A privately-owned company eyeing a $280 million salt project near Karratha will seek a loan from the Federal Government to help develop a new multi-user port facility at Cape Preston East.

A looming supply gap in the non-mainstream industrial salt space has prompted a private consortium of investors to accelerate plans to establish a new Pilbara-based operation.

Stuart McKinnon: The privately owned Leichhardt Industrials has ticked another box on its path to filling a looming gap in the global supply of high-grade chemical salt.