Atlas Salt Advances Newfoundland Salt Project Into Construction as Debt Financing Process Gets Underway

• Atlas Salt has moved its Great Atlantic Salt Project from planning into active construction, with earthworks contractors now mobilized on site.
• The Town of St. George's has confirmed a single permit now covers the full scope of early construction work, removing the need for separate approvals for each activity.
• The company is working to secure loan funding for the project, with early interest from lenders, financing partners, and export credit agencies.
• A completed feasibility study supports the project's long term value and points to a payback period of roughly four years.
• The project is designed to supply road salt to markets in the northeastern United States, eastern Canada, and the Atlantic provinces.

Atlas Salt (TSXV: SALT | OTCQX: SALQF | FRA: 9D00) said construction, permitting, and financing activity at its Great Atlantic Salt Project in Newfoundland and Labrador has advanced, with earthworks contractors mobilized on site and the company now pursuing debt financing to help fund the project. The update, issued July 07, 2026, marks a shift the company described as moving the project decisively from planning into execution, a distinction investors in development stage mining companies typically watch closely as a signal of reduced construction risk.

Construction & Permitting Details

Following the start of Early Works construction announced February 27, 2026, Atlas Salt's surface earthworks contractor, On Grade Construction, mobilized to site in early May and has been carrying out vegetation clearing, grubbing, and earthworks across the project footprint, along with installation of temporary drainage infrastructure and erosion and sediment controls. Planned activities in the coming months include construction of access roads, laydown areas for temporary facilities, and earthworks to shape site terraces, stockpile foundations, and diversion ditches.

On the permitting side, the Town of St. George's issued a Development Permit on April 30, 2026, and later confirmed in writing that the permit covers the full scope of the approved Early Works plan, rather than requiring separate municipal applications for each work package.

President and Chief Executive Officer of Atlas Salt, Nolan Peterson, said this reflects a broader shift in the project's status:

"With construction crews on site, our Town Development Permit confirmed for the full Early Works program, and the financing process under way, the Great Atlantic Salt Project has moved decisively from planning into execution."

Project Location & Context

The Great Atlantic Salt Project is located on the west coast of Newfoundland and is designed to supply de-icing road salt to markets in the northeastern United States, eastern Canada, and the Atlantic provinces, which management has described as critically underserved by existing supply sources. The project's underground development will require a drift, with the box cut providing access to that drift identified as the next major construction milestone, still many months away.

Economic Context

The project's financing plans are supported by a completed feasibility study, which estimated the project's overall value at $920 million and a payback period of about 4.2 years, based on steady state production of 4.0 million tonnes of salt per year. Peterson described the shift from pre-development spending to construction funded within the feasibility study as a key turning point for the project:

"This is now actual money that is actual permanent works, part of the actual project, not just getting ready for it."

Atlas Salt's financing advisor, Endeavour Financial, is supporting the company's efforts to secure loan funding, which include early stage interest from a range of lenders, financing partners, and export credit agencies across multiple jurisdictions. These discussions remain preliminary and non-binding.

Resource & Development Scope

The project also holds separate provincial permits covering a broad range of early construction work, giving the company more than a year of approved development activity before it will need further permits to begin underground drift construction. Hatch is engaged as the project's engineering partner, working to turn the feasibility study's estimates into detailed, construction ready plans that support the project's production target.

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