Australia's S04 makes first batch of SOP at Lake Way

Australia's S04 — a subsidiary of Sev.en Global Investments, an energy investment firm based in the Czech Republic — has produced its first SOP product at its Lake Way project near Wiluna in Western Australia.

The 200,000 t/yr SOP project remains in the commissioning phase, and there is no date yet for full commercial operations. But Sev.en said the project is "tracking well" towards full operations.

Commissioning work included the installation of a new floatation unit in the process plant.

The project will use solar evaporation ponds to extract potassium-rich salts from the lake mines.

The Lake Way SOP project has been in development for over seven years. It was originally commissioned in April 2021 and began commercial production in June that year under its previous owners Australia-based Salt Lake Potash. Sev.en acquired the project when it bought out Salt Lake Potash in 2022 and then made significant investments in all aspects of the production process.

By Nykole King