TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Project developer Allana Potash on Thursday announced that it had last week received the large-scale mining licence from Ethiopian authorities it needed to proceed directly to contracting, construction and operations at its $642-million Danakil potash project.

Allana said that following extensive financial, economic, social, health, safety and environmental reviews, including the project's environmental-, social- and health-impact assessment being approved in May, the company now had all the required regulatory approvals to move ahead with the project.

The TSX-listed company was now busy with the engineering, procurement, and construction management selection process, saying a number of strong engineering firms were participating in the process and had visited the project site in September.

Drafting was progressing on the company's Tadjoura potash terminal definitive lease and on the services agreement with Djibouti Ports, as well as on the completion of the Danakil road connection with the Ethiopian authorities.

All other required infrastructure, including roads, the port and power were either in place, under construction or contracted, and were expected to be complete on schedule. The project was expected to start ramping up from the start of 2016.

Allana also said it was involved in talks with potential offtake partners and with a number of large fertiliser companies over strategic equity investments.

“With continued short-term uncertainty in the potash markets, interest in Allana's low-cost potash project remains strong and management is working with various potential partners,” the company said in a statement.

The Danakil project has National Instrument 43-101-compliant measured and indicated resources totalling 2.45-billion tonnes containing about 438-million tonnes of potassium chloride (KCl), and inferred resources of 1.12-billion tonnes containing 178-million tonnes of KCl.

The Danakil resource is located next to that of Canada-based Ethiopian Potash Corp. BHP Billiton also had a large land-holding in the Danakil depression, but made its exit in July 2012, after saying its potash project did not meet its investment criteria.

Allana also announced that Diana Walters had resigned from the board after serving as the representative of Liberty Metals & Mining Holdings, which owns a 17% interest in Allana.