Victoria — The British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines has approved a permit to allow Fertoz Ltd., an Australian company, to extract a surface bulk sample from Wapiti East of up to 7,500 metric tons of phosphate rock during the Canadian winter. Fertoz will access the Wapiti East site across Red Deer Creek via an ice bridge. It has extended its holding at Wapiti East by 1,252 acres, so parts of the access road, the camp, and phosphate storage area are all on company tenements. The bulk sample is scheduled for collection in March, but exact timing will be dependent on weather. A permit for a further bulk sample in the warmer months also is underway. “The Wapiti East project is proceeding to schedule. The next steps after the collection of the bulk sample are to commence farm trials and to continue with laboratory testing in relation to organic certification of the Wapiti rock phosphate,” Managing Director Les Szonyi said. The British Columbia approval comes on the heels of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approving the transfer of operating rights for the Dry Ridge Phosphate Project in southeastern Idaho from Solvoy USA Inc. to Fertoz USA LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fertoz Ltd. (GM Feb. 24, p. 14). Fertoz has five projects in Canada – Wapiti (East and West), Barnes Lake, Crow’s Nest and Marten – all in British Columbia, in addition to its operations in Australia. It recently secured the Marten Project, an underground exploration phosphate mine in B.C. The company is targeting small, high grade resources in North America that can be commercialized relatively quickly and inexpensively with high grade product sold to organic farmers or third-party fertilizer plants.
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