International financier Robert Friedland has agreed to become chairman of the board of Potash One. He will advise the company on its selection of strategic financing partners to develop Potash One’s potash fertilizer resources in Saskatchewan. In conjunction with Friedland’s appointment, his Singapore-based venture capital company, Ivanhoe Capital Pte. Ltd., will work under a non-exclusive contract to introduce Asia-based investors to Potash One. Potash One’s portfolio of exploration permits covers a total of 515,000 acres in Saskatchewan’s potash-rich basin northwest of Regina, which presently supplies approximately one-third of the global demand for this essential food-growing nutrient. Potash One’s initial focus is on the completion of a definitive feasibility study prior to arranging financing to construct a world-scale potash mine utilizing in-situ solution mining technology for the recovery of potash on the company’s Legacy Project.
Potash One says Friedland has been developing business links in Greater China and the Asia Pacific region for the past 25 years. He is chairman of Ivanhoe Capital Corp., his family’s private company, which specializes in venture capital and project financing from bases in Singapore and Beijing. With his leadership, Ivanhoe executives and affiliated benefiting companies have raised several billion dollars on international capital markets since 1993 to support a variety of natural resources, energy, and technology companies.
Friedland is founder and Executive Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, a Canadian public company whose shares trade on the New York, NASDAQ, and TSX exchanges, and co-founder, executive chairman, president, and CEO of Ivanhoe Energy, an established oil and gas producer that is developing heavy-oil projects in Canada and Ecuador. Ivanhoe Energy is listed on NASDAQ and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Friedland is also co-chairman of Sunwing Energy, which is Ivanhoe Energy’s operating subsidiary in China and Southeast Asia.
Potash One also announced that Glen MacDonald has resigned as director, effective May 12. He has been on the board since 2003. David Berg, former board chairman, will continue as a director.
On May 14 Potash One announced that it has significantly increased the potash resource estimate on the company’s Legacy Project, a planned solution mine in Saskatchewan, Canada, based on an updated technical report prepared pursuant to NI 43-101. The report expands and upgrades the estimated resources on the 97,240-acre project to the following new levels: 29 million mt of measured potash resource; 222 million mt of indicated potash resource; and 852 million mt of inferred potash resource.
“The updated measured and indicated resource estimate provides a sufficient potash resource foundation for a pre-feasibility study based on a projected production rate of 2.5 million mt per year,” said Paul Matysek, Potash One president and CEO. “Subject to financing and a successful feasibility study, the Legacy Project could enter the potash marketplace as early as late 2013 and be the world’s first greenfield potash mine since 1987.”