Agrimin Limited, a Western Australian based minerals company, recently awarded Royal IHC the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) contract for automated wet harvesting equipment for the Mackay Potash Project.
Wet harvesting is currently used at the world’s largest sulphate of potash (SOP) operations. IHC is the world leader in the design and manufacture of dredging systems for wet harvesting solutions, stated Agrimin.
The Mackay Potash Project has been designed to use automated wet harvesters to collect and transfer raw potash salts from the solar evaporation ponds directly to the processing plant in slurry form.
Inclusion of the wet harvesting technique in the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) was supported by critical field data generated from Agrimin’s pilot pond operations between October 2018 and June 2020.
According to Agrimin, the wet harvester FEED work will be completed over the next eight months, building on the DFS level design work that was completed by IHC.
IHC will deliver detailed construction design drawings for all key areas of the equipment including cutting tools and propulsion, slurry transport systems, hydraulics, electrics, field testing and a fixed cost for supply of the harvesting equipment.