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Canada Premium Sand planning to bring float glass production to Manitoba

A Canadian company is working to build a float glass plant near Winnipeg. Canada Premium Sand will be exhibiting at Top Glass on April 21. You can view an in-depth interview with its CEO, Glenn Leroux, on their virtual booth. The company news release follows…

Canadian Premium Sand is pleased to announce a shift in the direction of the company’s business strategy to focus on developing its Wanipigow silica sand deposit into a sustainable float glass manufacturing and coating facility. This facility would be designed to utilize the best available technology with a focus on sustainability initiatives such as waste heat recovery and optimizing use of Manitoba’s abundant and inexpensive renewable electricity to set a new standard for low-carbon footprint glass manufacturing. The greater Winnipeg area presents an opportunity for significant long-term manufacturing cost and logistics advantages for a float glass facility focused on energy efficient architectural glass or solar glass.

The shift in business strategy is the result of an internal review of the various applications for the company’s silica sand deposit which identified float glass manufacturing as a high potential application for which the company’s silica sand is ideally suited. Float glass manufacturing has shown better overall project economics and market stability compared to Wanipigow proppant production. This internal review is supported by an independent business study commissioned by the company and conducted by an independent international glass markets focused consulting
group, GlassGlobal Consulting. A full summary of the revised strategy and information on the business opportunity can be viewed at www.wanipigowglass.com.

“Today there is not a single float glass manufacturing facility in Canada”, stated Glenn Leroux, President and CEO of
CPS. “Every pane of glass utilized in this country is imported. Based on the business study and market projections
completed by GlassGlobal, current dynamics in North America show a manufacturing supply deficit demonstrating
the requirement for up to four additional float glass facilities by 2025 for North America to be self-sufficient.
Establishing a float glass facility in Canada using responsibly sourced local raw materials and responsibly produced
Canadian energy creates a unique opportunity to provide much needed sustainably manufactured float glass to
Canadian, North American and international markets in an environmentally responsible manner.”

Float glass is a broad industry term for an established and proven method of producing flat panes of glass. Numerous
products begin their useful life as float glass including glass with specialized energy efficient coatings for architectural
applications, glass for solar panels, automobile glass, tempered and safety glass. Energy consumption by buildings is
a significant source of Canada’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. Use of energy efficient architectural float glass in
residential homes and commercial buildings is a key component of emissions reduction strategies as outlined by the
federal department of Environment and Climate Change Canada in ‘Canada’s Buildings Strategy’ document. The
demand for solar glass to manufacture solar panels is expected to accelerate in the coming years as a result of global
electricity grid de-carbonization and net-zero climate action plans. Energy efficient architectural glass and solar glass
are both carbon-negative products based on a life-cycle carbon assessment as they save or avoid more energy
consumption and associated emissions after installation of end use products than is consumed during
manufacturing.

Preliminary test work shows that the Wanipigow Lower Black Island Formation (LBI) sand at the test site has potential
for use in the manufacture of ultra-clear, energy efficient architectural float glass as well as solar glass for use in
solar panels. The testing of a small subset of the company’s silica sand was conducted by an independent ISO/IEC
17025:2018 accredited laboratory specializing in glass and raw materials analysis, the IGR – Institute of Glass and Raw Material Technology. Three individual samples were collected from archived drill cores for test work and focused on a portion of the overall Wanipigow sand deposit within the deposit’s LBI sub-unit. The test work was performed in accordance with standard testing of oxidic raw materials for glass (DIN 51086-2) and included sieving, ICP-OES analysis, beneficiation tests followed by additional ICP-OES analysis, and melt tests. The preliminary results demonstrate that the LBI sand at this locale: i) contains high calculated silica (94.1% to 97.2% SiO2) with low detrimental elements such as iron, ii) is easily beneficiated to higher calculated silica (99.3% to 99.5% SiO2) using standard methods such as a bumping table and a magnetic separator, and iii) melt tests yielded no microscopic relics of un-melted grains.

The company expects to engage a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) contractor during the first quarter of
2021 to work on site selection, facility design, site layout, and potential capital and operating costs. The company
will also initiate offtake discussions in concurrence with the FEED study and add glass industry expertise to the
management team to develop a robust business plan to achieve a final investment decision.

The company’s silica sand deposit is extensive as detailed in a National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) compliant
Technical Report dated March 20, 2020. This report was based primarily on silica sand for the oil and gas industry.
Based on the typical silica sand requirements of a single float glass plant, the company has ample silica sand supply
to also pursue other industrial market opportunities.