Athabasca Minerals Inc.’s subsidiary AMI Silica Inc. has received approval of its Development Permit for industrial sand processing, storage and distribution facilities in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, Canada.
Further to the receipt of the Development Permit, AMI Silica has introduced a marketing portal to its website that enhances a midstream dimension to its business model, and additionally has appointed Mark Smith as vice president, finance.
The approval of the Mayerthorpe Development Permit enables AMI Silica to serve industry from a strategically located operational hub. A town hall meeting held on Aug. 16, with residents and municipal council achieved local support and a successful milestone in community relations.
The Mayerthorpe industrial silica sand facility is intended to process sand from the corporation’s permitted Firebag mine-site north of Fort McMurray and from other potential regional sources in the vicinity. Construction is expected to commence in the first half of 2019 subject to securing financing and the placement of equipment orders both of which are in process.
Smith in his new role joins Robert Beekhuizen, president of AMI Silica (and chief executive officer of Athabasca Minerals), and Anshul Vishal, vice-president, business and project development.
Smith is a professional engineer with an MBA in finance from the University of Oxford. He was most recently employed with Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets in Calgary, Alberta, providing Investment Banking expertise within the oil and gas industry for exploration and production, midstream, oilfield services, and royalty companies. Prior to his tenure at Scotiabank, Smith worked at Shell Canada, and was responsible for engineering and planning of exploration drilling programs in the Duvernay.
AMI Silica is also pleased to profile a sand-marketing portal inter-linked with its sister company, Aggregates Marketing Inc., which is consistent with one of its core strategies of integrating midstream supply and transportation solutions into its overarching aggregates business model. This portal allows AMI Silica to additionally facilitate transactions from multiple supply sources and transportation providers to determine optimal delivery solutions that meet customer requirements.