SHOUGUANG, China, Dec. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gulf Resources, Inc. (Nasdaq: GURE) ("Gulf Resources" or the "Company"), a leading manufacturer of bromine, crude salt and specialty chemical products in China, today is providing its update on operations.

Natural Gas: The Company first natural gas well is now under testing production. The Company is testing the well to see (1) if the equipment are fully functional through firing, and eliminate potential safety hazards. (2) The procedures for further mining is determined by testing the variations of various pressure index, etc. Since we have begun testing, all of the tests have been successful. Should the tests continue to be successful, we intent to commence trial production by the end of 2018. We plan to be in commercial production during 2019.

Bromine and Crude Salt:  The Company believes it will complete the rectification and clean-up by the beginning of the first quarter 2019. While we still need approvals for project approval, planning approval, land use rights approval and environmental protection assessment approval, by working closely with the local government, we think the approvals will come shortly thereafter as long as our rectification and clean-up meets the new government specifications. We hope to commence operations in our seven factories by the end of the first quarter of 2019.

Chemical Factory: The Company is continuing to work with the government on finalizing the plans for the new chemical factory. Based on the responses from the government, the Company continues believe that the factory will be constructed in 2019 and will begin operations at the beginning of 2020.

Mr. Liu Xiaobin, the CEO of Gulf, stated, “We are pleased to be making progress on our natural gas project. We look forward to trial production in the near future and commercial production after that. We also continue to work on getting our bromine and crude salt facilities back in operation. In the last three months, bromine prices in China have increased approximately by 13.4%. Once our facilities are open, we believe our business could be very strong. We are also pleased with the progress we are making on the approval for our new chemical factory.”

“This has been a very difficult time for our management and our shareholders. However, we now have more visibility and believe that each of our business segments has a strong future.”

About Gulf Resources, Inc.

Gulf Resources, Inc. operates through three wholly-owned subsidiaries, Shouguang City Haoyuan Chemical Company Limited ("SCHC"), Shouguang Yuxin Chemical Industry Co., Limited ("SYCI"), and Daying County Haoyuan Chemical Company Limited (“DCHC”). The Company believes that it is one of the largest producers of bromine in China. Elemental Bromine is used to manufacture a wide variety of compounds utilized in industry and agriculture. Through SYCI, the Company manufactures chemical products utilized in a variety of applications, including oil and gas field explorations and papermaking chemical agents, and materials for human and animal antibiotics. DCHC was established to further explore and develop natural gas and brine resources (including bromine and crude salt) in China. For more information, visit www.gulfresourcesinc.com. 

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release contain forward-looking information about Gulf Resources and its subsidiaries business and products within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. The actual results may differ materially depending on a number of risk factors including, but not limited to, the general economic and business conditions in the PRC, future product development and production capabilities, shipments to end customers, market acceptance of new and existing products, additional competition from existing and new competitors for bromine and other oilfield and power production chemicals, changes in technology, the ability to make future bromine asset purchases, and various other factors beyond its control. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this Cautionary Statement and the risks factors detailed in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gulf Resources undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

CONTACT: Gulf Resources, Inc.

Web: http://www.gulfresourcesinc.com
Director of Investor Relations
Helen Xu (Haiyan Xu)
beishengrong@vip.163.com