TORONTO, June 1, 2017 /CNW/ - Potash Ridge Corporation (the "Company") (TSX: PRK), a North American premium fertilizer development company, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Valleyfield Fertilizer Corp. ("Valleyfield") has engaged Novopro Projects Inc. ("Novopro") to act as its lead Owner's Engineer to advance the potassium sulphate ("SOP") project through final engineering and construction completion.

Novopro will represent Valleyfield's interests in advancing the project through to full production, including activities being performed under the Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract awarded to SNC-Lavalin. Once complete, the Quebec-based SOP facility will be the first in North America to utilize the proven Mannheim Process.

"Novopro is very pleased to participate in this implementation phase SOP project, and given our past project experience, Novopro believes that we can add value to this phase by assisting Valleyfield with technical, commercial and project management based oversight," said Mazi Rejaee, Managing Director of Novopro.

"Quebec-based Novopro has a proven track record in our particular segment of the fertilizer industry and a depth of skill sets that will serve to protect our interests as we proceed through the technical and construction phase of the project," said Jay Hussey, Valleyfield's President.

This latest positive development follows several other recently announced  commercial successes for Valleyfield including:

• Signed a 10-year hydrochloric acid offtake and funding agreement with Jones-Hamilton Co.;
  
  
• Signed a five-year agreement with a major North American supplier for 100% of Valleyfield's sulphuric acid requirements; and
  
  
• Engaged leading SOP producer; Migao Corp., to provide technical, construction, commissioning, operations, and maintenance support services.

The Company continues to focus on advancing the following activities:

• On-going negotiations with several industry leaders for distribution rights for the sale of SOP fertilizer;
   
  
• Source supply of the primary raw material – potassium chloride (potash); and
   
  
•  Formalizing debt financing package to fund Valleyfield through to operation.

The Company has made considerable progress on these activities and expects to provide additional information over the coming weeks.

Valleyfield's production of SOP will serve the growing market demand for low-chloride fertilizers for a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and other chloride intolerant crops that are grown across the east coast of North America.

About Novopro
Novopro is a Canadian-based project development and implementation company servicing the mineral and metallurgical industries. Within the metallurgical sector, Novopro has acquired valuable know-how in MOP and SOP processing, and has considerable experience handling molten salts and HCL circuits. The Company has developed several large-scale engineering projects, both in international and domestic markets.

About Potash Ridge
Potash Ridge's strategy is to become a premier producer of sulphate of potash or SOP in North America. The Corporation owns two SOP projects: the Valleyfield project that plans to produce SOP through the Mannheim Process; and the Blawn Mountain project in Utah that plans to produce SOP by processing an alunite material. Potash Ridge has a highly qualified and proven management team in place with significant financial, project management and operational experience and the ability to take projects into production.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, which reflect the Corporation's expectations regarding future growth, results of operations, performance and business prospects. These forward-looking statements include statements related to advancing the Valleyfield Project and may also include statements that are predictive in nature, or that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and can generally be identified by words such as "may", "will", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "plans", "believes", "estimates", "guidance" or similar expressions. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent the Corporation's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Corporation, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: the state of the equity capital markets; the receipt of any required approvals for the private placement; the future financial or operating performance of the Corporation and its subsidiaries and its mineral projects; the anticipated results of exploration activities; the estimation of mineral resources; the realization of mineral resource estimates; capital, development, operating and exploration expenditures; costs and timing of the development of the Corporation's mineral projects; timing of future exploration; requirements for additional capital; climate conditions; government regulation of mining operations; anticipated results of economic and technical studies; environmental matters; receipt of the necessary permits, approvals and licenses in connection with exploration and development activities; appropriation of the necessary water rights and water sources; changes in commodity prices; recruiting and retaining key employees; construction delays; litigation; competition in the mining industry; reclamation expenses; reliability of historical exploration work; reliance on historical information acquired by the Corporation; optimization of technology to be employed by the Corporation; title disputes or claims and other similar matters.

If any of the assumptions or estimates made by management prove to be incorrect, actual results and developments are likely to differ, and may differ materially, from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. Such assumptions include, but are not limited to, the following: that general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties remain favorable; that agriculture fertilizers are expected to be a major driver in increasing yields to address demand for premium produce, such as fruits and vegetables, as well as diversified protein rich diets necessitating grains and other animal feed; that actual results of exploration activities justify further studies and development of the Corporation's mineral projects; that the future prices of minerals remain at levels that justify the exploration and future development and operation of the Corporation's mineral projects; that there is no failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; that accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry do not occur; that there are no unanticipated delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of future studies, development or construction activities; that the actual costs of exploration and studies remain within budgeted amounts; that regulatory and legal requirements required for exploration or development activities do not change in any adverse manner; that input cost assumptions do not change in any adverse manner, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Corporation's Annual Information Form (AIF) for the year-ended December 31, 2015 found on sedar.com. The Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE Potash Ridge Corporation