News: Fertoz looks to initial mining of 75,000t rock phosphate in British Columbia

Fertoz Limited (ASX:FTZ) has submitted a Small Mine Application to the B.C. Ministry of Mines to extract up to 75,000 tonnes per annum of phosphate rock from its Wapiti project in British Columbia, Canada.

Ultimately, the rock phosphate from Wapiti will be marketed and sold to organic and non-organic farmers in local areas.

The recent Wapiti bulk sample collection carried out blasting trials and confirmed the proposed mining method.

This, along with strong interest in Wapiti rock phosphate from farmers, prompted the submission of a small mine application with the BC Ministry of Mines.

Fertoz collected 1,200 tonnes of sample rock to date for processing over the winter months by Eggers Soil Solutions in Alberta.

Fertoz expects approval for a small mine at Wapiti by the end of next year. In the meantime it can proceed with bulk sample collection of a total of 27,500 tonnes of rock phosphate consisting of 17,500 tonnes at Wapiti and 10,000 tonnes at Fernie.

Included in the application is a submission to build a 3.4 kilometre access road to the south of the property.

It is planned that 40 tonne trucks would take product directly from site to the processing plant, connecting to existing forestry roads and using existing bridges over creeks.

In August, Fertoz announced a maiden Inferred Resource estimate Wapiti of 1.54 Mt at 21.6% phosphate at a 7% cut-off), calculated to a depth of 30 metres along a strike length of 12.5 kilometres.

Sales of rock phosphate commenced in October.

Wapiti is ideally located close to the major farming regions of eastern British Columbia and Western Alberta.

Farms in these areas are a mixture of broad-acre and intensive agricultural operations, with numerous third-party distribution points.

Fertoz is aiming to have Wapiti rock phosphate as a feedstock for these third-party distributors so that farmers across British Columbia and Alberta can access Wapiti rock phosphate directly or via third-party agents.

Natures Way Farms was recently appointed as the first agent to on-sell Fertoz rock phosphate as well as investigate mixing Wapiti rock phosphate with other products that provide additional soil nutritional balance.

Fertoz expects to appoint a number of marketing agents located in both Canada and the USA to generate demand for Fertoz rock phosphate and to develop high value products.