The first potash mine in Australia is in a remote location posing unique challenges for design and operation. The owners, Salt Lake Potash Ltd., an Australian Stock Exchange listed entity, developing the first of its nine lake portfolio, the Lake Way Project, chose a philosophy of minimizing capital balanced with minimizing operational costs and getting to market quickly.

One challenge was the dewatering steps in the process. There are multiple, each with unique feed requirements ranging from feed that is very coarse to very fine, dilute to concentrated, very high capacity to average capacity, and multiple different product requirements.

The initial design recommendation was multiple different models of dewatering equipment each with a special set of capital and maintenance spares required, and five different maintenance programs. To minimise design, capital, and operating expense, and to minimize the maintenance complexity and provide quick delivery, Broadbent offered a solution utilizing Broadbent patent pending divergent screen bowl technology. The same machine is used effectively in all applications providing the highest quality process performance, with minimal spares and maintenance.

The net results are the plant will save millions of dollars in maintenance costs with increased plant efficiency.

Capital money saved and increased profitability has made Broadbent the reliable partner for the first potash mine in Australia, Salt Lake Potash Ltd.