Wellgreen Platinum Ltd. (Wellgreen) announces an agreement with Ferus Natural Gas Fuels Inc. (Ferus NGF) that advances the natural gas market in Canada’s Yukon Territory. This new partnership supports the delivery of clean liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power Wellgreen’s PGM-Nickel-Copper mining project. The site is located in the southwest region of the Yukon, and could be the first mining project in Canada powered by LNG.
Ferus NGF’s LNG facility in Elmworth, AB supplies clean alternative fuel for Western Canada’s high horsepower and clean power sectors – including mining, rail, drilling, pressure pumping, trucking, marine and remote power generation. This agreement with Wellgreen would enable communities in the Yukon to benefit from this low-cost, low-emission LNG in place of diesel generators, strengthening the region’s economic and environmental vitality.
In signing this MOU, both companies have agreed to work with other Yukon businesses, communities and First Nations to explore additional clean fuel opportunities, and will assess the need for an LNG plant in proximity to Wellgreen’s mine, which would reduce transport cost and make LNG even more readily available to other mining and power projects in the region.
“Ferus NGF is committed to building the required LNG infrastructure across Canada and the United States to supply this proven alternative fuel for remote power generation and to high horsepower markets,” says Dick Brown, CEO of Ferus NGF. “This innovative project with Wellgreen Platinum exemplifies how one company’s strategic vision to adopt LNG can result in economic and environmental benefits to an entire region including First Nations and other nearby communities. We are proud to be a part of that solution with Wellgreen Platinum.”
Wellgreen Platinum’s President & CEO, Greg Johnson, states, “This clean energy project is a natural fit for Wellgreen and gives us a second source of cost-effective and clean energy that can meet the energy needs and timelines of the project. Our platinum group metals are used in catalytic converters to significantly reduce harmful vehicle emissions, and we are searching for ways to use clean energy to produce those metals. In addition to the environmental and economic benefits of LNG for our project, we see the potential for LNG to benefit our neighbouring Yukon communities, many of whom currently rely on diesel for power generation. We are pleased to be in discussions with Ferus NGF for their Western Canadian based supplies of LNG.”
Wellgreen Platinum has also entered into an MOU with General Electric Canada (GE), a global leader in power and automation technology, to deliver a complete power generation and transmission network for the project. The company recently released a Mineral Resource update (July 24, 2014) which, together with the updated metallurgical testing results anticipated to follow this month, will be incorporated into the Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Wellgreen project targeted for completion in September 2014.
