Vortex Energy Intersects Salt On The Western Salt Structure At The Robinsons River Salt Project.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia– Vortex Energy Corp. (CSE: VRTX | OTC: VTECF | FRA: AA3) (“Vortex” or the “Company“) is pleased to announce the Company has intersected salt rock at a depth of 581.5 meters at the Western Salt Structure located within the Robinsons River Salt Project (the “Project”). Prior work conducted by the Company concluded that the Western Salt Structure can potentially hold an estimated amount of 250,000 tonnes of hydrogen in more than 25 caverns, based on conservative estimates. Using conservative estimates, the hydrogen storage capacity volume for the Western salt structure is estimated to be more than 50 million m3. The work was completed under the supervision and project management of the Company’s primary consulting partner, RESPEC Consulting Inc. (“RESPEC”), and subcontractors Major Drilling (“Major”) and DGI Geoscience Inc. (“DGI”).
The inaugural exploratory well was drilled in the western gravity anomaly at the Project with the objective of confirming salt rock presence and obtaining samples for future testing. The core well was drilled to a total depth of 608 meters before it was abandoned and cemented to surface. The initial 581 meters of core consisted of non-salt rocks, with the first occurrence of salt rock at a depth of 581.5 meters. Core samples were extracted from the ground surface down to 608 meters. The core ranging from 530 meters to 608 meters is currently being shipped to RESPEC’s office in Saskatoon for detailed core logging and mineralogical analysis. The University of Alberta (“U of A”) will also be provided with selective samples to investigate the possibility of building hydrogen storage caverns.
The well was initially planned to reach a depth of 1,000 meters but was abandoned at 608 meters due to multiple challenges. Although drilling was terminated earlier than planned, the information gathered yielded several key insights, while allowing the Company to preserve resources for further drilling, including:
- (1) This is the first well drilled at the Project to encounter salt rock, confirming its presence;
- (2) Site-specific geological data from this well will be utilized by the Company to guide the planning of future exploration programs;
- (3) The drilling challenges encountered with this well will be utilized by the Company to plan future drill wells with the aim of avoiding similar challenges.
The Company is planning to drill a second well near the location of the first well drilled at the Project, commencing in January, 2024. The primary objective of this second drill well is to intersect salt rock and attain the geological properties of the salt and non-salt rocks.
For additional information regarding the Company’s hydrogen storage capacity assessment, including certain assumptions underlying the hydrogen storage capacity assessment, please see the Company’s press release dated July 24, 2023, filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.
| Latitude | Longitude | Final Well Diameter | Azimuth at 608 m | UTM | Dip at 608 m |
| N48° 12.794′ | W58° 38.349′ | 75.7 mm | 308° | 21 U 0378233E 5341299N | -87.8° |
Table 1: Drill well attributes.
Paul Sparkes, Chief Executive Officer of Vortex commented, “Despite the challenges associated with drilling our first well, we are pleased to have encountered salt rocks in our first drill well. We look forward to commencing drilling on our second drill well early in the new year.”
Qualified Person
The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Piotr Kukialka, P.Geo, who is acting as a consultant to the Company and is a “Qualified Person” as defined by National Instrument 43-101.
About RESPEC Consulting Inc.
RESPEC is a global leader in diverse technologies and draws from a wide array of expertise, products, and services to deliver world-class solutions for business, mining, energy, water, natural resources, urban development, infrastructure, and enterprise services. RESPEC’s subsurface experts have evaluated over 1,000 caverns in nearly every major cavern storage region in the world. RESPEC’s over 50-year history underground has helped to pioneer in-house specialty software and rock lab testing that focuses on designing solution-mined and conventionally mined storage caverns. RESPEC also plays a similar role with the ACES Delta in Utah, the world’s largest green hydrogen project under construction.
About Vortex Energy Corp.
Vortex Energy Corp. is an exploration stage company engaged principally in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties in North America. The Company is currently advancing its Robinson River Salt Project comprised of a total of 942 claims covering 23,500 hectares located approximately 35 linear kms south of the town of Stephenville in the Province of Newfoundland & Labrador. The Robinsons River Salt Project is prospective for both salt and hydrogen salt cavern storage. The Company is also evaluating technologies to efficiently store hydrogen or energy in salt caverns. Vortex also holds the Fire Eye Project, which is located in the Wollaston Domain of northern Saskatchewan, Canada.
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