Kalium Lakes inches closer to Beyondie start-up

The gas commissioning will be followed by the power station, which Kalium Lakes chief executive Rudolph van Niekerk said was well on its way.

“Entering the commissioning phase at Beyondie represents a major milestone for Kalium Lakes. Several commissioning activities are under way, including the gas supply infrastructure and on-site power station,” van Niekerk said.

“The pace of activity at the project continues to increase rapidly as we transition from construction to start-up of operations.”

The supply of gas to the delivery station has supplied low pressure pipelines to the power station, boiler and other process plant equipment.

It’s expected that load testing at the power station will commence ahead of schedule in early April, as the entire project ticks over 80 per cent complete.

Since 2019, Kalium has pumped more than 87,000 tonnes equivalent of SOP from the bore field and trenches, allowing potassium salts to be harvested in May.

Commercial production and first sales are expected in September, with van Niekerk saying earlier this March that he expected the project to produce 120,000 tonnes of SOP a year.

“We are pleased to announce that a ‘debottlenecking’ style review of the plant design for the Beyondie SOP project confirms that an annual steady-state production rate of at least 100,000 tonnes per annum is achievable,” he said.

“Additionally, the current evaporation ponds’ performance indicates that this production rate can be achieved by mid-2022.”