Editors Note: This article was originally published in the Aug. 30 2023 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
Executives at Peak Minerals are reviewing the record of decision the company earned in 2019 after a lengthy environmental review process for the company’s Sevier Playa Potash project.
The review follows a federal lawsuit filed in July by a Salt Lake City environmental group against the U.S. Interior Department, Bureau of Land Management and a federal official in charge of public land and mineral management.
The lawsuit, filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, seeks a judicial review of Peak Minerals’ record of decision to test whether there were violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.
Peak Minerals CEO Dean Pekeski said though the company was not named in the lawsuit, it is closely monitoring the case and executives are “re-familiarizing” themselves with the lengthy public process that resulted in the record of decision.
“Right now we are reviewing the work that was done during the EIS (environmental impact study) process. We are reviewing the record of decision and the supporting documentation that sits behind that. We are looking back through the administrative record,”Pekeski said. “At this time, you know, we are really just in a situation where we are tracking what’s going on and looking at what’s going to happen next.”
Though it might not look like it now, considerable work is still being done to get the construction phase of the potash mining project underway.
Pekeski said a feasibility study was completed last year. And pre-engineering and pre-development work continues with a goal to begin construction at the Sevier Lake site in 2024. The project should be fully operational in 2027, the CEO said.
“No question we’ve been working on this project a long time. Unfortunately, with potash, with the fertilizer market, at times it appeared we didn’t have as much interest as we would’ve liked. The company has sort of struggled through that. We had to struggle through COVID. But we’re on the back end of that now,” Pekeski said.
Citing other efforts this year, the CEO said the company received “significant” financial backing from a global mining firm.
In March, the company announced a $30 million investment from an unnamed firm specifically for front-end engineering and design work for the Sevier Playa project.
The investment involves a 30-month loan that can be converted to shares in Peak Minerals once it matures. Peak Minerals also agreed to supply the investor with 65,000 tons of sulfate of potash from phase one of the project, according to a March company press release.
“We are moving forward. There’s a lot of activity happening in the background, not so much activity at the site,” Pekeski said. “We want the local community informed. We think this project is going to be a tremendous benefit to rural Utah and Millard County and really want to make sure we get the opportunity to build it out.”
Steve Styler, a local attorney who represents Peak Minerals, said he was surprised by the timing of Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance’s litigation.
“I guess you could say this was unexpected because it did come four years after (the record of decision)… but we’re still just as excited about this project as ever, excited to move it forward,” he said.
A check of federal court records showed little movement in the case. As of press deadline Monday, officials with the BLM and Interior Department have yet to file an answer to the environmental group’s civil complaint.
