Western Potash hoping for strategic partner by yeaWestern Potash hoping for strategic partner by year end By: Matthew Hill27th October 2011Updated 24 minutes agoTORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Western Potash, which has soared 80% on the TSX this month, said late on Wednesday it is not in formal takeover talks, and hopes to announce a strategic partner for its Milestone project in Saskatchewan by the end of the year.Corporate development John Costigan VP said in an interview that there had been speculation that an acquisition might be on the cards for the company, but these were simply rumours and Western Potash aimed to build Milestone.Shares in the potash junior spiked 17% on Tuesday, adding a further 10% on Wednesday.Vancouver-based Fundamental Research analyst Siddharth Rajeev said earlier this week the jump might be a function of Western Potash’s anticipated announcement of a the prefeasibility study results at Milestone, adding there was also speculation the company might get acquired by a major.Costigan told Mining Weekly Online Western Potash had “been talking to the shakers and movers over the past year”, but that the Vancouver-based firm’s intention was to find a strategic partner, not to sell.“Nobody’s made us any [buyout] offers,”He said Western Potash aimed to secure an agreement with a partner “sooner rather than later... hopefully by the end of the year”.According to Costigan, the dramatic rise in the junior’s share price might be attributed to the markets anticipation of the prefeasibility study’s release, as well as the fact that Western Potash had over the past few weeks been marketing itself to funds.“They finally pulled out their cheque books,” he said.The company last year published the results of a scoping study outlining a $2.5-billion capital cost for a 2.5-million-ton-a-year operation at Milestone, which will be a solution mine, meaning the miner will extract potash by pumping water into the orebody to dissolve the minerals, which is then pumped back up to surface.Western Potash slid 3% to $1.29 a share by 12:29 in Toronto.