Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Canadian Premium Sand Inc. Announces $8 Million Equity Financing to Advance Plans to Construct North America's Only Vertically Integrated Patterned Solar Glass Manufacturing Facility

CALGARY, Alberta, July 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Canadian Premium Sand Inc. (“CPS” or the “Company”) (TSXV: CPS) is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement with Peters & Co. Limited and Fort Capital Partners (together, the “Agents“) in connection with a best efforts private placement financing of up to 27,000,000 units of the Company (each, a “Unit“) at a price of $0.30 per Unit (the “Issue Price”) for gross proceeds to the Company of up to $8,100,000 (the “Offering”).

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Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company (a “Common Share“) and one common share purchase warrant (a “Warrant“). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.40 for a period of twenty-four (24) months following closing at a price of $0.40 per Common Share.

In the event that the Common Shares trade at a closing price at or greater than $0.90 per Common Share for a period of thirty (30) consecutive trading days, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving notice to the holders thereof, and in such case, the Warrants will expire on the 30th day after the date on which such notice is given by the Company.

As part of the Offering, management and directors of CPS, as well as certain of the Company’s largest shareholders, including Paramount Resources Ltd. and David J. Wilson, have indicated they will subscribe for approximately 25% of the Offering, to maintain their current ownership position in the Company.

The net proceeds from the Offering will be used to advance the Company’s vertically integrated patterned solar glass manufacturing facility to a shovel-ready state, such that it is ready to commence construction by Q1 2023.

Detailed use of proceeds and key milestones to be achieved include:

  • Completion of detailed engineering and designs to enhance the capital cost estimate of the project to a 95% confidence interval (up from 80% currently);
  • Securing the land parcel identified in Selkirk, Manitoba and the building permits associated with the facility;
  • Securing all environmental and regulatory permits needed to commence construction;
  • Enhancing the sand resource estimate to provide improved certainty for construction financing and future growth phases;
  • Generating sample pieces of solar glass using the Company’s low-iron silica sand feedstock for product testing and quality control; and
  • General corporate purposes, including the advancement of commercial offtake agreements

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The Company continues to make significant progress with respect to commercial offtake agreements as demonstrated by the memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) that was announced on July 21, 2022 with Hanwha Solutions (“Hanwha”). Hanwha is a Korean-based manufacturing conglomerate that owns and controls Qcells Division, the largest solar panel manufacturer in North America.

The Offering will be conducted in all provinces of Canada pursuant to private placement exemptions and in such other jurisdictions as are agreed to by the Company and the Agents in accordance with applicable law.

The Offering is expected to close on or about August 31, 2022, subject to certain conditions, including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the conditional approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSX-V”). The Company will apply to list the Common Shares to be issued pursuant to the Offering on the TSX-V.

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The securities being offered under the Offering will be issued pursuant to applicable exemptions from the prospectus requirements under applicable securities laws and will be subject to a hold period that will expire four months and one day from the date of issue.

The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) or any state securities laws and accordingly may not be offered or sold within the United States or to “U.S. persons”, as such term is defined in Regulation S promulgated under the U.S. Securities Act (“U.S. Persons”), except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the Company’s securities to, or for the account of benefit of, persons in the United States or U.S. Persons.

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About Canadian Premium Sand Inc.
The Company is developing manufacturing capacity for ultra high-clarity patterned solar glass through a Company-owned facility to be located in Selkirk, Manitoba that utilizes the high-purity, low-iron silica sand from its wholly owned Wanipigow quarry leases and renewable Manitoba hydroelectricity. The Company is a reporting issuer in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Its shares trade on the TSXV under the symbol “CPS”.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.  

Qcells to secure solar glass from Canada for its US manufacturing operation

Canadian Premium Sand and Hanwha sign an agreement for patterned solar glass manufactured in Manitoba.

JULY 22, 2022 
ANNE FISCHER

A Qcells distributed rooftop solar installation.

From pv magazine USA

South Korea-based Hanwha Group, the parent corporation of Qcells, is establishing a low-carbon solar supply chain to support its solar energy growth strategy in North America, where it is constructing a manufacturing facility in Georgia to nearly double its total US production capacity to over 3 GW. In keeping with its intent to source low-carbon products domestically, the company has signed an agreement to source solar glass from Canadian Premium Sand (CPS).

“Following a tour of our planned facilities in Manitoba and meetings in Calgary with members of Hanwha’s management team in June of 2022, we are delighted to enter into an MOU with Hanwha regarding long-term supply of our low-carbon, patterned solar glass,” said Glenn Leroux, CPS president. “Hanwha’s North American solar glass demand requirements of over 3 gigawatts of module manufacturing represents over 80% of our planned Phase 1 production capacity.”

CPS will manufacture patterned solar glass in a new facility in Selkirk, Manitoba that uses the high-purity, low-iron silica sand from its wholly owned Wanipigow quarry leases. CPS intends to power the facility with renewable energy, which reduces the carbon footprint of the glass. The company also intends to use recycled water in the manufacturing process along with waste heat recovery. The initial facility (phase 1) will have an annual production of 20 million square meters or the equivalent of 4 GW of solar panel manufacturing demand. The location in Manitoba has room for 4 such facilities in total. CPS expects to be manufacturing at full capacity in the first facility by 2025.

As Qcells expands its manufacturing footprint in North America, the company sees “tremendous value in securing supply from a trusted partner that is proximal to our operations,” a company spokesperson said. “Additionally, the integrated nature of CPS’ operation with its wholly-owned sand resource and the use of renewable hydro-electricity in its manufacturing process offer excellent alignment with our low-carbon objectives.”

In May Qcells announced that its new solar panel manufacturing facility, expected to come online in 2023, will be located in Dalton, Georgia near where the company already operates a 1.7 GW module factory. In March, Hanwha Solutions, parent corporation of Qcells, announced that it was stepping up efforts to supply customers with “Made-in-America” products when it became the largest shareholder of REC Silicon, a major US manufacturer of polysilicon. Following its initial $160 million acquisition to acquire a 16.67% stake in REC Silicon in January 2022, Hanwha announced that it was acquiring an additional 4.67% stake from Aker Horizons in a deal valued at around $44 million.

Hanwha’s US initiative supports the Biden administration’s efforts to increase solar power generation by 40% and to decarbonize all electricity by 2035. Hanwha sees the enactment of the Solar Energy Manufacturing Act (SEMA) as critical to a US-based solar supply chain. While Hanwha had stated that it would “…implement a multi-phase, multi-billion-dollar expansion across the full solar energy supply chain” once SEMA was passed, the expansion has begun.

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