Chairman's Address to Shareholders
Brisbane, Sep 19, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Fertoz Ltd (
ASX:FTZ) ("Fertoz" or the "Company") is holding an Extraordinary General Meeting ("EGM"), primarily for the purposes of approving the issue of shares, pursuant to a recent successful fund raising effort. However, the EGM also provides an opportunity for us to provide an update on several corporate development and administrative matters.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Transformational year from exploring and development to production and sales
- $4.35 million raised, pending today's approval of shares
- Mine development work commenced at Wapiti Phosphate Project with road construction complete
- Sales and marketing strategy centred on a scientific approach using agronomist-based recommendations to sustainable agricultural rotations, now well underway.
- Evaluating relationships and partnerships with distributors that have established facilities and synergistic products
We would like to take this opportunity to provide an update on some key highlights:
Fundraising - we completed a highly successful fund raising effort in late July. We raised $4.35 million which will be used to drive the mining and marketing effort, as we secure distributors and third party fertiliser groups as well as individual farmers wanting our direct application rock phosphate.
Team - I am especially impressed and proud of the Fertoz Board and team. Nearly everyone has 20-30 years of solid resource experience. We all pitch in, in all phases of work, utilizing the many talents available. I think this allows us to run "lean" and as we move to a more sales and marketing focus, improve our execution in the future.
Resource and Mining - we obtained all approvals, Regulatory and First Nations, to enter mine and obtain bulk samples of up to 17,500 tonnes at Wapiti. We have begun infrastructure work by building the access road to site and establishing the mining base. We plan to begin mining extracting product shortly which will be relatively easy and cost effective to extract due to the material being accessible at surface with the seam running in a fairly straight line. As we will discuss below, we are actively working to secure sales. As such, we have decided to move the material to lower elevations in western Alberta where we will use this as a base for crushing, sizing and screening of material.
Fernie - We are awaiting permits to continue exploration and development work at Fernie. We really like the logistics of the 2-3 possible mine locations which have reasonably decent access and can be readily moved to the Prairie Provinces.
Other Projects - We continue to look at other rock phosphate deposits that meet our selection criteria, principally - high quality phosphate, shallow resources, available infrastructure and importantly, close to known organic markets and with relatively quick pathway to permitting. Several western US states where there are known phosphate occurrences could meet these criteria and supply the local Pacific Northwest and California markets. On development, recent evaluations have led us to consider that the Dry Ridge Idaho project does not meet our selection criteria in that the ore is not ideal for organic farming and permitting has proven to be more difficult than expected. We are working with the leaseholder on other partnership approaches.
Sales and Marketing - In early spring we engaged a highly experienced Sales and Marketing team. They studied our rock phosphate product, liked the potential and emphasized that a trust based relationship through the use of agronomists will greatly assist with securing sales. They emphasized the need for agronomic assistance using sustainable practices in row crop "no till" rotations. The team also identified good markets for our phosphate in tree, fruit, specialty and nut crops with all these markets requiring strong advocates and recommendations by users. Our focus has thus moved to securing recommendations from major users and also highlighting the benefits of blending phosphate rock with other products to improve plant uptake of phosphate. To ensure Fertoz builds a significant business for organic rock phosphate in North Western America it is critical to build a market place based on user trust and which fosters repeat seasonal orders. Fertoz remains focused on commencing sales in the 2016/17 year and building this into a meaningful business in the years ahead. A science-backed approach to sales, supported by agronomists and users who understand the product, will build a long term base to ensure that we can exceed sales expectations in the future.
In order to set the Company on the right sales and marketing footing, we have numerous trials underway, with well-respected growers. We have four agronomists, who also run their own farms who are undertaking large scale trails on several crops in two Provinces. This fall, we are testing a wide range of blends and various soil types with products synergistic to rock phosphate such as sulphur and humates which have been demonstrated to improve the available phosphate and uptake in plants. However other mineral and biological soil amendments may also improve combined performance.
Education-Information - It is our observation that a number of companies have entered the organic crop input space. We find many with good products and sales serving niche markets. We believe that our rock phosphate is one of the best direct application rock phosphates available in North America today in terms of total and available phosphate. It is also our observation that overall organic fertilizer information is specialized or area specific. Thus, we think Fertoz can become a real source of organic information, to organic and conventional growers. We can become the source of real time information, agronomic blogs, crop, weather, trends and input information, all of which are relevant to our organic farmers. You will see us doing far more in investor, industry, distributor and grower information in the coming months, in order to raise the awareness of Fertoz among the organic farming communities in North America. This will include an updated website with organic fertiliser and crop news feeds, education pieces on direct application rock phosphate and phosphate blends, an updated media section and more.
I would like to thank our investors. Fertoz has grown from an idea, to an exploration and development company, to now, a real mining and sales business. It has not gone all perfectly to plan, but we have worked hard to define our strategy and are now executing this effectively. We are on the verge of great things and with your continued support, we know we can increase sales, our profile and long-term profitability.
I look forward to updating you at the Annual General meeting, to be held in November 2016.
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.
| ||
|
