Properties
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Properties: Potash - Paradox Basin, Utah
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Permit Applications
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Lisbon Valley, Utah (Paradox Basin) - Potash
In July 2008, Ringbolt’s 90% owned subsidiary, BUA USA LLC, applied for and received 9 State of Utah mineral leases totalling 6,277 acres on lands located in Lisbon Valley of the Paradox Basin in the State of Utah.
An additional 51,966 acres of highly prospective potash properties are presently under application to acquire prospecting permits on Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Utah lands located in the Lisbon Valley. These properties are easily accessible via paved highway and have road access which would facilitate convenient transportation to the large potential domestic consumer base.
The Paradox Basin, in which the Lisbon Valley is situated, is reported to potentially host vast amount of potash according to the United States Geological Service. The nature of the potash mineralization in the Lisbon Valley is sylvanite, a mixture of halite and sylvite with minor carnallite and no other potash minerals identified (source: "The Geology of the Lisbon Valley Potash Deposits, San Juan County, Utah," by Robert J. Hite, United States Department of the Interior-Geological Survey, Open-File Report 78-148, 1978). The potash beds are contained within the Paradox evaporate basin, which has as much as 6,000 feet of salt (halite) contained in 29 separate cycles of salt/clastic material.
Ringbolt’s geological team has identified two potash bearing beds in the Lisbon Valley from available data including:
- Upper Bed #5 which has an average thickness of 6.5 feet and average grade of 16.5% K20;
- Lower Bed #9 which has an average thickness of 8.6 feet and an average grade of 22.0% K20.
These potash beds occur at depths ranging from approximately 4,000 feet to 6,000 feet. It is expected that solution mining will be used to extract this ore, due to the depths of these potential occurrences. This mining methodology would be similar to which that is employed at Intrepid Potash Inc.’s (NYSE-IPI) Cane Creek Mine, which is located less than 20 miles from Ringbolt’s Lisbon Valley properties.
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Intrepid Potash’s Cane Creek Mine, Moab, Utah
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The Cane Creek Mine, which covers an area of approximately 7,000 acres and a further 3,600 acres (source: IPI Prospectus Report, April 2008) with the potential to be developed, opened in 1965. It has a minimum life of 124 years with current annual nameplate capacity in potash product of 180,000 tons (source: Agapito Associates, in accordance with SEC requirements, cited in Intrepid’s Investors Presentation December 2008).
The mining process at the Cane Creek Mine is assisted by the utilization of solar power to separate the minerals from the solution once it has been extracted. With 300 days of sunlight per year, the use of solar power in this area offers economic and environmental benefits, which would be exploited in full by Ringbolt Ventures in the development of its Lisbon Valley properties. As a point of reference, the use of solar power is equivalent to burning up to 400,000 tons of coal for every 100,000 tons of potash produced, resulting in significant cost savings and environmental benefits.
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Cane Creek Mine’s Solar Evaporation Ponds
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