Reward Minerals in bid to revive Kalium Lakes’ Beyondie potash project in $20m deal

Reward Minerals has revealed itself as the speculated buyer of the stalled Beyondie sulphate of potash project, agreeing to pay just shy of $20 million funded by a proposed capital raise. As reported by The West Australian, bets had been on the listed potash hopeful as the likely buyer of the Beyondie project, which is currently in the hands of receivers at McGrathNicol. ASX-listed Kalium collapsed in August owing more than $200 million to lenders, including the Federal Government’s Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility. Reward emerged from a trading halt on Thursday morning to advise it had signed an exclusivity agreement with receivers to buy the project for up to $19.8m. The company and receivers will seek to hash out a formalised share sale agreement from here. Initial terms disclosed by Reward shows consideration will be split between an upfront $14.75m in cash and a further $5m by June 2025. Reward said it would need to raise capital for the first upfront payment with details of a proposed $16m entitlement offer to be announced ‘in due course’. The fundraiser will need to be completed as part of conditions tied to the acquisition. Reward executive director Michael Ruane described the deal as a rare opportunity. “The project is well advanced in a technical sense and is a perfect fit with the Reward team skill set,” he said in a statement. “A further bonus of the acquisition is that with relatively minor modifications, the Beyondie operation will serve as a low cost R&D facility required to confirm the operational parameters associated with the new Reward Process.” Reward has been focused on developing its own SOP extraction process that it claims will remove the need for floatation, a method it says is the ‘largest fatal flaw’ in economic recovery of SOP. “Laboratory testwork already undertaken suggests that the Beyondie feed brine responds well to the Reward Process,” Mr Ruane said. Fellow ASX-listed potash aspirant Agrimin had a crack at buying Beyondie earlier this year but was unable to pull a deal together. Potash — which is predominantly used as a fertiliser ingredient — has struggled to build momentum as an industry in WA despite there being several fledgling projects in the State.