Saguenay, September 20, 2010. The management of Arianne Resources Inc. (« Arianne » or « Company ») and of its subsidiary, Canada Phosphate Inc. is pleased to announce the creation of a greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting program. In May 2009, Arianne met with the Eco-counsel Chair at UQAC in order to get advice about sustainable development in mining exploration. The intent of these meetings was to find ways to make the Company’s projects more environmentally, socially and ethically responsible. The Company is now pleased to update on this process that comply with the ISO 14 064-1 Standard:
1- Since this summer, Arianne adheres to a GHG accounting program. This accounting is part of the management’s intent to reduce the Company’s ecological imprint. By measuring the GHG produced by each of the Company’s exploration project, this inventory will improve our sustainable development and environmental responsibility initiatives. The GHG inventory will allow Arianne to identify projects that are problematic in terms of GHG emissions and implement appropriate reduction and compensation measures.
2- We gave a mandate to the Eco-counsel Chair to produce an Estimate of greenhouse gas emissions over the life of the mine. This document that is available online on our website, is an estimate of GHG that will be produced by the future Lac à Paul open pit mine. The document describes among other things, the emissions produced by the transport of the apatite concentrate by truck or by pipeline. It is an additional tool to evaluate the environmental impact of this mine. The exploitation would generate from 478,870 to 572,038 tons of CO2 eq depending on the method of transportation (pipeline vs trucks).
3- We are currently finalizing the Company’s sustainable development policy and it will be presented in our next Annual Report that will be released in 2011.
The accounting of GHG produced by mining exploration activities is an innovation. The majority of life cycle analysis start with extraction and neglects the exploration phase that is not without consequences and is part of the product life cycle. For example, the entire exploration activities for the Lac à Paul deposits generated to date 181 tons of CO2 equivalence. The Company studies different scenarios to compensate its GHG emissions in order to become carbon neutral.
Bernard Lapointe, CEO of the Company, explains this decision : «We hope that this initiative will greatly contribute to increase awareness for this approach within Quebec’s mining exploration industry. It is very important for us to show our social and environment responsibility to our shareholders and to the general public. »
The Eco-counsel Chair is a University organization that provides professional assistance to organizations, institutions and corporations that wish to develop projects that respect sustainable development. The Eco-counsel Chair gets involved in projects with an innovative aspect that will generate new knowledge or new methods that can be taught to Eco-counselors or shared with the scientific community. Since its foundation in 2003, the Chair executed more than 60 mandates.
About fertilizers: Fertilizers are currently under the spotlight with the possible sale of Potash Corporation to foreign investors. Phosphate (phosphorus or P) is, with potash (potassium or K) and nitrogen (N), an indispensable element for the growth of any kind of plant. There are no known substitutes to these elements for the fabrication of fertilizers. Experts agree that if food production doesn’t increase in the following years, we will see another food crisis similar to the one in 2007/2008. The only solution is to increase the surface and productivity of the cultivated lands. To improve the productivity of the cultivated lands, one must include fertilizers. . The Company has approximately 29 M shares issued. Investors are welcome to visit our website at www.arianne-inc.com.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
