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Australia

Beyondie Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeIn-Situ
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Potash
Mining Method
  • Brine mining
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotThe Beyondie footprint, covering Stage 1 and Stage 2, provides the resources and reserves for a 50 year mine life at the production target of 120ktpa, plus significant potential for expansion upside.

On August 4, 2023, McGrathNicol Restructuring announced that Rob Brauer, Jason Preston and Rob Kirman were appointed Receivers and Managers of Kalium Lakes on the evening of 3 August 2023 (Receivers). The Receivers have assumed control of Kalium Lakes’ operations which will continue on a business as usual basis.

On November 16, 2023, the Receivers announced that they entered into an exclusivity period with Reward Minerals Limited for the purpose of agreeing a Share Sale Agreement (SSA) for the sale of KLL’s subsidiaries. These entities comprise all of the Beyondie Project assets, operations and employees of the Kalium Lakes group.

On March 19, 2024, Reward Minerals announced the transaction has been terminated.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Kalium Lakes Ltd. 100 % Direct
Sulphate of potash miner Kalium Lakes has entered into administration, appointing Rob Brauer, Jason Preston and Rob Kirman as receivers and managers.

The three receivers has assume control of the Kalium Lakes operations which are set to continue on while an assessment of sale or recapitalisation options is undertaken.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Brine
  • Sedimentary

Summary:

The deposit is a brine containing potassium and sulphate ions that can form a potassium sulphate salt. The brine is contained within saturated sediments below the lake surface and in sediments adjacent to the lake. The lakes sit within a broader palaeovalley system that extends over hundreds of kilometres, this system has been eroded into the North-West Officer Basin sediments.

The lake bed alluvial sediments form the upper surficial aquifer and host the first brine horizon. The second brine horizon is hydraulically connected to the upper aquifer and comprises the lacustrine clay. The basal sand of the palaeochannel and the fractured bedrock form the third and fourth brine horizons and are considered to be hydraulically disconnected from the shallow aquifer.

The Project area is located within the Collier, Salvation, Scorpion, and North-West Officer Basins. The Marymia Dome is located on the northeast fringe of the Yilgarn Craton (southeast magin of the Basins) and comprises Archaean greenstone belts intruded by granites, and
notably monzogranitic rocks, which outcrops to the south of the Project.

Monzogranites are characterised as potassium rich and composed mostly of quartz and potassium feldspar (alkali-feldspar); their proximity to the BSOPP area, along with other granitic inliers, makes them a suspected source of the potassium enrichment in the region’s sub-surface brine deposits.

Hydrogeology
Two regional aquifer units have been identified within the Cenozoic sediments, the palaeochannel sand aquifer of Eocene age that is located at the base of the palaeo-drainage system, and the shallow surficial aquifer comprising Pliocene and Quaternary evaporites, calcrete and silt of the lake surface and alluvium. These aquifers are considered to be hydrogeologically separated from one another by a thick sequence of stiff lacustrine clays that form an aquitard.

The regional bedrock is considered to be on the whole of low aquifer potential; however deep weathering profiles in sandstones of the Jilyili Formation and vesicular basaltic sills in the vicinity of the palaeovalley have proven to be highly prospective aquifer targets from the 2018 drilling program. In addition, regional structural features described above and specifically the unconformity between the Willy Willy Formation and the Backdoor Formation enhance aquifer transmissivity as linear
features.

Groundwater within the surficial aquifer is generally between 0.2 m and 11 m below ground level, with depth to the ground water table determined by location within the catchment and local topographic changes. Groundwater flow within the surficial aquifer is generally driven by rainfall and episodic creek flow recharge to the aquifer system. The groundwater flow direction generally follows the surface topography, with recharge and groundwater mounding dominant in the ephemeral creek systems and discharge via evaporation occurring in the playa lakes through evaporation.

Off lake the surficial aquifer generally comprises of low transmissivity silt and soft clay unless calcrete is encountered. Calcrete is characterised by secondary porosity with very high transmissivity, but moderate to low storage.

The palaeochannel sand aquifer is a confined porous system, laterally bounded by the edges of the palaeovalley system and the poddy nature of the sand sequences. The aquifer can be characterised as behaving as a strip aquifer system where multiple reduced hydraulic conductivity boundaries

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

CommodityUnits2022
Sulfate of potash (SOP) t  ....  Subscribe
All production numbers are expressed as salt.

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 18, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 18, 2023

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