The end of April is a significant deadline for a proposed ethanol venture near Melville, Sask.
If enough shares aren’t sold by then, the project could be in jeopardy.
Blue Sky BioEnergy Ltd. intends to build a 40 million litre ethanol plant just south of Melville on Highway 10. The project will cost about $30 million.
Ken Graham, executive director of Blue Sky, said a recent public meeting was designed to update existing and potential shareholders.
“The purpose was to basically tell the local community that it is time to become involved,” he said.
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Although the response has been good, there is still a ways to go, he added.
Blue Sky’s first offering memorandum calls for 350 shares to be sold at $1,000 each. A five percent discount is available on each share. Graham said the money would allow pre-engineering work to be done.
Farmers will invest more money than that this spring planting a crop with no guarantee of return, he added. One Blue Sky director has said farmers could buy a share if they spent $100 less per quarter section on inputs.
“This is going to be a very important deadline,” Graham said. “If they don’t achieve this first level, that will be indicative of community support.”
He wouldn’t say how much money has been raised so far.
Blue Sky had hoped to begin construction this month and be open for business in 2008.
