News
Western Potash develops ground water well for Milestone project

Vancouver – Western Potash Corp., a subsidiary of Western Resources Corp., has developed a ground water supply source for the company’s proposed Milestone Phase I Potash Project located 35 kilometres southeast of Regina.

Water pump test results indicate the ground water source can support the water requirements for the Phase I Project, Western Resources said in a news release.

The Milestone Phase I Project requires approximately 40 cubic metres of water per hour as determined by Western’s mining engineering consultant AGAPITO Associates Ltd. Western used existing geophysical data from the project exploration phase and established a well location eight kilometres southeast of the plant site as the optimal place for the ground water source. The selection of a source was based on a detailed examination of all possible options, with full consideration of minimizing the impact on the community and environment, the company said.

The target aquifers are the Viking Formation and Mannville Formation, located at depths of approximately 680 and 745 metres below surface, respectively. According to the company, the target aquifers contain non-potable water, not suitable for agriculture and are isolated and far below local domestic or agriculture use aquifers and will therefore not interfere with local water supplies.

Drilling work began in early June, and water well was completed on July 18 with all site facilities decommissioned and removed. According to the Water Supply Well Report completed by WaterMark Consulting Ltd., the established water source is able to fully support the required water usage of the Phase I Project over the life of the project.

The next steps will be to submit to the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency Western’s water usage application, and to start the engineering and design for the water pumping and pipeline facilities from the well to the Phase I project site.

Bill Xue, president and chief executive officer of Western Resources, commented, “the Management and Board of Directors are very excited with the positive results from the water well program. The success of the ground water source further clears the hurdle for the Phase I project to move forward to the next step. We will now focus on the next steps of the Phase I project including early site work in preparation for project construction to start in early 2019.”