Sand firm pivots away from oil and towards solar panels

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/05/2022 (1008 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just like many other mineral exploration companies convinced they have an economically viable mineral deposit to be pursued, Canadian Premium Sand Inc. has been trying to develop its sand deposit near Seymourville, Man. since 2014.

Originally, the company’s business plan was to treat the sand such that it would be the kind of product the oil and gas drilling industry could use for fracking.

But in the ensuing years as CPS worked on developing the business, the fracking industry changed. Not only did the price of oil fall – and then come roaring back again after Russia invaded Ukraine — but the well drillers are now inclined to use lower quality sand for fracking rather than truck in higher quality product from further away.

The change in the market meant CPS’s business plan was no longer viable.

Company officials knew the make-up of the sand could be used for glass production and after some specialized testing it was confirmed that with only minimal treatment it could produce ultra-clear glass.

That kind of glass is used in two markets, one is architectural and the other is for glass used in solar panels.

The solar panel market is growing by double digits every year and coupled with the fact there is no other manufacturer of that kind of glass in North America made it the obvious target for CPS to pursue.

Mostly because of cost issues, Chinese and Asian glass manufacturers currently dominate the North American and global market for solar panels.

But with the current ruptures in global supply chains exposed by the pandemic and increasing demand for solar power generation, Glenn Leroux, the chief executive officer of CPS, believes his company has a unique business opportunity at hand.

Not only is CPS proposing a whole new market for its sand, it is also now embarking on a much more ambitious, vertically integrated plan — in addition to mining the sand it is planning to build a solar panel glass manufacturer also in Manitoba.

The company raised $6.4 million last year with a business plan that has attracted a lot more interest.

Leroux spent much of the last year meeting with solar panel manufactures in Florida, Georgia, California, Washington and elsewhere who, he claims, are unanimously keen to have the chance to buy glass from a supplier that can deliver glass just in time instead of crossing their fingers on six-to-eight week ocean cargo schedules.

The new plan does require an awful lot more investment. It will cost about $350 million US to build a plant and in December it announced that it was working with the City of Selkirk to secure a suitable site within the Selkirk city limits.

Last week it held an information session in the town of Seymourville presenting the new plan.

Although it had previously obtained a provincial Environment Act licence, the new plan requires a new licence to reflect the changes.

The sand quarry project has experienced vocal opposition for years with concerns about silica dust in the area, heavy truck traffic on highway 59 and the potential for acid drainage.

The new plan requires less sand production and fewer trucks, but critics are just as concerned about the other issues.

The fact that the resource extraction undertaking near Seymourville now being planned as part of the global de-carbonization supply chain has not lessened the opposition.

Dennis LeNeveu, who was a research analyst at Atomic Energy of Canada in Pinawa for many years, has been a vocal opponent of the project for years as part of a grassroots group called What the Frack Manitoba. He and other opponents of the project met with Leroux last week.

He said he still has serious concerns.

“You have to separate the two,” he said, referring to the sand quarry and the glass manufacturing.

A number of environmental groups continue to have grave concerns about the health and safety of workers and local residents. A protest encampment has existed for several months and opposition groups are organizing a public gathering in protest at the encampment in June.

But Leroux is forging ahead.

The company has retained banking consultants who are “socializing” the project among potential investors and lenders.

CPS is a small enterprise and the capital investment to simultaneously build a sand quarry and a manufacturing operation will require hundreds of millions of dollars.

But the market realities may be in CPS’s favor.

“I’m 100 per cent confident that all the glass we make will be sold,” Leroux said. “We have customers that are in negotiations with us already to make sure they can get our glass instead of having to import it from Asia.”

The solar panel market is expected to grow by about 50 per cent by 2025 when Leroux said he hopes to have the plant in production.

If every safety precaution is in place before any sand is mined, who knows, maybe Manitoba can have an important foothold in the alternative energy world of the near future.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca