Kalium Lakes, an Australia-headquartered potash developer, has raised A$48.8-million through the completion of a share placement and the institutional component of its entitlement offer, to fund the cost-overrun in the construction of its Beyondie sulphate of potash (SoP) project, in Western Australia. The company has recently announced plans for a A$61-million capital raise, consisting of a A$19-million institutional placement and a A$42-million fully underwritten five-for-seven entitlement offer. The new shares were issued at a price of 15c each, representing a 69% discount to Kalium Lake’s last closing price on 21 February, and a 53% discount to its theoretical ex-rights price. The institutional placement consisted of 126.8-million shares, to raise A$19-million, while the entitlement offer consisted of a combined 279.9-million shares to raise A$42-million. The company’s Chairperson Mal Randall has said that the interest received from sophisticated and institutional investors to participate in the funding for the Beyondie SoP project was particularly strong and well oversubscribed. The funds raised will be used to complete the construction of the Beyondie project, and to provide sufficient working capital until first production.
Acron Group, a global Russian mineral fertilizer producer, has commissioned a new 700 000 tpy urea granulation unit at its Veliky Novgorod site in Russia. The unit cost a total of US$29 million. Acron also constructed an additional finished product warehouse capable of storing 15 000 t of urea. “We are continuing to implement projects as part of Acron Group’s development strategy. Acron used to only produce prilled urea,“ said the chairman of Acron’s Board of Directors, Alexander Popov, adding that „with the new unit on stream, we will supplement our product portfolio with premium granulated urea that is in demand globally, improve production flexibility and better meet the market’s needs by switching to the products with the greatest demand at any given moment.“ Popov also noted that “the urea shop is seeing a lot of changes. In 2019, Acron launched a significant upgrade of urea unit 6, which will bring the overall shop capacity to 1.9 million tpy in 2021 and make Acron a major urea producer in both Russia and Europe, capable of producing up to 1.4 million t of dry products (granulated and prilled) and liquid UAN”.
Salt Lake Potash, a mineral exploration company based in Perth, Australia, has announced results of chemical analysis on a bulk sample from its Kainite harvest ponds at the Lake Way project, showing above the modelled average potassium grades. A bulk sample of harvest salt from the Stage 1 Kainite ponds was collected in March to confirm plant feed grades and produce mass samples of sulfate of potash (SOP) for end user customers. Chemical analysis of these harvest salts has indicated potassium salts kainite and schoenite (as modelled) are present with a potassium concentration of 7.5%, above the modelled assumed plant feed of 6.8%. Sulfate concentration of 20.9% also matched expectations. Results for other compounds, namely sodium and magnesium align with the anticipated plant feed grade. The bulk sample confirms the Lake Way operation is precipitating plant feed harvest salts suitable for conversion to premium quality SOP in the designed flowsheet. This will be further confirmed via process testwork at Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) in Saskatoon, Canada.
