Trigg Mining is rapidly advancing its tier one Lake Throssell potash project in Western Australia to production.
In early October, almost two years to the day after Trigg listed on the ASX, the company unveiled a scoping study for Lake Throssell, positioning it as a potential global top-10 producer.
The study returned capital costs of A$378 million for a project to produce 245,000 tonnes per annum of sulphate of potash for an initial 21 years, at all-in sustaining costs of A$372/t - one of the lowest in the world.
The project has a pre-tax net present value of $364 million, an internal rate of return of 18%, and a 4.5-year payback period assuming average EBITDA of $97 million per annum using a US$550/t SOP price.
Product will be trucked 250km along bitumen roads to Leonora, then railed 900km to Fremantle for export, though there are also opportunities to supply the domestic fertiliser market.
The completion of the scoping study will allow Trigg to commence initial discussions with potential off-take partners and financiers - a process that is already well underway.
A prefeasibility study is already underway to build on the results.
Construction could begin in 2025.
Trigg managing director Keren Paterson says the project will represent truly sustainable mining given there will be no open pit or waste rock dump.
Instead, production is via solar evaporation of saline brine.
Lake Throssell's product will be used for fertiliser at a time when global food supply is becoming more critical.
It's led Trigg to adopt the tag line #mining4farmers.
Lake Throssell has a world-class resource of 14.4 million tonnes grading 4,665 milligrams per litre potassium (or 10.4 kg per cubic metre of SOP)
The company has an additional exploration target of 2.6-9.4Mt SOP.
An infill gravity survey is underway at Lake Throssell to refine the locations for test water bores as part of planned 2022 work to convert the resource to a reserve, marking the formal start of the PFS.
Trigg has also identified further growth potential and has initiated the first-ever ground-based exploration program at Lake Yeo, about 65km to the south-east of Lake Throssell.
Following the grant of the two tenements, a maiden gravity survey is underway to test the theory that Lake Yeo is a potential Lake Throssell repeat within the same interpreted palaeovalley.
"If we are successful with our upcoming exploration activities, this could be a transformational development that results in a dramatic expansion of our growth pipeline in the district, around a central SOP processing hub based at Lake Throssell," Paterson said.
Trigg was well-funded with $3.4 million cash at September 30.
