Millennial Potash Corp (TSX-V:MLP, OTCQB:MLPNF) announced it has increased its stake in the Banio potash project in Gabon to 70%, up from 51% before.
The company upped its interest in Equatorial Potash, which holds 100% of the Banio project through its Gabon subsidiary Mayumba Potasse SARL.
The increase was driven by filing a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) and making milestone payments of US$300,000 and 1 million shares of Millennial to the vendors of the Banio potash project.
Farhad Abasov, chairman of Millennial Potash, told shareholders that the company made “fast progress” in the development of the project since it first announced the earn-in agreement in March 2023.
“In less than a year, the company built an exploration camp, drilled exploration holes extending the potash deposit thickness to 70 meters, and issuing a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate of 657 million tonnes of Indicated resources grading 15.9% KCl and 1.16 billion tonnes of Inferred resources grading 16% KCl in January 2024,” Abasov commented in a statement.
In April 2024, the company released the results of a PEA outlining a potentially low-cost solution mining operation, based on the production of 800,000 tonnes per year of granular Muriate of Potash (MOP).
The project has low capital expenditure of US$480 million and operating expenditure of US$61 per tonne of MOP, as well as a post-tax NPV(10) of US$1.07 billion and an IRR of 32.6%.
MLP said it will move forward with the PEA recommendations, including preparations for further drilling at the North Target to expand resource estimates.