BCI Minerals Ltd has announced that the company’s flagship Mardie Salt and Potash Project, located on the West Pilbara coast in Western Australia, has been granted Major Project Status by the Australian Federal Government.

 

The Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews MP, approved the grant of Major Project Status, acknowledging the potential for the Mardie Project to positively contribute to the economic prosperity of Australia and in particular, the Pilbara region.

 

Major Project Status is valid for 3 years and provides BCI with support from the Major Projects Facilitation Agency to enable a timely and efficient approvals process for the development of the Mardie Project.

 

Mardie project will produce 4.4Mtpa of high-purity salt and 120ktpa of sulphate of potash via solar evaporation of seawater. Using an inexhaustible seawater resource and a production process driven mainly by natural solar and wind energy, Mardie is a sustainable opportunity to supply the salt and potash growth markets in Asia over many decades.

 

A Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on the Mardie Project was completed in mid 2020. A Final Investment Decision (FID) is targeted in early 2021 with first construction planned to commence by mid 2021.

 

BCI Managing Director, Alwyn Vorster, said: “We are pleased that Mardie has been acknowledged as a project of national significance by the Australian Federal Government. The recently completed DFS indicated that Mardie is a potential Tier 1 project, and the grant of major project status further supports this view.

 

“The development of Mardie will deliver substantial long-term public benefits over a potential operating life of 100 years in the form of significant employment and contracting opportunities, and billions of dollars of royalties and taxes. This support from the Federal Government will make a meaningful contribution towards Mardie becoming the first large-scale salt project to be developed in Australia in more than 20 years.”