Great Quest Metals Ltd.: Mali Agricultural Product Demonstrations an Overwhelming Success

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired - Feb 18, 2014) - Great Quest Metals Ltd. (the "Company" or "Great Quest") (TSX VENTURE:GQ) (FRANKFURT:GQM) is pleased to announce that it is in receipt of the quantitative results from the product trials discussed in the November 21, 2013 Press Release. The demonstrations have been a tremendous success, showing that the Great Quest's direct application fertilizer is an effective replacement for much costlier imported chemical phosphate across the full range of crops and regions of Mali.

The study comprised 27 agronomic trials covering the five major agro-ecological climatic regions of Mali, where large-scale commercial agriculture occurs. The comprehensive trials provided results for all of Mali's most important crops: cotton, maize (corn), rice (irrigated, upland and lowland varieties), millet, sorghum, cowpea (or black-eyed pea), and peanuts using GQ blends of enriched high grade (35% P₂O₅) and enriched medium grade (27% P₂O₅).

Following are some of the most compelling results, with the full work to be published shortly on completion of the report by the Institute for Rural Economic Development ("IER"), the Company's Malian government research partner.

The crop demonstrations were performed to compare our new enriched processed blends, the commonly used chemical blend NPK 15-15-15, and the unprocessed natural powdered phosphate rock. The natural powder is crushed rock from the Tilemsi project with no beneficiation and no solubility agents. It is known to be a good fertilizer but historically has not been fully effective in the first year of use. The expected result was for the unprocessed powder to be the least productive, the diammonium phosphate to be the most productive and the GQ formulations to perform better than the unprocessed, but not as well as the diammonium chemical phosphate. However in many cases the GQ blends out performed the chemical fertilizer, and in several cases the natural powder performed in line with the chemical fertilizer.

Some complications with the addition of potash during sample preparation resulted in low potash quantities in the test blends. This has put the GQ blends at a disadvantage compared to the chemical blend, however the GQ blends still performed comparably. This is likely because the organic nature of the phosphate allowed the nutrient to be used more efficiently by the plants, compensating in terms of yield for the low level of potash. Sulfur and boron were added to some blends as solubility agents.


Example 1

Corn from the Sikasso Region, NPK formulation using diammonium phosphate versus NPK using GQ 35% direct application phosphate rock. The GQ enriched blends showed higher crop yields up to 3,858 kg/ha compared to diammonium phosphate based blends of 2,156 kg/ha, and up to 4098 kg/ha when solubility agents are added to the GQ blends.

Phosphate Used	Quantity (kg/ha)	N (%)	P (%)	K (%)	S (%)	B (%)	Yield (kg/ha)
Diammonium Phosphate Chemical	100	15	15	15			2,156
GQ 35% Phosphate	100	11	18	2			3,858
GQ 35% Phosphate	150	11	18	2			3,151
GQ 35% Phosphate	200	11	18	2			3,082
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur	100	11	18	2	1		3,262
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur	150	11	18	2	1		3,216
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur	200	11	18	2	1		3,968
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur + Boron	100	11	18	2	1	.2	4,098
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur + Boron	150	11	18	2	1	.2	2,830
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur + Boron	200	11	18	2	1	.2	3,437
Unprocessed Tilemsi Phos Rock Powder	300		24				2,597

Example 2

Rain watered Rice from the Bamako Region, NPK formulation using diammonium phosphate versus NPK using GQ 35% direct application phosphate rock. The GQ enriched blends showed yields up to 2,224 kg/ha compared with 1,751 kg/ha for diammonium phosphate based blends.

Phosphate Used	Quantity (kg/ha)	N (%)	P (%)	K (%)	S (%)	B (%)	Yield (kg/ha)
Diammonium Phosphate Chemical	100	15	15	15			1751
GQ 35% Phosphate	100	11	18	2			2192
GQ 35% Phosphate	150	11	18	2			1958
GQ 35% Phosphate	200	11	18	2			1940
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur	100	11	18	2	1		2155
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur	150	11	18	2	1		2076
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur	200	11	18	2	1		1969
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur + Boron	100	11	18	2	1	.2	2221
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur + Boron	150	11	18	2	1	.2	2214
GQ 35% Phosphate + Sulfur + Boron	200	11	18	2	1	.2	2224
Unprocessed Tilemsi Phos Rock Powder	300		24				1728

Example 3

Peanuts from the Kita Region, using diammonium phosphate versus GQ 27% direct application phosphate rock used in isolation with no added nitrogen or potash fertilizer. Diammonium phosphate incorporates some nitrogen into the fertilizer and is considered a one stop shop for some farmers. However, head to head the GQ medium grade granule showed yields up to 1436 kg/ha compared to 904 kg/ha for diammonium phosphate.

Phosphate Used	Quantity (kg/ha)	N (%)	P (%)	K (%)	S (%)	Yield (kg/ha)
Diammonium Phosphate Chemical	65	18	46			904
GQ 27% Phosphate	100		27			629
GQ 27% Phosphate	150		27			1200
GQ 27% Phosphate	200		27			1258
GQ 27% Phosphate + Sulfur	100		27		1	950
GQ 27% Phosphate + Sulfur	150		27		1	835
GQ 27% Phosphate + Sulfur	200		27		1	1424
GQ 27% Phosphate + M4 Bacteria	100		27			1013
GQ 27% Phosphate + M4 Bacteria	150		27			1436
GQ 27% Phosphate + M4 Bacteria	200		27			1394
Unprocessed Tilemsi Phos Rock Powder	300		24			794

The significant yields shown in these results for the GQ - IER agronomic demonstrations provide further impetus to the development of a range of products from the Great Quest Tilemsi phosphate resource, for agriculture in Mali and West Africa.

The technical information of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Jed Diner (P. Geol), a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101.


About Great Quest

Great Quest Metals Ltd. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the development of African agricultural mineral projects for local production of farm ready fertilizers. The Company's flagship asset is the Tilemsi Phosphate Project, encompassing 1,206 km² in northeastern Mali, containing high quality phosphate resources amenable to use as direct application fertilizer. Great Quest is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol GQ, and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol GQM.


ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF Great Quest Metals Ltd.

Jed Richardson
President, Chief Executive Officer and Director



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The statements that are not historical facts and are forward-looking statements involving known and unknown risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to vary materially from the targeted results. We seek safe harbor.



Contact

Great Quest Metals Ltd.
Toll Free: 1 877-325-3838
www.greatquest.com