A mountain of potash. Pic: Getty
Potash producers deliver sales deals and updated resources
Mining
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ASX-listed potash juniors are gaining traction with Kalium Lakes inking a sales deal with a Chinese fertiliser and Parkway Minerals announcing a resource increase at its Dandaragan Trough project.
A fertiliser drawn from Potassium-laden minerals, potash is used to increase crop yields.
It’s a popular investment target because of the growing need for farmers to produce more food as the world’s population grows.
Canada is the world’s biggest producer followed by Russia — but to date, Australia has not been a significant producer.
Producers such as Kalium Lakes (ASX:KLL) and Parkway Minerals (ASX:PWN) are hoping to change that.
This week Kalium signed a deal with Yunnan Jingyifeng Supply Chain Management (JYF) for the sale of Sulphate of Potash (SOP) from its Beyondie project.
JYF sells liquid and solid chemicals and fertilisers in South West China.
Under the deal, JYF will buy up to 80,000 tonnes per year of the project’s annual SOP production, which will then be marketed to customers in South West China.
Kalium managing director Brett Hazelden said the deal showed international demand for SOP remained strong.
“We also remain focused on supplying SOP to the Australian market and supporting our local agricultural industry,” he said.
The Beyondie SOP project covers about 2400 sq km. This sub-surface brine deposit will supply an evaporation and processing operation located 160 km south east of Newman.
Shares in Kalium finished yesterday 1.3 per cent higher at 40c.
RIU Resources Investor Roadshow: Sydney Sep 26 and Melbourne Sep 28.
Meanwhile, Parkway Minerals’ Dandaragan Trough Fertiliser project is getting bigger following an updated potash and phosphate resource at Dinner Hill deposit.
The deposit now has an “indicated and inferred” phosphate resource of 630 million tonnes at 1.85 per cent phosphate. This compares to the previous indicated resource of 250Mt at 2.9 per cent phosphate.
Mineral resources are categorised in order of increasing geological confidence as inferred, indicated or measured.
Indicated and inferred potash mineral resource now stands at 630Mt at 4.4 per cent potassium oxide — a 250 per cent increase in tonnes and a 16 per cent grade increase.
The update resulted from tests undertaken as part of prefeasibility studies for the Dinner Hill deposit. Based on the results, the resources were adjusted to remove mineralisation with high levels of oxidation and high ratios of calcium to phosphate.
Parkway also reported a revised exploration target at Dinner Hill of 250 million to 300 million tonnes at 1.5 to 1.8 per cent phosphate and 800 million to 1600 million tonnes at 3.8 to 4.4 per cent potassium oxide.
Dinner Hill remains open to the south within the Exploration Target.
Parkway is now seeking to convert some of the current indicated resource to a measured resource. Its shares finished yesterday unchanged at 1.1c.
To find out more about Parkway Minerals and the potash and phosphate market, the company’s managing director Patrick McManus will be presenting today at the RIU Resource Investor Roadshow in Melbourne. The roadshow will showcase 19 minerals companies to investors and brokers.
