EDMONTON - Brian (Griz) Testo has been a
dreamer and an explorer all his life. He
recalls panning for gold in the McLeod
River near Hinton at age eight, and
discovering a fossil pit at 14.
Now nearing 62, with a colourful
background prospecting for diamonds and
other minerals, the former pipeline
welder is pursuing a commodity nearly
unheard of in Alberta: potash.
“It’s the chase, and the discovery,”
Testo said in an interview. “My dream is
that we hit potash and we get a new
industry for Alberta, we make our
shareholders a ton of money, we create
jobs, create wealth for people, and feed
the world.”
Testo is president and CEO of Grizzly
Discoveries Inc., which takes its name
from his nickname. The Edmonton-based
junior mining company announced this week
it is in talks with a potential partner
about a possible $15-million investment
in Grizzly’s Alberta potash project.
Grizzly’s unnamed partner, which Testo
will only say is based outside Canada, is
now reviewing the company’s data and
information. If a deal results, Grizzly
would be in a position this year to drill
four test wells near Vermilion and
Lloydminster.
“If they’re interested, they’ll kick us
$5 million, we’ll drill four wells, and
if we hit potash in any one of those
wells, they’ll kick in the other 10
(million) and then we’re off to the
races,” Testo says. “That’s my thoughts
on the deal.”
Next door, Saskatchewan is a world leader
in the production of potash minerals
mined from vast underground deposits left
by the evaporation of an ancient inland
sea. Saskatchewan potash products are
sold into markets worldwide for use as
fertilizer.
Despite some exploration work in the
1960s, a potash industry has never
developed in Alberta.
Testo wants to change that. Grizzly holds
metallic and industrial mineral permits
covering 364,000 hectares in two areas
along the Saskatchewan border, one near
Medicine Hat, the other near
Lloydminster.
In 2011, core samples from a test well
Grizzly drilled near Medicine Hat
revealed a 22-metre-thick layer of low-
grade potash minerals about 1.6
kilometres below ground, and also some
smaller deposits of higher-grade potash.
Grizzly hasn’t yet drilled near
Lloydminster, but Testo is buoyed by a
report he discovered online six years
ago: in 1965, petroleum geologist Albert
Golden suggested the potash mineral
sylvite exists “in substantial
quantities” in an area near Vermilion,
195 kilometres east of Edmonton.
Golden had studied core samples from an
oil well — VCO No. 15 — that had been
drilled by Vermilion Consolidated Oils in
1945. He found mineral deposits similar
in composition and depth to those found
in Saskatchewan, at Unity and Saskatoon.
“These potash deposits are now in the
formational stages of economic mining and
development,” Golden wrote of his Alberta
findings. “It is feasibly possible that
the potash in VCO No. 15 and Unity are
one large continuous deposit.”
In 2009, geologist Michael Dufresne,
president of Edmonton’s APEX Geoscience
Ltd., co-authored a preliminary
investigation into potash potential in
Alberta for the Alberta Geological
Survey.
After the publication of reports by
Golden and others in the mid-1960s,
Alberta saw “a flurry of potash
activity,” Dufresne wrote. But interest
soon waned and after 1970, “potash
exploration in Alberta was simply
nonexistent,” his report said.
More recently, however, worldwide demand
for potash has been on the rise, making
exploration more attractive. Grizzly and
a few other companies have staked permits
in eastern Alberta, in large part
influenced by the 1960s exploratory work.
Dufresne, an independent consultant who
is working with Grizzly on its potash
venture, says he is “quite optimistic”
there may one day be a potash industry on
this side of the Alberta-Saskatchewan
border.
“I think there’s a good chance there’s
probably an economic deposit somewhere,”
he says. “I think the risk is, how big is
it, and how many wells is it going to
take to find it? That’s my worry.”
