WHY Resources: Amended application submitted for approval of the Record Ridge Magnesium/Silica Project

WHY Resources (WKN A1J5LQ / TSXV WHY) expects to bring its Record Ridge magnesium/silica project on stream in the near future. To this end, the company has now submitted an amended permit application which it anticipates will address all regulatory hurdles. The Government Regulator will be issuing terms of reference and timeline for the completion of the permit process in Q4 of 2024.

For years, the company had advanced Record Ridge as an industrial minerals project, with the knowledge of the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office (EAO), of course, – only to learn recently that the unique project would be assessed as a classic mining project after all. With a previously planned production volume of 200,000 tons per year, this would have required a lengthy and expensive environmental impact assessment.

However, West High Yield has revised its application to reduce the proposed tonnage output to fall under the threshold set by the EAO.

Productive meeting with the Mining authorities

WHY Resources announced on September 19, 2024, that it had a productive “forward-looking” meeting with the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation (EMLI) of British Columbia. The company outlined its amended permit application for the extraction and mining of “critical minerals” at its Record Ridge Industrial Mineral Mine (RRIMM project), which included the reduction of the planned annual production below the threshold set by the EAO.

According to WHY Resources, the company’s consultants submitted the amended application to EMLI on September 17. Detailed responses to all previous comments from the British Columbia Mine Development Review Committee (MDRC) have also already been submitted and accepted.

In detail, it was announced at the EMLI meeting that the annual tonnage of the RRIMM project was set at 63,500 tons per year in order to remain 15% below the 75,000 tonnes threshold of the EAO. Further, smaller adjustments were made to the mining plan for RRIMM. These were presented by the Company to the participants at the MDRC meeting.

The amended application is now awaiting review by the MDRC who in turn will give its feedback and announce the next steps in the approval process.

Conclusion: It is undoubtedly more than annoying that the permit application for the Record Ridge project had to be changed again shortly before the finish line and the planned annual production had to be reduced. Nevertheless, there is the potential for a good investment return to be made from this extremely high-grade magnesium/silica project, even at the reduced scale of operation. In any case, the way forward is clear and the next steps have been initiated. We are keeping our fingers crossed!