Rocky Mountain Resources Corp., Vancouver, B.C., has announced that RMP Resources Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary, has entered into an agreement with Stonegate Agricom Ltd. to sell a 100 percent interest in the Paris Hills phosphate/vanadium property in Southeast Idaho’s Bear Lake County.
As consideration for the acquisition, Stonegate will pay $1 million in cash and issue six million common Stonegate shares valued at 50 cents per common share. The transaction’s closing, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to occur on Nov. 15, said Rocky Mountain President Brian McAlister, who succeeded Thomas DeMull following DeMull’s resignation in August.
Stonegate is a private Canadian company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, and development of agricultural nutrient projects. Stonegate’s primary focus has been the development of the Mantaro phosphate project in Peru. Sprott Resource Corp. is Stonegate’s majority shareholder.
Rocky Mountain Resources is an industrial metal and minerals exploration and development company focused on development and production.
Last January, Rocky Mountain announced its phosphate holdings in the Paris Hills could sustain mining operations for up to 75 years. At that time, DeMull said its phosphate mineral resource estimate exceeded expectations.
“The existence of a near-surface, high-grade zone of phosphate rock is another pleasant surprise. Our immediate priority will be to develop plans to investigate this high-grade zone as a starter operation to produce quick payback and cash flow could fund long-term project development,” said DeMull.
The company said the estimated phosphate rock resource could potentially be mined and directly shipped as feed to a phosphoric acid plant. The high-grade zone contains an estimated 4.6 million tons at 29 percent of phosphorus pentoxide. It appears in both the upper and lower phosphate beds in the property’s southeastern quadrant.
Underground mining was the proposed method of production in the Montpelier mining district of Bear Lake County, about two miles west of the small towns of Paris and Bloomington, and about 45 miles south of the active Soda Springs phosphate mining district in Caribou County.
A bed of vanadium, a mineral used in steel hardening, lies directly beneath the upper phosphate bed and contains 9.7 percent P2O5. It was being evaluated as a potential co-product to be mined in conjunction with phosphate from the upper bed with shared costs. Historical metallurgical testing by Earth Sciences Inc. indicated that both vanadium and an upgraded phosphate product could be produced from the vanadium bed.
Developing the Paris Hills Project into a mining operation would require environmental permits from federal, state, and local governments.
In the 1970s ESI controlled 4,100 acres, extending from Bloomington Creek on the south through Paris and Sleight Canyons on the north.
The property package that Rocky Mountain assembled included about 2,100 contiguous acres lying between Bloomington Canyon on the south and Paris Canyon on the north. The property holding is a complex mixture of private, state, and federal mineral leases and exploration permits.
Mining activity on the property dates back to the 1910s and 1920s, when phosphate was mined by underground methods from both Paris Canyon and Bloomington Canyon. Activity resumed during World War II when Wyodak Coal, working in conjunction with USGS, USBM, and Metal Reserve Co., focused work on the vanadium rich beds.