ASX-listed premium potassium mineral fertiliser hopeful Trigg Mining is edging closer to finalising a scoping study on the proposed development of its high-grade Lake Throssell sulphate of potash project about 170km north-east of Laverton in Western Australia. The Perth-based company, which recently released its first indicated brine hosted resource numbers for Lake Throssell, says it aims to wrap up the study by the end of next month.
Trigg’s scoping results will no doubt be looked over carefully by market meerkats as potential sulphate of potash or “SOP” production hubs in the region begin to sprout green shoots.
The company and peers including ASX-listed trio Salt Lake Potash, Kalium Lakes and Australian Potash at its advancing nearby Lake Wells project are fuelling the nascent SOP sector.
Following successful trials of brine pumping from trenches designed to evaluate surficial aquifer properties, Trigg converted about 13 per cent of the Lake Throssell deposit’s inferred resource estimate to the higher-confidence indicated resource classification.
The maiden indicated resource stands at 1.9 million tonnes of “drainable” sulphate of potash at an eye-catching average grade of 4,985 mg/L potassium or 11.1 kilograms per cubic metre potassium sulphate and will form the basis of the initial capital payback period underpinning the scoping study.
It falls within Lake Throssell’s latest published inferred resource of 14.3 million tonnes drainable sulphate of potash grading an average 4,665 mg/L or 10.4kg per cubic metre potassium sulphate.
SOP contains the essential nutrients of potassium and sulphur without chloride, making it a high-quality fertiliser necessary for acidic soils and high-value chloride sensitive crops such as fruits and vegetables, nuts, cocoa, all crops under glass and flowers. It is also recommended for arid soils where salinity is an issue.
On the back of strong global demand for fertiliser and the evolving WA brine hosted SOP development landscape, Sydney-based equity research analysts group Corporate Connect is bullish about Trigg’s stock.
The research house says WA-sourced SOP is expected to be a premium fertiliser, given typically higher grades of orebodies, lower levels of impurities and deleterious elements, water solubility and potential organic certification.
There are limited global producers of SOP and a large proportion of global supply of SOP is chemically manufactured from muriate of potash through an expensive and environmentally unfriendly secondary process, Corporate Connect points out.
Australian demand is currently fully met by imports.
Corporate Connect suggests a higher-quality WA SOP product is likely to support strong customer and offtake demand and attract a price premium.
Lake Throssell also lies relatively close to existing energy and transport infrastructure, providing potential cost-effective avenues to domestic and international markets.
Corporate Connect analyst Joh Snyman says in a report on Trigg: “(Lake Throssell) project economics appear attractive with a high cash margin, however, extracting SOP from a brine resource is new to Australia.”
“Fortunately, Trigg should benefit from several more progressed peer SOP projects that will provide valuable learnings and prove up the economics of local SOP projects.”
According to Corporate Connect, the company may kick off a pre-feasibility study on Lake Throssell by the end of this year.
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