Following the successful raising of $14.1m during April through an equity issue Kore Potash is pushing ahead with the groundwork for development of its Kola potash project in the Republic of Congo (ROC)
The UK-listed exploration company – which is also listed on the Johannesburg and Australian stock exchanges – is also carrying out further geological assessment of the Dougou Extension (DX) project where work on the first phase of the defined feasibility study (DFS) has now been completed.
Plans are to generate initial cash flow from the high-grade DX project – which CEO Brad Sampson says “has modest capital cost “ to produce 400,000t/year of muriate of potash to be followed by the larger Kola deposit with planned production of 2.2mt/year of muriate of potash over a 33 year life.
Kore had intended to raise $11m through the equity issue but it was oversubscribed and, following the issue, major Kore shareholder the Oman Investment Authority kicked in another $1.4m to pick up extra shares in line with its investment agreement.
Kore will now contribute a maximum of $950,000 to an optimisation study to be carried out on Kola by Chinese engineering and construction group SEPCO which is part of the Summit Consortium which will arrange the total financing required to build Kola.
The Summit Consortium – with which Kore has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding – consists of SEPCO, Abu Dhabi-headquartered BRP Global and China ENFI Engineering Corporation.
According to Sampson, the Optimisation Agreement requires the Summit Consortium to provide an interim report by the end of September this year and to complete the optimisation study by January 29, 2022.
