Leichhardt to double Lake MacLeod salt project

Salt harvester Leichhardt has applied to double the size of the Lake MacLeod operation near Carnarvon which it bought from Rio Tinto.

Leichhardt this week referred plans to increase salt production from 1.5 million tonnes per annum to 3Mtpa to the Environmental Protection Authority.

The company hopes to achieve the expansion by 2027.

Leichhardt purchased Lake MacLeod from Rio Tinto for $375m in 2024 to get income rolling in while it worked on a larger project further north.

The expansion would make Lake MacLeod WA’s third largest salt harvest operation, behind Rio Tinto’s Dampier Salt and BCI Minerals’ Mardie Salt, which is under construction.

Leichhardt is backed by Melbourne’s Smorgon family and is the proponent of the $280m Eramurra salt project near Karratha.

Eramurra is expected to produce 5.3Mtpa of salt and create 200 construction jobs.

The project has been under assessment by the EPA since 2022.

Western Australia’s salt exports were worth about $760m last year, down from more than $800m in previous years.

Most of the state’s salt exports come from Port Hedland, Dampier, Onslow and Cape Cuvier near Carnarvon.