Passport Metals Hopes To Add To Potash Mining Area

By Linda Kor
   Passport Metals Inc., a Vancouver, British Columbia, based company, is continuing with its endeavor to mine for potash in the region located approximately 20 miles southeast of Holbrook in the area known as the Holbrook Basin.
   In a news release dated Oct. 14, Passport officials reported that the company has signed a four-year lease with an option to purchase the Twin Butte Ranch located within the basin from owner Mike Fitzgerald. Passport officials said they would be making lease payments totaling $500,000 over the next four years and if they exercise their option to purchase, would pay $20 million for the entire Twin Butte Ranch, including all sub-surface mineral rights excepting those pertaining to oil and gas, petrified wood and geothermal resources.
   According to Fitzgerald, an agreement has been signed to move forward with the lease with option to buy agreement, pending clarification of the ownership of the mineral rights, but as of this time, the agreement has not been finalized. If acquired, the Twin Butte lease would bring Passport’s total land holdings within the Holbrook Basin to almost 33,000 acres.
   Once an agreement is finalized, Passport can begin its exploration into potential potash deposits, which were confirmed by Arkla Exploration Company in the 1960s while the company was drilling for oil. This would be the first commercial production of potash in Arizona.
   It was emphasized by Passport that there are no current mineral reserves or mineral resources on Passport’s Holbrook Basin project holdings. The potential quantity and grade indicated is conceptual in nature since there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the discovery of these mineral resources.
   According to the information provided by Passport, the potash horizon underlying the Twin Butte Ranch property appears to thicken from 10 feet to in excess of 20 feet from northwest to southeast across the ranch property.
   Based on a target estimate of the entire Holbrook Basin, the land now under option or lease to Passport could host 8.61 percent of the total geological target of the 58.7 million tonnes of potash.
   Passport has plans to immediately apply to the Arizona Oil and Gas Commission for permits to commence drilling on the Twin Butte Ranch property. Since Passport will be exploring on private land, the permitting process is considerably expedited in comparison to state or federal lands. All sites will be reclaimed to the standard required by the Arizona Land Commission for state exploration permits.
   Due to the relatively shallow depths to the top of the potash layers of 984 to 1,476 feet, the potash deposits of the Holbrook Basin are considered favorable for either conventional underground mining or solution mining, which involves surface drilling of bore holes and pumping a leaching solution into the deposit where it makes contact with the ore. The solution bearing the dissolved ore content is then pumped to the surface and processed.
   Passport is funding the project that is being conducted by Boart Longyear Drilling Services, a global drilling company with an employee base of 7,000. Boart Longyear began mobilization of its drilling equipment to the Holbrook Basin Potash property on June 22.
   The mining operation has the potential to bring 1,000 jobs to the area during the construction phase, and 250 to 350 workers for the actual mining of the potash for an indefinite period of time.