LONDON (Alliance News) - Salt Lake Potash Ltd on Wednesday said the results from a geophysical survey and the "outstanding" initial test pumping results have reinforced the company's confidence in the Lake Wells project in Western Australia.
Salt Lake shares were up 9.7% to 31.0 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
"We are again very pleased with our exploration results at Lake Wells, with a test pumping result which we believe is one of the highest quality and most comprehensive undertaken on an Australian salt lake. The geophysical surveys and interpretation have produced a comprehensive model of Lake Wells to guide our future exploration work," said Chief Executive Matt Syme.
The miner said over 350 kilometres of ground-based gravity and seismic surveys have been completed to allow the first detailed geophysical model to be secured for the Lake Wells paleovalley.
The model has mapped the deepest parts of the paleovalley, identified as the paleochannel, over 100 kilometres within the project area. An aircore drill programme testing the geophysical model along the Northern fringes of the Lake has completed five holes, all of which validated the interpretation, it said.
Three of those holes were on the north-eastern fringe of the Lake, testing the main trunk of the modelled paleochannel and encountering substantial widths of paleochannel sands, including two with very coarse, and more permeable, sands and gravels.
A comprehensive, sustained pump test of one of the coarse sand and gravel zones confirms production bores in this part of the aquifer should sustain brine extraction rates of up to 25 litres per second, reinforcing the potential for extraction of large volumes of hypersaline brine from the paleochannel aquifer.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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