Allana Potash up sharply after latest Ethiopia milestone

Allana Potash Corp (TSE:AAA) gained more than 10% in heavy volume on Wednesday after the company announced its potash project in Ethiopia has been granted a mining licence.

The $130 million company now has all the regulatory approvals in place to complete the development phase of its 312 square kilometer project.

Allana’s Ethiopian project has the backing of the World Bank and the latest announcement comes on the heels of a string of good news at its land position in Dalol, part of the Danakil Depression.

In June, Allana updated its mineral resource estimate at the project, increasing by a whopping 85% the project’s measured and indicated mineral resource to 2.4 billion tonnes of KCl at an average grade of 17.9% for roughly 438 million tonnes of contained KCl.

The Toronto-based company's February feasibility study envisages a 1 million tonne per year potash mine using the solution/solar evaporation method and costing $642 million to construct.

The Danakil depression's deposits of the crop nutrient are well-known with small scale mining in the region dating back to the early 1900s.
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