Athabasca Minerals Announces Q1-2021 Financial Results and AGSM Date

Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - May 19, 2021) - Athabasca Minerals Inc. (TSXV: AMI) ("AMI" or the "Corporation") announces its Q1 Financial Statements for first-quarter ending March 31, 2021. The Q1-2021 Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the company website (www.athabascaminerals.com). The Corporation also announces that its Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders will be held on June 22, 2021.

Robert Beekhuizen, Chief Executive Officer, states: "We are pleased by the year-over-year improvement with Q1-2021 consolidated revenue up by more than 40% versus the prior year. The Corporation is seeing positive results across all its divisions, year-to-date, with AMI RockChain, TerraShift Engineering, and AMI Aggregates (including Coffey Lake Pit) having announced and booked a cumulative $6 million in contract revenues. Also, with the buy-out of Privco1 and Privco2, AMI Silica has increased its ownership to 100% in support of its Montney in-basin and Duvernay sand projects. Despite the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team remains focused on generating revenues, materializing select strategic initiatives that will strengthen AMI's value in the market, and maintaining prudent cash management."

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

Athabasca Minerals reports the following key highlights in Q1-2021 and subsequent highlights for Q2-2021:

• Revenue for Q1-2021 increased to $1.1 million from $0.5 million in Q4-2020 and $0.8 million in Q1-2020, driven primarily by AMI Aggregates resuming operations at Coffey Lake in January 2021 after a period of inactivity.
  
  
• On April 28, 2021, the Corporation announced the upgrade of AMI RockChain's proprietary technologies ("RockChainTM 2.0") which increases the speed and accuracy of its supply chain algorithms to support increased demand by customers and industry users.
  
  
• On April 28, 2021, the Corporation announced a transportation contract with a confidential client valued at $4 million.
  
  
• On April 28, 2021, the Corporation announced the final provincial approval for development and operation of the Hargwen aggregates pit located between Edmonton and Jasper, Alberta. The Hargwen Pit is situated in the vicinity of anticipated highway, pipeline, and energy projects in Western Alberta.
  
  
• On March 15, 2021, the Corporation announced a three-year agreement with a two-year renewal option for AMI RockChain to supply aggregates and related services to the Rural Municipalities of Alberta ("RMA"), their provincial membership of 69 rural municipalities, and their inter-provincial affiliates.
  
  
• On March 15, 2021, the Corporation announced TerraShift securing contracts valued over $600,000 to: (a) provide municipal services associated with environmental waste management for the Ministikwan Lake Cree Nation for the next 12 months, and (b) secure peat resources and regulatory approvals for a confidential industry client.
  
  
• On February 5, 2021, the Corporation announced the acquisition of 100% interest in Privco1 and Privco2, the private Alberta corporations that hold the Montney In-Basin Project and the Duvernay Sand Project, respectively. These transactions were combined and concluded for $1.00 of cash consideration and 8,000,000 common shares at a value of $0.25 per common share for a total purchase price of $2,000,001 released over three milestone installments.
  • 4,000,000 shares were paid on February 5, 2021. The remaining shares are held in escrow with 2,000,000 common shares to be paid at the Corporation's discretion by June 30, 2021, and 2,000,000 common shares to be paid at the Corporation's discretion by June 30th, 2022. If the Corporation elects not to release the common shares from escrow for either of the two milestone payments, then the founding partners will be returned an equivalent pro-rata interest in Privco2 in exchange.
    
    
• The Corporation is also using common shares to make one final Annual Minimum Royalty ("AMR") payment for Privco1, consisting of 800,004 common shares at a value of $0.25 per share, for a total value of $200,001, with three corresponding milestone installments.
  • 400,002 shares were paid on February 5, 2021. The remaining shares are held in escrow with 200,001 common shares to be paid at the Corporation's discretion by June 30, 2021, and 200,001 common shares to be paid at the Corporation's discretion by June 30th, 2022.
    
    
• AMI Aggregates and AMI RockChain were both impacted by lower activity due to COVID-19 as well as the economic downturn. Production out of Coffey Lake resumed in January 2021, and production out of AMI's other corporate pits is anticipated to resume in 2021.

Fiscal Management & Reporting

• The Corporation has undertaken several financial initiatives in response to the COVID-19 pandemic:
  • $180,000 in bank loans were secured through the Canadian Emergency Business Account ("CEBA") program.
  • AMI is receiving subsidies through the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy ("CEWS") program. The CEWS program is currently in place until June 2021 and AMI has received and accrued year-to-date subsidies totaling $45,696, and program lifetime-to-date subsidies totaling $496,256 as of March 31, 2021.

• The Corporation remains financially prudent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective January 1, 2021, AMI implemented 10% reductions of Management salaries and Board fees.
  
  
• AMI's cash position as of March 31, 2021 was $1.6 million free cash and $1.1 million restricted cash.

