Western Potash Corp Releases Updated NI-43-101 Report

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Western Resources Corp. (TSX: WRX) (FSE: WR0) (“Western” or “the Company”) is pleased to announce that Western Potash Corp. (“WPC”), the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, has received an updated NI 43-101 compliant Mineral Resource Estimate for its Milestone Phase I Project (“Phase I Project”) in southern Saskatchewan.

The National Instrument (NI) 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects Technical Report was prepared by Agapito Associates, Inc. (“AAI”) and SNC-Lavalin (“SNCL”) with an effective date September 24, 2019. The report presents the results of the engineering design studies prepared by SNCL and AAI for a pilot-plant scale, selective solution mining operation located in Sections 19, 20, 29 and 30, Township 14, Range 17 West of the Second Meridian within Saskatchewan Subsurface Mineral Lease KLSA 008. The Phase I Project has been advanced through the Feasibility Stage to Engineering Design and then to cavern construction which was completed by October 23 and followed by injection of water at ambient temperature from the crystal pond into the underground caverns for circulation and mineral dissolution (“Cold Mining”).

The technical report summarizes information obtained from exploration drilling conducted between January 2009 and March 2011, and details the results from the latest production drilling in July 2019. During the 2009–2011 exploration program, 11 cored exploration wells were completed on the KP408 and KP409 Subsurface Mineral Permits that were converted to Subsurface Mineral Lease KLSA 008 in 2010. Also in 2009, 474.5 line km of two-dimensional (2D) and 98 square kilometers (km²) of three-dimensional (3D) seismic surveys were run, processed, and interpreted for WPC by Boyd PetroSearch (now part of the RPS Group) of Calgary, Alberta. In 2019, the production well drilling program cored 1 of the 6 wells drilled for the Phase I Project to provide additional geologic information in that part of the Lease. Measured, Indicated, and Inferred Mineral Resources have been classified based on the volume of potash in cylinders centered on the cored and assayed drillholes on the Lease. Based on the economics for the Phase-I Project, Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves have been declared for the production portion of the Phase I Project, which consists of horizontal caverns sited in either the Belle Plaine or Esterhazy Members of the Prairie Evaporite.