TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 16, 2011) - Ethiopian Potash Corp. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:FED)(TSX VENTURE:FED.WT)(OTCQX:ETPHF) is pleased to announce that it has completed 16 diamond drill holes totalling 3,353 metres on its Danakil Potash Project. The initial 16 holes were drilled in the South-west Target Area.
Holes 17 and 18 are currently being drilled to test the northern continuation of the South-west Target Area. All holes have intersected the Danakil Potash bearing sequence.
An additional 11 holes (19 through 29) are planned to complete the first phase of exploration on the South-west Target Area, and provide the Company with sufficient drilling to meet its objective of putting 1 billion tonnes of potash resource in this part of the property into an updated 43-101 compliant report. (Map link: https://www.ethiopianpotash.com/DrillMap.html)
Road building is ongoing and drilling of the Colluli Target Area with targets at 100 metres depth or less is expected to begin early in the New Year, with the same resource objective as in the South-west Target Area.
Assays turnaround time and consequent lack of news has been a great disappointment to management and to our shareholders. As result, the Company has directed all core samples for analysis to the Saskatchewan Research Council, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan ("SRC"). SRC is recognized as one of the best laboratories for potash analysis, pilot plant testing and flow sheet design.
The Company has been assured that assays can be expected within 15 days of receipt of the samples. Shipping of the samples from Ethiopia to Saskatchewan is estimated to take four (4) days, for an aggregated lapsed time of 19 days or approximately three (3) weeks.
The Company anticipates being able to release assays on a number of holes in the first week of December.