Leigh Creek Energy (LCK)
LCK listed on the ASX in mid-2015 on the back of the Leigh Creek Energy Project, located at the site of the now closed coalfield, 500 km north of Adelaide. The coal at Leigh Creek has proven to be technically suitable for producing in-situ gas. LCK is 100% owner operator of Leigh Creek Energy Project (LCEP).
ISG technology is able to access the deep coal via a system of linked wells - Wells are connected underground via a horizontal inlet well and a vertical outlet well connected to a gas facility. Firstly drill a vertical outlet well, install a ranging tool then drill a directional well along coal seam to intersect with vertical well.
Synthetic gas or syngas is generated through initiating a chemical reaction in the coal seam through heat and the resultant syngas is captured and processed. The syngas developed can be used in gas markets, to produce hydrogen, fertiliser products, electricity or to produce methanol or diesel.
The Leigh Creek site is in an ideal location. The remaining coal resource is no longer economic to mine using conventional mining methods, but there is estimated to be 300M tonnes in place. The coal resource is deep, in places up to 1km deep with a thick mudstone overburden. ISG works better deeper than 200m. It is also up to 20m thick in places. The hydrogeology is also suitable (with saline, slow moving water, no aquifers or users of groundwater in the vicinity).
It is in an arid, desert environment, there are no beneficial land uses and it is a closed basin, known as the Telford Basin, which has been identified as one of the best sites in the world to undertake ISG as it is bowl shaped.
There are bitumen roads from Adelaide, an airport, a large township that previously housed the mine workers and rail infrastructure that links to Port Augusta and Port Adelaide for domestic and export opportunities.
The Leigh Creek Energy Project (LCEP) is LCK’s flagship project to produce low cost granular urea from its site in Leigh Creek, 550km north of Adelaide using In Situ Gasification (ISG) technology. We undertook a Pre-Commercial Demonstration Project (PCD) at the site in 2018; which provided all the required data which proved that there was enough 2P resource for 20+ years of operation for a large scale urea plant at the Leigh Creek Site.
We are now developing the commercial phase of the project and are working on a pre-feasibility study for urea fertiliser as well as hydrogen options.
Investment opportunity
LCK is looking for interested parties to enter into:
- urea offtake agreement
- potential JV for a urea plant
- debt/equity funding for project financing
Investor information
Financial information
Investment sought: A$600M - A$3B
Documents
No documents provided.
Project status update
-Project dependencies
-Technology utilised
ISG as previously discussed
Project highlights
- Based on our modelling, we estimate we can produce urea at the bottom of the global cost curve. Our modelling indicates that our syngas would be less than $1/GJ, and our urea production costs modelling less than $100/tonne ex works – which put our price below import price parity with the dominant producers in the Middle East.
- Existing infrastructure and facilities are in place eg, power, road, rail, airport and accommodation.
- Independently verified (proved and probable) 2P gas reserve following successful completion of PCD.
Project timelines
Expected start date
January 01, 2021
Expected end date
-
Funding round finish date
-