SOP Processing Technology

SOP Processing Technology

On 11 August 2022, the Company filed an Australian Provisional Patent Application (“Patent Application”) to protect Intellectual Property related to its newly discovered SOP processing technology (“Reward Process”) for the recovery of high-purity Potassium Sulphate (“K₂SO₄” or “SOP”) from seawater and other high-sulphate brines.

Multiple technical activities have been completed over many years to provide essential data supporting the Patent Application including;

• Inclusion of additional data to expand the scope of the Reward Process including Potassium recoveries from a wide range of brine compositions;
• Confirmation of the variability of Potassium recoveries versus reaction temperatures in the Syngenite formation and leaching steps in the Reward Process;
• Improvement in Potassium extraction from various feed brine compositions by variation in Gypsum to brine ratios in the Syngenite formation reaction; and
• High-purity SOP recovery from Syngenite leach liquors.

The final application was submitted on 10 August 2023.

The Reward Process is a very simple method to recover SOP which should lead to operating costs in the lowest quartile globally. Results of the first engineering scoping study using the Reward Process will be available in September 2023.

SOP projects in Australia have been plagued with fatal flaws since the 1960’s and that remains today with the recent failures of SO₄ Limited (ASX: SO₄) and Kalium Lakes Limited (ASX: KLL) as both these companies constructed processing plants and almost immediately after production entered into administration. This was after almost $1Bn of equity and debt had been spent in the industry since 2010.

The development of the Reward Process removes the largest fatal flaw in the economic recovery of SOP from high-sulphate brines in Australia and that is the flotation processing method.

The Reward Process is outlined in the schematic diagram with the key benefits listed.