Russell, Manitoba

Western Potash Corp. was formed when the opportunity to acquire key prospective ground adjacent to known Potash deposits in the province of Manitoba, Canada, presented itself. In July 2007 a private consortium obtained the potash rights on 545 square kilometers, adjacent to BHP Billiton’s Lease and Agrium’s Exploration permits, within 13km of Saskatchewan Potash Corps’ Rocanville potash mine. The Russell-Miniota project lies in the Southwest corner of mining friendly Manitoba along the Saskatchewan border. The property is well-located 55 km from the US border with access to all necessary infrastructures. (The Trans-Canada Highway and railway lines intersect the property).


Strategic Development

Stage I: Acquisition of relevant properties

The initial property acquisition of the Russell-Miniota property, comprised of 134,000 acres, represented the start of Phase I.  An additional 540,000 acres in southwestern Manitoba, as well as, 250,000 acres in Saskatchewan were subsequently acquired. The Company’s goal is to acquire additional properties and continue to evaluate properties and opportunities.

Stage II: Seismic sampling and data compilation

The initially acquired seismic data confirmed the continuation of the salt beds on Western Potash’s exploration permits. Gamma Logs from historical drill holes on Western Potash’s property that coincide with the seismic data, clearly indicate the presence of economical potash grades. The following holes are located on our property and are based on gamma ray logs.

Hole Name Location Salt Back (m) Grade
Gambler 2-14-18-29W 8.53 18% K²0
Fort Ellice 2-14-16-28W 12.5 20% K²0

 

The Company continues the process of acquiring additional seismic data for structural interpretation, as well as, historical gamma logs to map out the existing salt beds and structures in order to design further drill programs. Gamma Ray logs are important for detecting alteration zones and for providing information on rock types. In sedimentary rock potassium is, in general, the principal source of gamma radiation.

Stage III: Drill program continues

Exploration drill programs are carried out to determine the potash mineralization and to confirm grades indicated in gamma logs from historical oil and gas drilling. Please refer to the WPX news releases for the most recent drilling information.

Stage IV: Step out drill program

Exploration continued with a step out drilling program, in order to determine the overall tonnage size and grade distribution of the potash mineralization within the property area. According to the CIM it is possible to characterize these deposits with relatively few drill holes as long as they are supplemented by sufficient seismic coverage, to ensure that the continuity between each drill hole can be established. (1.5 -2 kilometers has been set as a reasonable distance between drill holes to characterize an Indicated resource) However, it is important to note that drilling through the Evaporite sequences at depth can pose unique problems (drills can encounter tremendous forces and because of the nature of salt beds, the inability to use conventional water based fluids), which consequently result in the use of specialized equipment and very high exploration drilling costs per hole. ($600,000.00 – $1,000,000.00 per hole depending on depth of the deposit) During exploratory phases, the geologists may encounter local structural or mineralogical disruptions of the deposit, which may preclude the presence of economically mineable potash.

Western Potash Corp. continued its drill program in the southern portion of permit QP-168 and in permit QP-172 located to the south and contiguous with QP-168, the “Russell South" area, in south-western Manitoba, as part of the expanded Phase I drill program.  These Permits cover over 1,000 square kilometers, are adjacent to BHP Billiton’s Potash Lease and Agrium’s Exploration Permits along the Manitoba border. All drill intercepts noted in this release can be considered the true thickness of the mineralization, as the salt beds are flat lying and the holes were drilled vertically.

Both wells intersected the Esterhazy member, the potash formation being exploited at the Rocanville mine located 30km to the north-east.  These wells targeted potash sequences identified from the Company’s 2008 2D seismic program completed in August, as well as, from extensive historical data acquired by the company in anticipation of the granting of the permit. The best interval reported was from well Russell-Miniota-007, where potash was intersected from 975.2m to 976.4m (1.2m) returning 32.0 wt% K2O.  A summary of the results from the two holes is presented in table 1. A detailed summary of the analytical results from these holes are shown in Table 2.

Table 1: Well Summaries

Well From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Grade (wt%)
RM South-006 1015.6 1018.9 3.3 21.11
RM South-007 973.7 976.7 3.0 26.0

 

These results represent some of the best grade intersections obtained by the Company from the property to date, and compare favourably with historic drilling in the area, which intersected potash mineralized zones with grades up to 19.4% K2O over 2.94m.  The Company is pleased with these results, as the geological setting and mineralization are consistent with characteristics of other potash deposits in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The company is further encouraged as the distance between these holes of 7.5 Km in conjunction with the interpreted seismic data indicate the potential presence of a sizable potash resource.

The company continued with its Phase I drill program within the southern portion of QP-168, and the recently acquired QP-172 potash permits, having recently completed its eighth well and currently moving the drill to the ninth location, testing the western extents of the property. Results from these wells were reported as they are received.

Table 2: Analytical Results

Well ID

From (m)

To (m)

% K2O

% MGO

% H2O INSOL

Russell-Miniota-006

1015.3

1015.6

6.91

0.03            

6.7

Russell-Miniota-006

1015.6

1015.9

20.5

0.03

7

Russell-Miniota-006

1015.9

1016.2

32.8

0.03

4.2

Russell-Miniota-006

1016.2

1016.5

13.2

0.04

5.8

Russell-Miniota-006

1016.5

1016.8

15.3

0.03

3.6

Russell-Miniota-006

1016.8

1017.1

16.5

0.01

0.8

Russell-Miniota-006

1017.1

1017.4

31.8

0.01

0.7

Russell-Miniota-006

1017.4

1017.7

22.7

0.01

0.8

Russell-Miniota-006

1017.7

1018

16.4

0.02

1

Russell-Miniota-006

1018

1018.3

20

0.03

1.6

Russell-Miniota-006

1018.3

1018.6

20.4

0.03

1.9

Russell-Miniota-006

1018.6

1018.9

22.6

0.03

3.1

Russell-Miniota-006

1018.9

1019.2

11.1

0.04

3.2

Russell-Miniota-007

972.2

972.5

5.62

1.69

6

Russell-Miniota-007

972.5

972.8

8.22

1.92

8.2

Russell-Miniota-007

972.8

973.1

12.8

1.96

6

Russell-Miniota-007

973.1

973.4

23.9

1.58

3

Russell-Miniota-007

973.4

973.7

10.1

1.39

5.8

Russell-Miniota-007

973.7

974

14.5

1.4

2.2

Russell-Miniota-007

974

974.3

27

1.75

0.8

Russell-Miniota-007

974.3

974.6

32

1.58

0.8

Russell-Miniota-007

974.6

974.9

23.4

1.83

0.5

Russell-Miniota-007

974.9

975.2

19.1

1.09

1

Russell-Miniota-007

975.2

975.5

34.4

1.26

1.4

Russell-Miniota-007

975.5

975.8

31.7

1.07

1.8

Russell-Miniota-007

975.8

976.1

32

0.72

2

Russell-Miniota-007

976.1

976.4

29.9

1.35

0.9

Russell-Miniota-007

976.4

976.7

16.3

1.17

0.8

Note: Table 2 reports all K2O assays above 5% cut-off. The MgO% is shown as an indicator of Carnallite. The core recovered from these holes was logged, photographed, split, and sampled at the Company’s secure core storage facility on the property.  All samples were handled in accordance with the Company’s Chain of Custody procedures.  The half-split core samples from the wells were analyzed at the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) Laboratory in Saskatoon.  The Laboratory has been certified by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) to conform to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (CAN-P-4E).