Australian Potash Limited announces a pause to activity at Lake Wells project

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Australian Potash Limited (APC) said in a corporate update that its strategic review process on its Lake Wells Sulphate of Potash project has yet to deliver any executable proposals and it is going to pause activity at the site.

It added that while third party discussions on potential project development funding are continuing, there is not yet any indication that a transaction can be concluded in the near term as the company’s board has determined to halt Lake Wells project as they focus on other mineral holdings.

APC said it will seek to preserve the inherent value of the potash project and work towards restoring shareholder value and will execute alternative exploration strategies on its existing tenure and pursue opportunities that are identified beyond current areas of operation.

The company said during the exploration and study phases of the project that mineral analysis was conducted on the brine samples from the palaeochannel system only.

Clay layers were not assayed; however, a comprehensive clay sampling program was completed during bore drilling.

Given the change in circumstances, the board has made the decision to now analyse those clay samples using a portable x-ray fluorescence machine to determine if they are ionic in nature.

APC said ionic clays have been shown to host lithium and rare earth element mineralisation and given the growing demand for these materials, the board considers it an opportunity lost not to conduct this analysis.