Athabasca Minerals Inc. entered into a Letter of Intent with a property owner in the town of Mayerthorpe, Alberta, Canada, for a storage and distribution hub to serve its Firebag Frac Sand Project.
The selected property integrates into the corporation’s logistics and operations strategy, with an aim of having an operational frac sand facility in 2019. The property provides a strategically located storage and distribution hub within a one-hour trucking distance of major plays in the active Duvernay formation.
The corporation is in active partnership discussions with logistics providers to achieve a low operating cost for movement of frac sand. The corporation said it has also received a positive letter of support from the Mayor of Mayerthorpe expressing their support of the Firebag Project.
The corporation is continuing to work on the development of the overall project and is actively looking for a processing location near the permitted mine site in the Wood Buffalo region. Discussions are proceeding with engineering firms for developing a design basis for the processing plant and storage and distribution hub.
The Firebag Project mine location is fully permitted and ready to start mining once the corporation reaches its final investment decision. The long-term goal is to produce approximately 750,000 metric tonnes to 1 million metric tonnes of high quality frac sand annually if ultimately full-scale operation is achieved. The Firebag Project is located 95 km north of Fort McMurray and is accessible via Highway 63. The corporation completed a National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report disclosing an inferred resource of 45,323,000 tonnes of silica sand.