Agrimin busy working on engineering design for Lake Mackay potash project; on-lake construction logistics sorted

Agrimin (ASX:AMN) is busy developing FEED for its WA-based Lake Mackay potash fertiliser project after winding up a construction trial in the third quarter which gave the company crucial logistical experience in building on a salt lake. 

The Lake Mackay project sees Agrimin setting up to mine the salt lake brine system Mackay to be turned into sulphate of potash (SOP) fertiliser, a water soluble superior phosphate-based crop stimulant. 

The larger plant, when constructed, will refine harvested salts from Mackay and turn the feedstock into SOP on-site (and, eventually, Agrimin’s other landholding on Lake Auld.) 

Low-cost seaborne SOP

SOP is then to be trucked to a storage facility at Wyndham Port, whacked onto a ship, and exported direct to customers, as lined out in a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) completed for the project back in 2020. 

That DFS supported Agrimin’s mission to become the lowest-cost producer of seaborne SOP. 

Worth noting is that Agrimin already has offtake locked in for some 70% of future production. 

Compliance documentation progressing

While the company is still progressing to a Final Investment Decision (FID), the company has made two big developments supporting the project this year. 

Back in April, the WA environmental regulator accepted Agrimin’s environmental plan for the project, which itself had some six years of research backing it up.

Under WA law, the company satisfied requirements such that it does not need to apply for approval under the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), a more rigorous and time-consuming process.

Sealed road next big deliverable

Earlier this month, the company passed its second last Native Title hurdle on the project towards the construction of a sealed haul road connecting to the Tanami highway (a major trucking route). 

Once the company makes a positive FID, the WA Government will cough up funds to assist Agrimin finish the roadworks.  

Agrimin finished the September quarter with $4.4m in cash; year to date returns for Agrimin shareholders sit at 18.5%. 

A look at Agrimin's three month charts

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