South Harz Potash gets go-ahead from landowner to drill second Ohmgebirge hole
South Harz Potash is now awaiting final approval from the German mining authority to start its two-hole drilling program.
Germany-focused South Harz Potash (ASX: SHP) has announced it has received landowner and tenant permission to drill a second confirmatory hole at its Ohmgebirge potash project in the South Harz region.
The potash explorer and developer will use data from the two holes to upgrade the Ohmgebirge mineral resource estimate to the indicated category. This revised estimate, as well as a scoping study, is on track to be completed by the first quarter of the 2022 calendar year.
A contract drilling company has been appointed to drill the first hole and South Harz said it is in advanced discussions with the drillers to “seamlessly” relocate to the second site once this first hole is completed.
Final drilling approval awaited from German mining authority
The company is now awaiting final approval from the German regulatory authority Thüringer Landesamt für Umwelt, Bergbau und Naturschutz (TLUBN, which translates to the Thuringian State Office for the Environment, Mining and Nature Conservation) to which it provided supplementary information including a detailed drilling plan for the first hole.
A detailed drilling plan for the second hole is in progress and South Harz intends to submit it to TLUBN shortly.
South Harz managing director Dr Chris Gilchrist said he is pleased to have secured permission to drill the second of two holes, which will enable his team to focus on completing a scoping study at Ohmgebirge.
“Our efforts to secure these sites have been hampered by COVID-19 travel restrictions but our senior personnel are now able to go to Germany and have engaged with stakeholders on a face-to-face basis to achieve this.”
“We are also fortunate to have secured drillers during this post-pandemic surge in demand for contract services and we can now see a clear path to the delivery of our objectives,” he added.
Drilling campaign will confirm historic results
South Harz plans to drill two holes at Ohmgebirge to verify historic results that had been used to declare an inferred resource of 325 million tonnes grading 13.1% potassium oxide.
The two confirmatory are planned to lead to a revised mineral resource estimate with the inferred resource upgraded to indicated level.
South Harz’s five potash projects in the Germany have a total inferred resource of 5.3 billion tonnes.