Intrepid Announces the Successful Completion of the Eddy Shaft Brine Extraction Project

Denver, CO, Nov. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intrepid Potash, Inc. ("Intrepid," "we," or "our") (NYSE:IPI) today announced the successful completion of the Eddy Shaft Brine Extraction Project (“Project”) at its HB solar solution mine (“HB”) in Carlsbad, New Mexico after an eight-month permitting process. The Project provides access to a high-grade brine pool in the Eddy Cavern that was originally targeted by the IP30A extraction well, which failed and was plugged and abandoned in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Project Highlights & Management Commentary
The Project utilizes the existing Eddy Shaft to access a 270-million-gallon brine pool with a potassium chloride (“KCl”) concentration expected at over 9% ⁽¹⁾. We estimate this 270-million-gallon brine pool will translate to 85 to 110 thousand potash product tons which will be incremental to other brine sources at HB ⁽²⁾. By utilizing the Eddy Shaft, we avoided the time and capital associated with drilling and only incurred costs related to the installation of a new pump system and corresponding surface infrastructure.

We expect the production contribution from the Project to begin in the second half of 2024 and carry into 2025, with this brine source and extraction point becoming a consistent, longer-term contributor to our production as we continue brine injection over time. The Project’s brine pool is currently being extracted at a rate of approximately 750 gallons per minute and we expect the 270-million-gallon brine pool to be pumped into our ponds by the start of the 2024 summer evaporation season.

Our brine cycle at HB is a continuous process: brine is injected into the cavern system, we then extract brine from low points in the cavern after sufficient residence time, while continuously replacing extracted brine with new injection to replenish the caverns and continue the development of high-grade brine pools. Accordingly, as we extract the high-grade brine in the Eddy Cavern, we’ll continue our injection throughout the HB cavern system which will help maximize the brine availability and residence time to support brine grade and production rates over the longer-term.

Bob Jornayvaz, Intrepid's Executive Chairman and CEO commented: “Revitalizing our potash assets has been a key focus for Intrepid in 2023 and I’m very pleased to share that we successfully commissioned the Eddy Shaft Brine Extraction Project before the end of the year. This is an important step in returning our annual HB potash production to the previous highs from 2017 to 2019. In a normal brine injection and extraction cycle, it can take well over a year of residence time to achieve a brine KCl concentration of over 9%, a level that has preceded our best production years. Beyond serving as a bridge to higher potash production in 2024 and 2025, the Project is important for another key reason: by extracting this already-enriched brine in the near-and-medium-term, we’ll be able to keep injecting brine throughout the HB cavern system – including in the Eddy Cavern – and let that brine build and develop into other sources of high-grade brine pools, which is crucial for driving sustained, higher production over the longer-term.”