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http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/54348/south-boulder-mines-director-resigns-foreshadows-shift-in-strategy-at-colluli-54348.html
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http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/54348/south-boulder-mines-director-resigns-foreshadows-shift-in-strategy-at-colluli-54348.html>*
SOUTH BOULDER MINESwww.southbouldermines.com.au/
Full South Boulder Mines profile
here<
http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/sponsors/1142/south-boulder-mines-1142.html>
South Boulder's (ASX: STB) flagship project is the world class Colluli
Potash Fertilizer Project in Eritrea. The Project is located in the Danakil
Depression region of Eritrea located approximately 65 kilometres from the
coast and is 906kmē in size.
South Boulder Mines director resigns, foreshadows shift in strategy at
Colluli
Tuesday, April 15, 2014 by Proactive Investors
South Boulder Mines Colluli potash project in Eritrea
South Boulder Mines (ASX: STB) has advised of a change to its board of
directors which could foreshadow a fundamental shift in the development
strategy of its Colluli potash project in Eritrea.
Dr. Chris Gilchrist has resigned as a non-executive Director of the Company
to pursue other interests.
The original development path for the project focussed on processing
sylvinite only, but work completed by South Boulder Mines in February this
year demonstrated a material reduction in mine operating costs by
processing all potassium bearing salts.
Cost reductions in the order of $50 per tonne of product relative to their
staged development model economics have been estimated.
South Boulder Mines has been open about processing the kainite in the
deposit and the fact that the resource is capable of producing potassium
chloride and/or potassium sulphate.
Potassium sulphate is a premium potash fertiliser (commonly referred to as
sulphate of potash) and currently carries a substantial premium (over $250
per tonne) relative to the more common potassium chloride potash.
Perhaps this signals the shift in South Boulder Mines' thinking on how to
develop the resource and the increased focus on potassium sulphate.
Dr. Gilchrist's background appears more closely aligned to sylvinite
processing and potassium chloride production.
Dr. Gilchrist joined the South Boulder board three years ago and has
overseen the feasibility study on the company's Colluli potash project.
South Boulder Chairman Seamus Cornelius thanked Dr. Gilchrist for his
contribution to the company.
"Chris has made an important contribution to STB over the past 3 years and
we wish him all the best with his future endeavours," Mr. Cornelius said.
Interestingly, South Boulder Mines have recently indicated that it planned
to commence a metallurgical test program to design a process that would
process all salts and perhaps they intend to engage a potash consultant
with more relevant experience as part of this process.
Milestones for testwork
Once the processing testwork is underway, South Boulder Mines will look to
appoint an environmental consultant to facilitate the baseline assessment
submissions to the Environment Ministry in Eritrea, initiate material
characterisation testwork to support the completion of mining work to DFS
level and resume work on costing the infrastructure.
South Boulder Mines will be looking at defining the rock salt resource at
Colluli.
There is an abundance of rock salt sitting on top of the potash and the
initial quality appears good.
This rock salt will be removed as part of the open cut mine, hence they
will to define a resource and also look for joint venture partners that
would like to participate in a rock salt business once the grades and
volumes are established.
One of the advantages of the new product suite under consideration for
Colluli is that potassium sulphate is produced.
It is currently selling at an FOB price in the order of $580 to $600 per
tonne and given the restricted number of production centres for this
product, the price is not likely to drop as severely as in the case of
potassium chloride.
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Received on Mon Apr 14 2014 - 23:06:25 EDT