Grizzly Discoveries Inc. trades on the
TSX Venture Exchange. Share prices in the
past 52 weeks have ranged between 1.5 and
12 cents.
dreamer and an explorer all his life. He
recalls panning for gold in the McLeod
River near Hinton at age eight, and
discovering a fossil pit at 14.
Now nearing 62, with a colourful
background prospecting for diamonds and
other minerals, the former pipeline
welder is pursuing a commodity nearly
unheard of in Alberta: potash.
“It’s the chase, and the discovery,”
Testo said in an interview. “My dream is
that we hit potash and we get a new
industry for Alberta, we make our
shareholders a ton of money, we create
jobs, create wealth for people, and feed
the world.”
Testo is president and CEO of Grizzly
Discoveries Inc., which takes its name
from his nickname. The Edmonton-based
junior mining company announced this week
it is in talks with a potential partner
about a possible $15-million investment
in Grizzly’s Alberta potash project.
Grizzly’s unnamed partner, which Testo
will only say is based outside Canada, is
now reviewing the company’s data and
information. If a deal results, Grizzly
would be in a position this year to drill
four test wells near Vermilion and
Lloydminster.
“If they’re interested, they’ll kick us
$5 million, we’ll drill four wells, and
if we hit potash in any one of those
wells, they’ll kick in the other 10
(million) and then we’re off to the
races,” Testo says. “That’s my thoughts
on the deal.”
Next door, Saskatchewan is a world leader
in the production of potash minerals
mined from vast underground deposits left
by the evaporation of an ancient inland
sea. Saskatchewan potash products are
sold into markets worldwide for use as
fertilizer.
Despite some exploration work in the
1960s, a potash industry has never
developed in Alberta.
Testo wants to change that. Grizzly holds
metallic and industrial mineral permits
covering 364,000 hectares in two areas
along the Saskatchewan border, one near
Medicine Hat, the other near
Lloydminster.
In 2011, core samples from a test well
Grizzly drilled near Medicine Hat
revealed a 22-metre-thick layer of low-
grade potash minerals about 1.6
kilometres below ground, and also some
smaller deposits of higher-grade potash.
Grizzly hasn’t yet drilled near
Lloydminster, but Testo is buoyed by a
report he discovered online six years
ago: in 1965, petroleum geologist Albert
Golden suggested the potash mineral
sylvite exists “in substantial
quantities” in an area near Vermilion,
195 kilometres east of Edmonton.
Golden had studied core samples from an
oil well — VCO No. 15 — that had been
drilled by Vermilion Consolidated Oils in
1945. He found mineral deposits similar
in composition and depth to those found
in Saskatchewan, at Unity and Saskatoon.
“These potash deposits are now in the
formational stages of economic mining and
development,” Golden wrote of his Alberta
findings. “It is feasibly possible that
the potash in VCO No. 15 and Unity are
one large continuous deposit.”
In 2009, geologist Michael Dufresne,
president of Edmonton’s APEX Geoscience
Ltd., co-authored a preliminary
investigation into potash potential in
Alberta for the Alberta Geological
Survey.
After the publication of reports by
Golden and others in the mid-1960s,
Alberta saw “a flurry of potash
activity,” Dufresne wrote. But interest
soon waned and after 1970, “potash
exploration in Alberta was simply
nonexistent,” his report said.
More recently, however, worldwide demand
for potash has been on the rise, making
exploration more attractive. Grizzly and
a few other companies have staked permits
in eastern Alberta, in large part
influenced by the 1960s exploratory work.
Dufresne, an independent consultant who
is working with Grizzly on its potash
venture, says he is “quite optimistic”
there may one day be a potash industry on
this side of the Alberta-Saskatchewan
border.
“I think there’s a good chance there’s
probably an economic deposit somewhere,”
he says. “I think the risk is, how big is
it, and how many wells is it going to
take to find it? That’s my worry.”
Grizzly Discoveries Inc. trades on the
TSX Venture Exchange. Share prices in the
past 52 weeks have ranged between 1.5 and
12 cents.