Gensource Potash Corporation is in the final stage of financing one of its vertically integrated, small-scale potash production facilities (referred to as “modules”), in its 100% owned “Vanguard Area” comprising Government of Saskatchewan potash mineral leases KL 244 and KL 245.
Gensource had created the joint venture project company: KClean Potash Corporation (“KClean”). KClean is a Saskatchewan corporation and will be the entity that is ultimately financed and will construct and own the Tugaske Project. As of 31 March 2024, the shareholder agreement for KClean has been negotiated between Gensource and HELM and will be executed upon HELM’s equity investment into KClean.
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Summary:
In Saskatchewan, the target beds for potash are the potash-bearing members of the Prairie Evaporite sequence contained within the Elk Point Group; a Devonian Aged sedimentary sequence in Western Canada, Montana and North Dakota. There is a total of three (3) significant potash-bearing members that make up the Prairie Evaporite Formation (in descending order): the Patience Lake member (PLM), the Belle Plaine member (BPM) and the Esterhazy member (EZM), which are situated at the top of a halite-dominated sequence, overlying the dolomitic Winnipegosis Formation. The halite-dominated evaporite sequence is itself overlain by the Dawson Bay Formation, another dolomitic-dominated formation, with the Second Red Beds, red dolomitic shales, as the boundary between itself and the underlying evaporites. The potash-bearing members are relatively flat lying, with a very slight regional southward dip. “Mounds” may occur in the Winnipegosis, corresponding to ancient reefs in the carbonates, and are sometimes associated with thinning or “leaching” anomalies in the overlying potash members.
The potash mineralisation within the Prairie Evaporite Formation is relatively uncomplicated. The dominating constituents are halite (NaCl), sylvite (KCl) and carnallite (KMgCl3.6(H2O)); sylvite being the main ore mineral. Efforts to mine carnallite have not proven to be economical in the past. Even in the main sylvite-rich rock, sylvinite, halite remains the largest constituent.
Clay horizons are frequent within the Prairie Evaporite Formation, and especially within the main potash members. Interstitial clay is also found.
The most common insoluble are clay minerals (about one third) and in decreasing order of abundance: anhydrite, dolomite, hematite, quartz, K-feldspar and hydrocarbon. The clay mineral suite is dominated by Fe-Mg chlorite, illite and Mg-septechlorite (Mossman et al., 1982).
The salt (i.e., non-clay seam) is generally confined to halite, sylvite and minor anhydrite, as well as carnallite (mostly in the Esterhazy member). The anhydrite content in the salt ranges from absent to 2.7 % (Patience Lake) and 3% (Belle Plaine).
Anhydrite is present in much higher concentration in the Patience Lake than in the other potash members.
The average anhydrite content varies across the 3 members – it is lowest in the Esterhazy member (0.69 weight %), and it is the highest in the Patience Lake member (1.23 weight %).
The deposit in the Vanguard Area is largely flat lying, with very slight undulations, as is the case with most potash deposits of the Prairie Evaporite Formation. There are a small number of Winnipegosis mounds present below the Prairie Evaporite. While these have the potential to affect mineralisation locally, one needs to look to area specific geological and geophysical information, to provide evidence to support not excluding them from the Mineral Resource calculations. Such was the case in the Vanguard Area.
The Patience Lake sub-Member 1 (PLM 1) is the initial mining target for the Project, and thus is the basis of the Mineral Reserves.