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The SoP hopeful was forced to delay the start of production at Beyondie due to a limited understanding of the remote site's pond chemistry dynamics and harvesting techniques.
The SoP plant was shut down last year after underperforming, with changes made to key process equipment to better suit the environment.
Kalium needs more funds to hit Beyondie's initial production target of 80,000 tonnes per annum by 2023 and expand to 120,000tpa in 2024, which it hopes to gain through a recent capital raising.
Design grade feed went into the plant in early October for processing of 10,520t at an average grade of 8.6% potassium.
The design grade feed period was meant to improve stability of the flotation circuit and overall plant operation. However, things actually went the other way, with below-par flotation and solid-liquid separation limiting flotation performance and constraining downstream operations.
Kalium Lakes CEO Len Jubber said key positives seen during the design grade feed period in October included achieving stable plant operations and reducing recirculating loads within the schoenite circuit.
He said further refinement of the SoP circuit at higher schoenite throughputs was needed so the increased schoenite could convert to final SoP product at higher efficiencies than experienced at lower feed grades.
"The performance of the plant since restart has shown improvement in its mechanical stability and reliability of operation which is pleasing," Jubber said.
"However, the design grade feed operation has shown that improved performance within the flotation circuit to match performance achieved in laboratory tests is needed to ramp up our production to targeted levels."
Jubber said Kalium Lakes was progressing a plant performance improvement plan and he was confident the plant operational challenges would be overcome.
The company is also investigating alternate ways to increase reagent dosages to see whether above-design reagent addition can influence recovery.
Flotation agent batches will also be tested for possible ageing effects.
