Submits Mine Application for 75,000 tpa Phosphate Rock
Perth, Nov 11, 2014 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Fertoz Limited (
ASX:FTZ) ("Fertoz" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has submitted a Small Mine Application to the B.C. Ministry of Mines to extract up to 75,000 tonnes per annum of phosphate rock from its Wapiti project in British Columbia, Canada.
Managing Director Les Szonyi said: "During our recent Wapiti bulk sample collection we carried out blasting trials and confirmed the proposed mining method and this, along with strong interest in Wapiti rock phosphate from farmers, has prompted us to submit a small mine application with the BC Ministry of Mines.
"We have collected approximately 1,200 tonnes of sample rock to date for processing over the winter months by Eggers Soil Solutions in Alberta. Under BC Ministry of Mines rules, the earliest we could expect approval for a small mine at Wapiti is mid-2015. In the meantime, we can proceed with bulk sample collection of a total of 27,500 tonnes of rock phosphate consisting of 17,500 tonnes at Wapiti and 10,000 tonnes at Fernie.
"Included in the application is a submission to build a 3.4-kilometre access road to the south of the property. The road will connect to existing Forestry roads and utilise existing bridges over creeks. It will allow 40 tonne trucks to take product directly from site to the processing plant, improving mining efficiency and allowing us to increase product delivery rates. "
On 8 August, Fertoz announced a maiden Inferred Resource estimate for Wapiti of 1.54 Mt @ 21.6% P2O5 (at a 7% cut-off), calculated to a depth of 30m along a strike length of 12.5km. The Inferred Resource is contained within an Exploration Target of between 2.9 Mt and 3.3 Mt at 20.8% to 22.2% P2O5 which has been estimated to a depth of 30m along a 27km strike length. The Exploration Target is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration (drilling) outside the area used to support the Mineral Resource to define a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the definition of a Mineral Resource. Further to the August announcement, the Company began collecting a bulk sample and trialled various mining methods. At the same time, crushing and grinding trials were completed and sales of rock phosphate commenced in October.
The Company's Wapiti project is ideally located close to the major farming regions of eastern British Columbia and Western Alberta. Farms in these areas are a mixture of broad-acre and intensive agricultural operations, with farmers fertilizing their ground through either broad-acre spreading or directly into seed rows. The area has numerous third-party distribution points - often a series of silos with various fertilizer components. Farmers travel up to 200km to collect their bulk fertilizer from these silos. Fertoz is aiming to have Wapiti rock phosphate as a feedstock for these third-party distributors so that farmers across British Columbia and Alberta can access Wapiti rock phosphate directly or via third-party agents and distributors who use Wapiti rock phosphate in their own fertilizer mixes.
Natures Way Farms was recently appointed as the first agent to on-sell Fertoz rock phosphate as well as investigate mixing Wapiti rock phosphate with other products that provide additional soil nutritional balance. Fertoz expects to appoint a number of marketing agents located in both Canada and the USA. The role of the marketing and distribution agents is to generate demand for Fertoz rock phosphate and to develop high value products.
The new access road, shown as a brown line in Figure 2, will enable faster production at Wapiti. Recent meetings with potential distributors of the product have further highlighted the potential for the Wapiti product. The Company is working on updated mining and processing plans, including investigating options for micronizing and bagging various products that could be produced from the Wapiti resource. Assuming approval of the small mine application, Fertoz expects to mine up to 75,000tpa of Wapiti rock phosphate for sale to organic and non-organic farmers in local farming areas.
About Wapiti
The Wapiti Project (which includes the Wapiti East and Wapiti West tenements) totals an area of 19,180 ha and is located near Tumbler Ridge, in British Columbia, Canada. The project is easily accessible by sealed roads and forest service roads and has rail access within 80km. The Company is focused on the Wapiti East tenements and previous work indicates a consistent and continuous at-surface phosphate-bearing horizon which has a potential strike length of up to 39km. Results of phosphate testing has indicated up to 10% availability which makes the product at Wapiti East particularly attractive to the North American organic farming sector, the largest organic market in the world.
To view figures and diagrams, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-FTZ-828392.pdf
About Fertoz Ltd
Fertoz (ASX:FTZ) is an Australian-based phosphate exploration and development company with a range of projects in British Columbia, Canada as well as Queensland and the Northern Territory. The Company is focused on becoming a fertiliser producer as quickly as possible, initially focusing on the Canadian/USA markets.
Fertoz plans to develop its exploration assets in Canada in order to identify any potential Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) projects. It intends to seek joint venture partners to assist in funding the exploration projects in Australia.
Phosphate is a commodity necessary for feeding the world, and Fertoz is ready to capitalise on this growing demand.
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