Atlas Salt Inc. isn’t waiting on a discovery. The resource is already in the bag. With a strong feasibility study, permits in place, and a real plan to fund construction through both debt and equity. This story is all about execution. The Great Atlantic Salt Project is gearing up to become one of Canada’s cleanest, most strategic mine builds, and they’re not wasting time getting there
The following is a transcription of the above video, and The Market Online has edited it for clarity
Lyndsay: I think right out of the gate, you know, the question that is on a lot of people’s minds is really what makes the Great Atlantic Salt Project such a standout opportunity, both in terms of its economics and the potential to expand that resource over time.
Nolan: For new investors, I think one of the most attractive things is that it’s a novel project, right? It’s something that they’re not familiar with. Salt is a new concept for them, but it’s something that’s integral to their lives if they’re in North America or northeast United States in eastern Canada. And we are planning to build a major world class operation on the west coast of Newfoundland that will satisfy that market need. So this is a tremendous asset. It’s very shallow. It’s easy to develop. It’s near all sorts of critical infrastructure that you require to build a mine, and it has fantastic economics. We have a feasibility study, as you mentioned, and we have a completed environmental assessment that has allowed us to start acquiring some permits, which we have already received.
Lyndsay: Nolan, you touched on it a little bit, but let’s push forward just a little further with that jurisdiction, as we know, is key to mine development. Now, can you walk us through what it’s like building a project of this scale in Newfoundland and how that’s shaped your permitting experience so far?
Nolan: So, Newfoundland, as many of your watchers, and as you and I know, is a great mining jurisdiction. Of course, Canada is a great mining nation, and we are strategically located on the west coast of Newfoundland. We’re three kilometers away from a deep water port, which is very important when you’re moving large quantities of bulk material like we are with salt. We have a very green and clean project that has acquired very strong support in the local communities, from the local regulators. We have an approved environmental assessment, as I mentioned, which is a testament to that.
This is a project that people want built. It’s a project that we want to build. And I just want to mention the greenhouse gas portion is key on mining development and key question that a lot of investors have for mine development and regulators. We’re a 100% battery electric vehicle operated site tied into hydroelectric power. So that allows us to have the greenhouse gas emissions of four Newfoundland households a year. And our primary strategy is to displace imported salt from foreign jurisdictions. And so that has its own greenhouse gas offsets as well.
Lyndsay: What a great kickoff to all of it. I want to flip over just a little bit here and just talk about your recent approval for early works. It is a major step, not necessarily to signal a start of construction tomorrow, but the question here is, how does that permit help advance the project and strengthen your position with potential financiers?
Nolan: Absolutely. It’s a great question. You look at many projects in the mining industry, and they are stuck in the environmental assessment process, or they have challenges with community relations, or challenges getting permits, or they’re waiting for government changes or anything of that nature. So anytime you can bring a project to market like we have that shows that it can get permits, get them on an established timeline, in a great jurisdiction like Newfoundland, that is a vote of confidence into the market and to potential financers on the debt and equity side and investors themselves, right? They know that they’re investing in something that not can be built but will be built when the time is appropriate.
So, the early works permit allows us to put in place critical infrastructure that will allow us to do the main portion of construction once the timelines line up on the financing and the construction side.
Lyndsay: As you continue to de-risk the project, Nolan, what are the major value driving milestones on the horizon that investors really should be paying attention to over the next 12, even 24 months from now?
Nolan: Actually, a lot sooner than that. We expect to, as we get things going, so further permits, we are looking to sign strategic deals with potential partners on the off-take side which will be the purchasers of our product. Also we’re in the process of an updated feasibility study at the moment, which we expect to have the potential to increase and accelerate throughput through the facility. So the original feasibility study was designed for 2.5 million tons per year, but inside the capital cost was equipment specifications that could allow it to push towards four. And this is all public, so we’re working as aggressively as we can to see how close we can get to those kinds of targets and push past the original production target. So these are all exciting developments. All of these things make a project more attractive, de-risk it and make it a very good project for investors to turn their eyes towards.
Lyndsay: What about your financing then? What can you share about your current strategy to secure both debt and equity and your confidence on how you’re going to bring that right capital partner to the board?
Nolan: We’re working with Endeavor Financial. This was announced late last year and they’ve been working diligently over the past few months on putting together our proposal to debt financiers. So they’ll be the ones that come in with the largest component of project financing on the debt side.
This is open to very large funds that are attracted and very large global funds that are attracted to infrastructure type projects like ours with very long lives, very strong cash flows. So, we’re talking after tax free cash flows of over a hundred million dollars per year, life of mine, indicated by our feasibility study. So once that’s in place, we expect that to be a compelling story to bring to equity financing partners. So it’s a little process of moving things up in parallel. I just joined the company a month ago.
We’re putting together those plans and redeveloping them and reassessing them, but ultimately when you have a very fantastic asset like we have with so much work that’s been done to de-risk it, it makes selling that side of the story much, much easier for me and the team.
Atlas Salt trading on the Venture under the symbol SALT. They’ve got the assets, they’ve got permits, and a clear path to build. Now it’s about execution.
Learn their full story at atlassalt.com
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