Toronto-based SOPerior Fertilizer Corp. has announced plans to build an alunite pilot plant facility at the site of an existing copper processing operation near Milford in Beaver County. The proposed pilot operation would produce metallurgical alumina, potassium sulphate fertilizer (SOP) and sulphuric acid by processing alunite ore trucked in from the company’s Blawn Mountain alunite deposit located approximately 25 miles southwest of Milford.
The pilot operation would utilize the developed infrastructure at the plant site and some of the existing processing equipment, SOPerior said in a press statement. Subject to closure of financing for the project, the company expects to begin construction later this year with operations anticipated for the third or fourth quarter of 2020.
Although SOPerior will launch the plant as a pilot project, it expects to operation to generate a profit, unlike most pilot programs, the company said. SOPerior said it has memoranda of understanding and other expressions of interest — both domestic and foreign — for the marketing of the products coming from the plant. The company also sees the potential for on-site utilization of the sulphuric acid production for copper leaching.
“The pilot project is an essential de-risking step in the development of our immense alunite resources,” said SOPerior Fertilizer’s CEO, Andrew Squires. “We are using common industry processes to make three valuable products from the alunite. This project will allow us to quickly get online and fine-tune our process operations, build offtake markets and secure the financial backing for the large commercial phases to follow. The proposed location is ideally situated for the pilot and future full-scale development of our alunite interests and will share num[erous economic and operational synergies with the existing copper and precious metals processing operations.”