Germany-focused South Harz Potash (ASX: SHP) has announced that it has received permission from the landowner and tenant to drill a second confirmatory hole in its Ohmgebirge potash project in the region of south of the Harz.

The potash explorer and developer will use the data from the two holes to upgrade the Ohmgebirge mineral resource estimate to the indicated category. This revised estimate, along with a scoping study, is expected to be completed by the first quarter of calendar year 2022.

A contract drilling company was appointed to drill the first hole and South Harz said it was in advanced talks with drillers to move “seamlessly” to the second site once that first hole is completed.

Final drilling approval awaited from German mining authority

The company is now awaiting final approval from the German regulatory authority Thüringer Landesamt für Umwelt, Bergbau und Naturschutz (TLUBN, which translates to the Thuringian National Office for the Environment, Mines and Nature Conservation) to which it provided additional information, including a detailed drilling plan. for the first hole.

A detailed drill plan for the second hole is underway and South Harz intends to submit it to TLUBN shortly.

South Harz Managing Director Dr Chris Gilchrist said he was happy to have been granted permission to drill the second of the two holes, which will allow his team to focus on carrying out a study of framing in Ohmgebirge.

“Our efforts to secure these sites have been hampered by COVID-19 travel restrictions, but our senior executives can now travel to Germany and have engaged with stakeholders face-to-face to make it happen. “

“We are also fortunate to have secure drillers during this post-pandemic increase in demand for contract services and we can now see a clear path to achieving our goals,” he added.

The drilling campaign will confirm the historical results

South Harz plans to drill two holes at Ohmgebirge to verify historical results that were used to declare an inferred resource of 325 million tonnes grading 13.1% potassium oxide.

Both confirmations should lead to a revised Mineral Resource Estimate with the Inferred Resource upgraded to the indicated level.

The five South Harz potash projects in Germany have a total inferred resource of 5.3 billion tonnes.