Name of the Project
Kola potash project.

Location
Sintoukola basin, Congo-Brazzaville.

Project Owner/s
Kore Potash and Summit Consortium, a subsidiary of PowerChina, comprises OWI Global, which will provide royalty financing in conjunction with product offtake; Sepco; and China ENFI Engineering Corporation. Sepco will be the engineering, procurement and construction, with China ENFI being a subcontractor.

Project Description
Kore Potash completed a definitive feasibility study (DFS) in 2019, in which it proposed a production estimate of 2.2-million tonnes a year of muriate of potash (MoP). This is based on a mine life of 33 years comprising 23 production years, exploiting ore reserves of 152.4-million tonnes and 9.7-million tonnes of inferred mineral resources, and an additional ten production years exploiting 70-million tonnes of the remaining inferred mineral resources.

Total MoP production has decreased from 2.2-million tonnes a year in the 2019 DFS to 2.14-million tonnes a year in the 2022 optimisation study.

The optimisation study estimates a 31-year mine life, which includes 25 production years exploiting ore reserves of 152.4-million tonnes, together with 9.7-million tonnes of inferred mineral resources, and an additional six production years exploiting 49-million tons of the remaining inferred mineral resources.

The Kola orebody is planned to be mined using conventional underground mechanised methods, extracting the ore within ‘panels’ using continuous miner equipment of the drum-cutting type. Mine access will be provided through two 270-m-deep vertical shafts, each 8 m in diameter. The shafts will be sunk near the centre of the orebody.

Underground access will be provided through equipping the intake shaft with a hoist and cage system to transport persons and material.

The exhaust shaft will be equipped with a pocket lift conveyor system to continuously convey the mined-out ore to the surface.

Ore from underground will be transported to the process plant using a 24-km-long overland conveyor. A conventional potash flotation plant with a maximum design capacity of 2.24-million tons a year of MoP has been designed for the project. As a result of the low insolubles content, no separate process circuit will be required to extract insoluble material. The final MoP product will then be transported 11 km using a conveyor belt from the process plant to the marine export facility at the coast.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The optimisation study estimates an ungeared after-tax net present value (NPV), at a 10% discount rate, of $1.62-billion and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 20%, compared with an NPV, at a 10% discount rate, of $1.42-billion and an IRR of 17.2% in the DFS.

Capital Expenditure
Capital cost reduced was reduced by $520-million to $1.83-billion on an engineering, produrement and construction (EPC) basis in the optimisation study, compared with the DFS capital cost of $2.35-billion on an equivalent EPC basis.

Planned Start/End Date
The 2022 optimisation study has reduced the construction period from 46 months in the DFS to 40 months.

Latest Developments
Kore Potash has completed a share subscription, raising about $900 000 through the issue of 25.4-million new ordinary shares.

The net proceeds will be used to further advance the work that is expected to lead to the signing of an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Kola project, and provide working capital for Kore.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Met-Chem DRA Global (mineral resource estimate); and SRK Consulting (environmental- and social-impact assessment).

Contact Details for Project Information
Tavistock, on behalf of Kore Potash, tel +44 207 920 3150 or email kore@tavistock.co.uk.