Canadian Premium Sand makes capital push

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This article was published 18/09/2024 (405 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadian Premium Sand Inc. has been trying to develop a quarry operation near Seymourville for about 10 years. Two-and-a-half years those plans included a massive solar glass manufacturing operation in Selkirk, the first of its kind in North America — all part of an $880-million undertaking.

However, CPS is a small company with a market cap of around $20 million. Regardless of how excellent its strategy is, raising that amount of capital was always going to be a huge challenge.

On Wednesday, the Calgary-based company announced it has intentions of support from various provincial and federal programs totalling $272 million.

All of it — repayable and non-repayable loans, infrastructure support and loan guarantees for potential Indigenous equity investment in the project — is subject to CPS being able to raise the needed capital.

CEO Glenn Leroux made it clear none of that $272 million will be forthcoming until the project is fully financed.

“Funding a project of this size is complex,” said Leroux. “This (announcement) allows us to go to the financial markets and state with great confidence that if we can finance the project, these entities are in for this amount.”

Manitoba’s commitment (pending the completion of financing) is $32 million in infrastructure support and a $40-million repayable loan.

The company says the government of Canada intends to provide grants of up to $100 million and there is the opportunity to access up to $100 million more via a new Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program.

That program has not yet passed through Parliament and also needs intense engagement from an Indigenous investment entity to take the initiative.

Leroux said he’s had conversations with both Hollow Water First Nation, on whose traditional lands the potential sand quarry is located, and the Manitoba Métis Federation about potential investments in the project.

David Chartrand, president of the MMF, said he has met with CPS officials.

“We’re very entrepreneurial thinkers and we believe there’s not enough investment in mining in Manitoba, which is one of the backbones of the provincial economy,” he said.

While Premier Wab Kinew has publicly supported the project in the past — it has all of its environmental permits in place — his government also wants to ensure fulsome participation of Indigenous communities is part of the deal.

Jamie Moses, minister of economic development, investment and trade and natural resources, said the province is excited at the prospect of being a North American leader in solar glass manufacturing, capable of supplying a rapidly increasing market.

“We support CPS sharing the ways we will support the project once it is ready to proceed so that potential investors have a full picture of the opportunity available to them in Manitoba,” he said.

The project plans to truck high-quality silica sand from the Wanipigow area, adjacent to Hollow Water First Nation, to Selkirk. It is expected to create about 30 permanent jobs at the quarry and close to 250 in Selkirk at the 225,000-square-foot glass production plant.

Leroux said the project is shovel-ready and hopes with commitments of government support in hand CPS should be able to finish up the financing in as little as four months and to start construction by summer 2025.

CPS has a deposit down and an option to purchase 121 acres of land in Selkirk at prices set close to two years ago.

Duane Nicol, chief administrative officer of the City of Selkirk, said: “Glenn and his team have been nothing but professional. Not once have they asked for anything unreasonable or unacceptable.”

Leroux said the combination of the design of the facility, renewable and inexpensive hydroelectricity from Manitoba Hydro and the availability of about one million litres per day from Selkirk’s highly sustainable waste water treatment centre nearby will give it a unique and sustainable manufacturing cost advantage.

Regardless of the excellence of the design, if and when its built it will be the only solar panel glass manufacturing operation in all of North America. The majority of its potential market will be in the U.S.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca