PROSPECTIVE Sulphate of Potash (SoP) fertiliser producer Australian Potash Ltd (APC) has partnered with the Wirrpanda Foundation, aiming to create job opportunities for Aboriginal people in the Laverton region.
APC is looking to establish solar evaporation ponds and a processing plant to produce up to 150,000 tonnes per annum of high-grade SoP fertiliser from potassium-rich brine abstracted from beneath Lake Wells, a salt lake 160 kilometres north east of Laverton.
The Wirrpanda Foundation, launched in 2005 by former West Coast Eagles player David Wirrpanda to improve indigenous employment and education opportunities, is the Community Development Program (CDP) provider in Laverton.
It caters for registration of all job seekers in the region.
The partnership between APC and Wirrpanda Foundation will concentrate on creating job opportunities during construction of the fertiliser project, embracing inclusion and diversity to create a vibrant culture that represents the local communities.
APC managing director and chief executive officer Matt Shackleton said APC was committed to providing flexible work arrangements, active indigenous participation and gender balance.
"We are and have always been committed to making real substantive change to the Laverton community through our close working relationship with the shire and the township," Mr Shackleton said.
"We are proud to extend this endeavour by pledging jobs through the Wirrpanda Foundation's excellent and sector-leading programs that encompass work skills, on-the-job mentoring and on-going employment support for indigenous new hires.
"Over the next several months we look forward to developing our relationship into one delivering productive outcomes for APC, the Wirrpanda Foundation and most importantly, the local and regional people of Laverton."
Wirrpanda Foundation director and founder David Wirrpanda said he hoped the partnership with APC would provide local people with long-term career opportunities.
"To achieve that goal we will be actively engaging the community to identify and prepare CDP participants who can take up roles as the project develops," Mr Wirrpanda said.
The Lathlain-based foundation has established employment and education programs in Perth, across regional WA and in Victoria, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and Queensland, with more than 35,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people participating nationally.
Last week APC notified the Australian Securities Exchange it had lodged an Environmental Review Document (ERD) for its Lake Wells SoP project with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
In February last year the EPA determined the project would be assessed by an environmental review with no public consultation and the detailed flora and fauna survey results and studies, along with details of the proposed SoP operation, in the ERD will provide the information for the review.
An EPA indicative decision followed by a statement by Environment Minister Stephen Dawson on the project, are expected towards the middle of next year.
EPA approval will then allow APC to seek operating licences and permits from the Department of Water and Environment Regulation and the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.
In August APC released a definitive feasibility study forecasting a 30-year mine life producing 150,000tpa with a project net present value of $665 million and a 25 per cent internal rate of return.
It has said first production will be 24 months after a final investment decision on the projected $208m capital expenditure required to develop the project.
As previously reported in Farm Weekly, two other Perth companies, Kalium Lakes Ltd (KLL) and Salt Lake Potash (SO4) are in a race to begin commercial production of SoP fertiliser in Australia in the fourth quarter next year.
KLL's Beyondie project is based on two lakes in a chain of salt lakes in the Little Sandy Desert 160 kilometres south east of Newman and SO4 has fast tracked its project at Lake Way south of Wiluna by pumping hypersaline brine from a former gold mine open pit.
