Group Report for Karinga Lakes Brine Sulphate of Potash Project GR360 year to 9 October 2018

Abstract

This annual report deals with EL 24987, EL 25080, EL 28272, EL 28205, EL 28872, EL 30381, and EL 30382 which constitute the Karinga Lakes Sulphate of Potash Brine Project. A $3m earn-in agreement with Consolidated Potash Corporation (CPC, formerly Aqua Guardian Group) and its corporate affiliate Activated Water Technologies (AWT) for 40% of the Karinga Project was announced to the ASX on 10 August 2017. This JV and expenditure by the partners was on-going during the reporting period. The agreement is based on the staged commercialization of aMES- a novel mineral processing technology developed for the more efficient and cost effective production of valuable minerals from salt lake brines than traditional production methodologies. During the reporting period, a 8,000 litre brine sample from Karinga Lakes was evaporated to provide mixed potash salts for initial aMESpilot testing. A second sample of 11,400 litres of brine is currently being evaporated. Development of pre-treatment flowsheets for aMES technology processing was undertaken at Victoria University using Karinga mixed salts and significant progress continues to be made in process flow sheet design. The most significant result to date is successful validation that potassium sulphate (SOP) can be produced from the Karinga Lakes with aMEStechnology, without the need for flotation and its associated reagents and fresh water usage. In order to scale-up the highly encouraging laboratory-scale aMEStest work, AWT and its strategic research partner, Victoria University's Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities, have designed a larger capacity aMESpilot plant, that will assist in further optimising and validating the sulphate of potash flow sheet design. Subject to JV funding, testing with this pilot plant is planned for late 2018 and into 2019. Given the potential of aMEStechnology to eliminate the capital and operating costs of a remote fresh water bore field and a flotation plant, and the reduced requirement for processing reagents, the Karinga Lakes project partners continue to be encouraged by the transformative potential of the technology in the extraction of valuable minerals from salt lake brine resources. Other routine work during the reporting period included monitoring of rehabilitation and tracks, checking of rain gauges and database QA/QC. Only minor corrections were made to the zones for three drillhole locations. No significant changes or additions were made to the database.