Research and development on several environmental technologies provides a useful second horizon of value for the Company's activities. The nature of the studies are intended to provide direct potential economic benefits to the Company and with the acquisition of York Potash the Company is considering further research programmes suited for application at this mine.

In April 2010 Dakota Salts was awarded a grant by the Industrial Commission of North Dakota of US$225,000 (payable in 2011/12) to carry out feasibility studies on using salt caverns for compressed air energy storage (CAES) from wind energy in North Dakota, one of the windiest states in the US. The project seeks to determine whether specifically created caverns in the salt and potash seams are viable or whether legacy caverns from previous mining operations need to be used. Other factors such as the proximity of the caverns to key infrastructure are also being considered. The Company is working on the project with Electric Power and Research Institute (EPRI), Schlumberger Ltd and Tetra Tech Inc. Schlumberger is currently developing a model to determine the sustainability of the CAES concept under the parameters that have been determined by EPRI.

In September 2010 the Company and the University of Queensland completed a nine month proof-of concept study exploring an innovative approach to carbon sequestration using salt solutions. This newly developed method converts salt and CO2 into sodium carbonates (e.g. bi-carbonate of soda), which can be safely stored in empty underground mine caverns preventing that CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Sirius and the University of Queensland designed this technology to work in conjunction with potash solution mining. Besides providing a long-term storage solution for CO2, another attractive feature of this process is that it uses the sodium rich salt solution generated from the solution mining of potash, providing both a storage solution for sodium and clean water that can be pumped back down into the cavern. The Company and University of Queensland are considering applying for patents and have applied for a grant from the Australian Research Council to continue the programme.