Potential Decades-Long Salt Production.
Great Atlantic Salt Deposit Highlights:
- High-grade, homogeneous, very large, and unusually shallow by industry standards;
- NI-43-101 independently verified salt resource featuring 187 million tonnes Indicated (grading 96.4% salt) and 999 million tonnes Inferred (grading 95.6% salt) using a 90% NaCl cut-off grade;
- Each widely-spaced completed drill hole in 2022 encountered a thick salt bed at varying depths between approximately 250 meters and 335 meters;
- The final drill hole, to be incorporated into the Feasibility Study, cut a gross interval of salt over 333 meters (1,092 feet) starting from a depth of 243 meters (CC-9). It was collared approximately 250 meters east of previous easternmost drill hole CC-4;
- 2022 drilling has yet to find the limits of this minimum 2.5- kilometer-long deposit trending northeast toward the Turf Point Port;
- Great Atlantic and Compass Minerals’ Goderich mine (in operation since the 1950’s) share similar geological characteristics, though the mining depth at Goderich is 600 meters under Lake Huron. The deposit at Great Atlantic starts at a depth more than 300 meters shallower than Goderich and features a salt bed that is thicker than Goderich by orders of magnitude;
- Atlas has completed, through Gemtec Consulting Engineers and Scientists, baseline environmental studies of the Great Atlantic salt area. The final report is forthcoming. These surveys provide current environmental data which will assist with the environmental permitting process for mine development.
- CIM (2014) definitions were followed for Mineral Resources.
- Bulk density is 2.16 t/m3.
- Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
- Reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction were demonstrated by reporting within mineable shapes at a cut-off grade of 90% NaCl resulting in composite resource grades exceeding 95%.
From Deposit to "Salt Factory"
Our Vision:
- Atlas Salt envisions the most technologically advanced underground salt mine in North America – an environmentally friendly, low-cost and highly scalable operation using inclined ramp access and continuous miners;
- This planned state-of-the-art “Salt Factory” would be a “disrupter”, the first new underground salt mine in North America in 25 years. Only one new mine has been built in the last 60 years, creating a significant domestic production shortfall;
- Great Atlantic is a homogeneous resource and therefore carries limited geological and development risks – no metallurgical or chemical processing issues, typical with traditional metal deposits;
- Simple physical processing – mine, crush, screen and load – in a very favorable jurisdiction that’s eager to push additional industrial development.
Mining Method
Incline Slope Salt Extraction
Salt mines are among the safest of mines. They are also the most comfortable to work in. Continuous mining produces smaller lumps of rock using a machine similar to the one used for building tunnels. It bores into the salt extracting lumps that are then crushed into smaller pieces.
These are some of the best salt cores I’ve seen in my 30-year career.
Rowland Howe
President, Atlas Salt
Independently Verified
NI 43-101 Resource Estimate
The maiden Inferred resource at Great Atlantic (highlighted) is reported as a total volume and tonnage using a nominal bulk density of 2.16 g/cm3 and a cut-off of 95% NaCl (de-icing market standard). The disposition of the deposit is also shown by iteratively estimating the tonnage at varying cut-offs.
This resource was independently prepared by APEX Geosciences Ltd. in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 and is dated January 11, 2016.
Note 1: Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no guarantee that all or any part of the mineral resource will be converted into a mineral reserve.
Note 2: The quantity of reported Inferred resource in these estimations are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred resources as an Indicated or Measured mineral resource, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading them to an Indicated or Measured resource category.
Note 3: The estimate of mineral resources may be materially affected by geology, environment, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues.
Note 4: Tonnes have been rounded to the nearest 1,000,000 (numbers may not add up due to rounding).
| NaCl lower cut-off (%) | Volume (M3) | Tonnes (million) | Density (g/cm3) | NaCl (%) | Tonnes in-situ (million) |
| 88 | 682,000,000 | 1,473 | 2.16 | 95.3 | 1,405 |
| 89 | 677,000,000 | 1,462 | 2.16 | 95.4 | 1,395 |
| 90 | 672,000,000 | 1,451 | 2.16 | 95.4 | 1,385 |
| 91 | 653,000,000 | 1,410 | 2.16 | 95.6 | 1,348 |
| 92 | 602,000,000 | 1,301 | 2.16 | 95.9 | 1,248 |
| 93 | 557,000,000 | 1,203 | 2.16 | 96.2 | 1,157 |
| 94 | 499,000,000 | 1,078 | 2.16 | 96.5 | 1,040 |
| 95 | 420,000,000 | 908 | 2.16 | 96.9 | 880 |
| 96 | 304,000,000 | 657 | 2.16 | 97.4 | 640 |
| 97 | 190,000,000 | 410 | 2.16 | 97.9 | 401 |
| 98 | 71,000,000 | 154 | 2.16 | 98.6 | 152 |
| 99 | 17,000,000 | 37 | 2.16 | 99.3 | 37 |