his private company Wroxby, owns a 39.5 per cent stake in BCI. "This is quite something," The Premier said in a speech. "In Western Australia we are used to big projects and we take them in our stride...but it is amazing that this has occurred and it's something that we should acknowledge." Mr McGowan described Mardie as a world scale project.

Commenting separately on the project in a statement, BCI Minerals managing director Alwyn Vorster said Mardie was gaining momentum. "Mardie is a fully integrated operation from seawater intake to ship loader and we will not have to rely on third party infrastructure," Mr Vorster explained.

Asked whether BCI had considered acquiring the potash outfit at a sod-turning event for the $1.2 billion Mardie project this morning, Mr Forster said the board was open to future opportunities. "At the moment our main focus is delivering the Mardie project," Alwyn Vorster said. He said BCI may look to that type of acquisition in the future ...