Trigg Minerals has expanded the indicated mineral resource estimate at its flagship Lake Throssell sulphate of potash (SOP) project by 90%, with further upside to be defined.
The new indicated figure sits at 8 million tonnes of drainable SOP at 4690 milligrams per litre potassium (or 10.5 kilograms per cubic metre SOP) while the project’s inferred resource is 5.3Mt SOP at 4865mg/L potassium (or 10.8kg per cubic metre SOP).
The project has a total drainable mineral resource of 13.3Mt at 4760mg/L potassium.
Approximately 80% of the indicated resource is believed to reside in higher-yielding aquifers with specific yields of 0.12 to 0.15.
The aquifers will become the target of the next round of resource definition field work in preparation for a future ore reserves estimate.
The project’s exploration target has also been refined, with the potential for up to an additional 9Mt of SOP at up to 9.9kg per cubic metre within the project’s granted tenure.
Innovative exploration
The material expansion of the indicated resource reflects increasing confidence in Lake Throssell derived from Trigg’s innovative and systematic exploration and data gathering efforts.
It is likely to have a material impact on the project’s total production target of 5.9Mt (70% indicated) identified in a 2021 scoping study.
The study supported a 245,000 tonnes per annum SOP project for an initial mine life of 21 years with lowest-cost quartile operating costs at a possible top-10 global production rate.
Increase in mine life
Managing director Keren Paterson said there is potential for a substantial increase in Lake Throssell’s initial mine life beyond the current estimate, reinforcing the world-class scale of the project.
“This resource upgrade shows that Lake Throssell has the scale and grade to underpin a sustainable long-term SOP project, particularly when considering its Tier-1 location and proximity to high-quality transport infrastructure,” she said.
“Additional air-core drilling, large-diameter test production bores and test pumping of the basal aquifer will be required to prepare for an ore reserves estimate as we move towards a pre-feasibility study.”
