Athabasca Minerals Signs Definitive Agreement with Al-Pac for Repurposing Treated Waste-Water for AMI’s Prosvita Sand Project

Edmonton, Alberta–(Newsfile Corp. – March 16, 2022) – Athabasca Minerals Inc. (TSXV: AMI) (“AMI”, “Athabasca” or the “Corporation”) announces a Definitive Agreement (the “Agreement”) with Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc. (“Al-Pac”), effective March-1st, 2022 for the construction, operation, and supply of treated industrial wastewater for AMI’s Prosvita Sand Project (the “Prosvita Project”), which borders Al-Pac’s industrial operations in Athabasca County, Alberta.

The Agreement supports the Prosvita Project objective of establishing one of the greenest sand processing facilities in North America. Pending regulatory approval, a portion of Al-Pac’s treated industrial wastewater will be directed to and re-used by AMI at its neighboring operation for washing and hydro-sizing its premium domestic sand into various products and byproducts needed for construction, energy, environmental and landscape applications. The treated industrial wastewater used by AMI will be retained and recycled in a closed-loop system, with any make-up water resulting from evaporation (drying) losses to be incrementally added from Al-Pac’s treated industrial wastewater system.

In June-2021, Athabasca Minerals, through its subsidiary AMI Silica Inc., filed an application for regulatory approval with Alberta Environment & Parks to develop an 800,000 tonne/year wash-dry sand facility, known as the Prosvita Sand Project. The Prosvita Project will process premium domestic sand from AMI’s White Tail Sand Deposit, situated in lands adjacent to Al-Pac’s industrial operations, and which contains at least 12 million tonnes of recoverable reserve as previously reported in the Corporation’s June-21st, 2021 news release.

Robert Beekhuizen, Chief Executive Officer of AMI states: “The agreement with Al-Pac identifies industrial synergies between Al-Pac’s pulp operation and AMI’s upcoming Prosvita Sand Project that are beneficial environmentally, operationally and economically. The integration of Al-Pac’s treated industrial wastewater into AMI’s sand operations is a key step in our sustainable development plan for the project. We look forward to advancing the Prosvita Project through detailed engineering & construction and bringing into operation over the next 2-3 years. Introducing premium domestic sand products from Prosvita’s operations will be good for the regional economy and customers as it augments the predominant supply of imported American sand with an equivalent, high-quality, local alternative.”

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 Silica, (www.amisilica.com) with resource holdings and business interests in Alberta, North-East BC, and the United States; AMI Aggregates, with aggregates from its corporate pits and which manages the Coffey Lake Public Pit for the Government of Alberta; Métis North Sand & Gravel which is a strategic partnership with the McKay Métis Group to deliver aggregates to the energy, infrastructure, and construction sectors in the Wood Buffalo region; AMI RockChain, a technology-enabled business using its proprietary RockChain™ digital platform, automated supply-chain and logistics solutions, quality-assurance & safety programs to deliver products across Canada; and TerraShift Engineering which conducts resource exploration, regulatory, mining, environmental and reclamation engineering for a growing nation-wide customer base and is also the developer of its proprietary TerraMaps™ software.

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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 that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Corporation undertakes no obligations to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

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