VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Western Resources Corp. ("the Company") is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary Western Potash Corp. ("Western") has successfully developed a groundwater supply source for the Company's proposed Milestone Phase I Potash Project ("Phase I Project") located 35 km southeast of Regina, Saskatchewan. Water pump test results show that the groundwater source can fully support the water requirements for the Phase I Project.
The Milestone Phase I Project requires approximately 40 cubic meters of water per hour (m3/hour) as determined by Western's mining engineering consultant AGAPITO Associates Ltd. Western utilized existing geophysical data from the project exploration phase and established a well location 8km southeast of the plant site as the optimal place for the groundwater source. The selection of a groundwater source was based on a detailed examination of all possible water source options, with full consideration of minimizing the impact on the community and environment.
The target aquifers are the Viking Formation and Mannville Formation, located at depths of approximately 680 and 745 meters below surface, respectively. 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.Will therefore not interfere with local water supplies.
Drilling work began in early June, and water well was completed on July 18th with all site facilities decommissioned and removed. According to the Water Supply Well Report completed by the Regina-based 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.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f1e14a65-7fdd-41a3-b868-cfcc09a9939c
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.
Mr. Bill Xue, President and CEO 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 groundwater 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."