Toronto — Stonegate Agricom Ltd. has revised its mineral resource estimates significantly upward for the upper and lower zones at its Paris Hills Phosphate Project in Southeast Idaho, between the tiny communities of Bloomington and Paris. The upper zone’s resources are now estimated at 60.3 million mt, with an average grade of 22.7 percent phosphorus pentoxide (P205). After six more holes were drilled, the company raised its estimate in the lower zone by 33.6 percent, to 29.8 million mt from 22.3 million mt, with the P205 average remaining at 30.1 percent. Thirty-nine exploration holes were drilled there. President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Appleton said the latest estimates marked another milestone in the company’s development of its high-grade Idaho phosphate deposit. Definition drilling the past two years has been completed, but future exploration drilling is also possible, he said. Stonegate will now focus on completing the lower zone’s banking feasibility study by the end of 2012, and on environmental permitting for a planned underground mine. The lower zone’s high grade phosphate could be shipped directly without incurring capital or operating costs that come with processing it. The rock would position Stonegate as a supplier to North American fertilizer producers and West Coast ports for export to Asian fertilizer producers. All mineral resource estimates were completed by Agapito Associates Inc. of Grand Junction, Colo., which estimated the mine would produce 10 million mt of direct ship phosphate ore and have a life of 14 years. Slightly more than $134 million would be needed to develop the mine. Cash operating cost would be about $73/mt, with product cost assumed at $160/mt. It is anticipated the mining project will create 200 construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs.
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