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Prophecy Secures Water Supply for Gibellini Vanadium Project
Aug. 21, 2018 06:40AM PST
Battery MetalsThe company has signed a 10-year water lease agreement with the owner of a private ranch, located approximately 14.5 km from the project.
Prophecy Development (TSX:PCY,OTCQX:PRPCF,FWB:1P2N) has announced that it has secured water supply for the Gibellini vanadium project’s construction and operation. The company has signed a 10-year water lease agreement with the owner of a private ranch, located approximately 14.5 km from the project.
The agreement can be extended for any number of additional 7-year terms, not to exceed (with the primary term) a total of 99 years.
As quoted from the press release:
Per the terms of the agreement, the lessor has granted to Prophecy the rights to 805 acre-feet (approximately 262.4 million gallons) of water per year for the project, at a minimum flow rate of 500 gallons per minute from its year-round springs surface water stream.minimum flow rate of 500 gallons per minute from its year-round springs surface water stream.
The water flow rate was measured at the ranch springs in 1965, in 1981, from December 2011 to September 2013, and most recently, in 2017. The water flow rate ranges from 1,000 to 3,900 gpm with an average flow rate of 2,690 gpm, which exceeds the Project’s maximum water operational requirement of 420 gpm based on the process engineering design prepared by Scotia International of Nevada, Inc. as a part of engineering, procurement, construction and management work done in 2014.
The Gibellini project has completed water-related baseline studies including the drilling of water-test wells, water source data collection, characterization, flow rate testing and modeling. Due to the fact that the Agreement provides a source of water from surface springs located on a private ranch and baseline studies related to it have been completed, Prophecy expects to significantly expedite the permitting process by eliminating the need to appropriate water rights from the Nevada Division of Water Resources.
“The Gibellini project is the only primary vanadium project in the United States with secured, long term water supply for its construction and operation. The water at the ranch has been approved for irrigation use by the DWR, which will require a change to the use by the project’s mine and processing facilities. We expect to file a water usage change application with the DWR by the end of 2018,” said Michael Drozd, Prophecy’s VP operations.