Mid West Potash Project
Highlights
- Shenton Resources continues to steadily progress exploration and metallurgical investigation of its hard-rock hosted potash project.
- Project is located two hours north from Perth and within 2km of major road/rail corridor and regional power grid. Adjacent to major population and service centre of Moora
- 610 km2 of granted Exploration Licences with prospective host rocks covering strike length of 65km over freehold agricultural land
- Company successful in securing a co-funded Exploration Drilling grant of $74,500 from 2018 Round 16 for RC and diamond drilling programme at Watheroo.
- A near surface potassium rich zone outlined over 2km strike length by recently completed co-funded RC drilling programme with best drill intersection to date of 29m @ 8.74% K2O
- Potassium rich zone outlined at Watheroo amenable to conventional shallow open pit mining operation
- Targeting 250Ktpa of K2SO4 (SOP) production for +20 years. Potassium extraction rates up to 89% before optimisation from oxide and transition ores.
Shenton Resources Limited (“Shenton or Company”) is the owner of a significant ground package covering a highly prospective hard rock potash project located in the heart of the West Australian mid-north wheat belt region at its Mid West Potash Project. The potash rich host rocks are considered to have potential to support a world scale potash mining and manufacturing development, producing up to 250,000 tonnes per annum of Sulphate of Potash (SOP) for at least 20 years.
The Company’s Mid West Project (Watheroo & Three Springs areas) exploration tenements cover an area of approximately 610 km2. The project area is located within two hours (220km) of Perth and situated on freehold agricultural land with immediate access to major utilities, transport corridor, local workforce and regional services centre.
Shenton Potash Mid West Project location, other projects and regional infrastructure map
The Watheroo and Three Springs projects are situated within a strip of Middle Proterozoic Moora Group rocks between the Darling Fault and Archaean Yilgarn Craton.
Potash mineralization is associated with homogeneous, potassium feldspar-rich tuff, tuffaceous volcaniclastic and sedimentary (lithic wacke/siltstone) lithologies of the Billeranga Subgroup (Bi), deposited during a failed Proterozoic Rift. At Watheroo, these ultrapotassic horizons are confined to the Dalaroo Siltstone member which were the focus of the co-funded RC drilling programme during the 2018 financial reporting period.
Watheroo area – simplified regional geology
The Company was notified on 5 December 2017, by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety that its application was successful in securing a co-funded Exploration Drilling grant of $74,500 from 2018 Round 16 for RC and diamond drilling programme over its exciting Watheroo Potash Project. Grants are awarded to companies to encourage new minerals/deposit discoveries in underexplored Minerals Fields/regions of Western Australia.
Shenton has taken advantage of the grant funding by completing an RC drilling programme at Watheroo Central to follow up on the encouraging results of its 2015 aircore drilling programme. A total of 37 vertical RC holes ranging in depth from 9m to 78 m totalling 1,199m have been completed. RC drilling has been completed on line spacing of 200m with drill holes generally 50m apart.
C drilling rig at Watheroo Central during April 2018
Significant drill intercepts of up to 29m @ 8.74% K2O from 5m, 20m at 9.06% K2O from depth of 19m and 23m at 7.57% K2O from depth of 8m have been returned. Geological and grade interpretation has led to the delineation of a near surface potassium rich zone of over 2km strike length. Preliminary estimate of the tonnage of the potassium rich zone outlined shows that it has potential to support an open pit mining operation of 8 to 10 years life.
Watheroo Central drill defined 2km strike length potassium rich zone
The next phase of drilling to be undertaken by Shenton at Watheroo Central will entail a three hole diamond drilling programme as part of the co-funded drilling grant. Reconnaissance road side rock chip sampling of potassium prospective areas to the north and south of Watheroo continues with sampling returning up to 12.0% K2O. The Company is continuing to secure land access agreements in order for it to undertake detailed geological mapping within its tenure and systematic rock chip sampling. This work is expected to lead to the delineation of further drill targets.
Development Path
Initial metallurgical test work has demonstrated attractive levels of potassium extraction from the potassium rich drill samples from the 2015 drill programme. Highly encouraging laboratory test work has demonstrated that recovery of potassium can be achieved using well practiced metallurgical processes.
Second phase of metallurgical testwork is expected to commence soon, with composite samples prepared from the RC drilling completed during April 2018 and transported to Perth.
Production of K2SO4 has been assumed via traditional and well understood manufacturing methods, but future work will also assess the suitability of emerging new technologies for production.
Preliminary desktop studies and enquiries are underway to determine project development requirements comprising water, power (electricity and gas), transport (road and rail), shipping and raw material inputs sulphuric acid and salt
Shenton’s potash project development will require the establishment of an ore processing facility constructed in close proximity to the mining operations and adjacent regional high voltage power grids and communication networks. Site development is situated within 2 kilometres of high quality road and rail transport infrastructure, leading to the Western Australian coastal ports of Fremantle/Kwinana or Geraldton.
Preliminary financial modelling for a 20 year project life indicates a robust potential project with operating costs of less than half of current SOP sales price, with project payback in 6 years. Forecast NPV’s are attractive at an 8% discount rate, ranging $575 – $660M.