FINANCIAL AND OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• The quarterly increase in revenue was due to higher management services revenue with sales from Coffey Lake in Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020, as well as an increase from the addition of TerraShift's revenue stream. Aggregate sales revenue decreased due to lower networked third-party sales revenue through AMI RockChain.
• In Q1-2021, the Corporation incurred a total loss and comprehensive loss of $0.6 million, $0.009 per share basic and diluted, as compared to a total comprehensive loss of $0.8 million, $0.018 per share basic and diluted, for Q1-2020. The improvement in total loss and comprehensive loss of $0.2 million was consistent with the $0.2 million improvement in unadjusted operating loss.
• Net working capital of $0.7 million as of March 31, 2021, (December 31, 2020: $0.9 million) which in management's opinion is sufficient to fund ongoing operations. The $0.2 million decrease in working capital was predominately due to a $0.4 million decrease in cash and a $0.1 million increase in accounts payable and accrued liabilities, partially offset by a $0.3 million increase in prepaids and deposits.

ANNUAL GENERAL AND SPECIAL MEETING
The Corporation is also pleased to announce that it has filed a notice of meeting and management information circular (the "Circular") to its shareholders of record as of May 3, 2021 in connection with its Annual General and Special Meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") to be held on June 22, 2021 at 9:30 a.m. (Mountain Time). The Meeting materials have been mailed out to shareholders. The Corporation will provide a Corporate Update during the Meeting.

Due to the ongoing global coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency and in consideration of the health and safety of our employees, shareholders, and community, the Corporation strongly encourages shareholders to vote on the matters before the Meeting by proxy, and to view the Meeting through the conference call and webcast, rather than attend in person. The routine legal requirements of the Meeting will be carried out by a limited number of Company representatives.

Athabasca encourages all shareholders to participate in the Meeting. Shareholders may submit questions to management ahead of the Meeting via email to info@athabascaminerals.com. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions during the Meeting through the platform.

All meeting material has been filed on SEDAR.com and on the Corporation's website at: https://www.athabascaminerals.com/investor-relations/annual-documents/2021/

ABOUT ATHABASCA MINERALS INC.
Athabasca Minerals is an integrated group of companies capable of full life-cycle development and supply of aggregates and industrial minerals. The Corporation is comprised of the following business units:

•  AMI Aggregates division produces and sells aggregates out of its corporate pits and manages the Coffey Lake Public Pit on behalf of the Province of Alberta.
• AMI Silica division (www.amisilica.com) is positioning to become a leading supplier of premium domestic silica sand with three regional deposits located in Alberta and NE-BC (White Rabbit, Firebag and Montney), and holds a 5-year purchase agreement with Shell Canada for the supply of proppant.
  • Privco1 & Privco2 are private Alberta corporations owned by AMI that hold the Montney and White Rabbit domestic sand deposits, respectively which are strategically located with respect to the Montney and Duvernay sedimentary basins. Privco2 supports the Duvernay Sand Project, which is finalizing FEED (Front-End Engineering & Development) with the participation of an international industrial partner who brings access to rail, power, industrial water and heat recovery with green benefits, utilities and infrastructure.
• AMI RockChain division (www.amirockchain.com) is a midstream, technology-enabled business that deploys its proprietary RockChain™ digital platform, associated industry econometrics, supply-chain algorithms, quality-assurance & safety programs to bring customers integrated supply-delivery solutions of industrial minerals to industry, infrastructure and construction sectors.
  • TerraShift Engineering (www.terrashift.ca) was acquired by AMI RockChain in June 2020. TerraShift offers engineering and project services, proprietary technology applications such as TerraMaps, with expertise in resource exploration & development, mine planning, environmental reclamation and remediation, regulatory approvals, and compliance reporting, serving a growing customer base across Western Canada and Ontario.

For further information, please contact:
Tanya Finney, Director, Investor and Stakeholder Relations
Tel: 587-391-0548 / Email: tanya.finney@athabascaminerals.com

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.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain statements or disclosures relating to Athabasca that are based on the expectations of its management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Athabasca which may constitute forward-looking statements or information ("forward-looking statements") under applicable securities laws. All such statements and disclosures, other than those of historical fact, which address activities, events, outcomes, results or developments that Athabasca anticipates or expects may, or will occur in the future (in whole or in part) should be considered forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of the words "would", "will", "anticipates", believes", "explores" and similar expressions.

Athabasca believes the material factors, expectations and assumptions reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable at this time but no assurance can be given that these factors, expectations and assumptions will prove to be correct. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are not guarantees of future performance and should not be unduly relied upon. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements including, without limitation: a significant expansion in COVID-19 restricting or prohibiting the operation of the Athabasca's facilities or significantly impacting the Company's supply chain; the duration and extent of the relatively low global oil prices; general economic, market and business conditions including those in the event of an epidemic, natural disaster or other event; increased costs and expenses; reliance on industry partners; and certain other risks detailed from time to time in Athabasca's public disclosure documents including, without limitation, those risks identified in this news release, and in Athabasca's annual information form, copies of which are available on Athabasca's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Moreover, the duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is unknown at this time and it is not possible to reliably estimate the length and severity of these developments and the impact on the financial results and condition of the Company.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Furthermore, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Corporation does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

Additional information on these and other factors that could affect the Corporation's operations and financial results are included in this news release and may be accessed under Athabasca's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/84553