The nepheline
discovery
High-grade nepheline, valuable to the high-end glass market, outcrops at surface at the Black Bay Property over an area at least 1 km long and up to 200 m wide.
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A rare commercial
opportunity
Given bullish global trends — including a rapidly growing solar industry — Atlas is eager to follow up on its 2016–2017 nepheline discovery at Black Bay. Analysis by SGS Lakefield of a bulk sample suggests the nepheline is amenable to processing to a high-value product. The discovery, yet to be tested at depth by drilling, is just six kilometres from tidewater and accessible by paved road.
Commercial nepheline deposits are rare. The mineral is a source of aluminium, sodium and potassium, used primarily in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, extenders and fillers.
Feldspar substitutes for nepheline only because supply is limited. Nepheline's higher concentration of potassium and sodium delivers significant energy savings in industrial use — the melting point for glass, for example, drops sharply.
A rapidly growing solar industry — and the high-end glass market behind it — is driving fresh demand for high-purity nepheline concentrate.
Nepheline is prized by the high-end glass market — including the fast-growing solar panel industry.
Outcropping at surface,
untested at depth
A discovery made with a hammer and a map — now ready for its first-ever drill program.
- High-grade nepheline outcrops at surface over an area at least one kilometre long and up to 200 m wide — Atlas is planning near-term, first-ever drilling
- Acquired by staking; the initial surface discovery was made in 2016 from detailed bedrock mapping that yielded high-grade Al₂O₃ samples from a nepheline-bearing syenite
- Follow-up channel sampling in 2017 provided a 3.5-tonne bulk sample with favourable metallurgical results (SGS Lakefield), indicating widespread, consistent high-grade Al₂O₃ in all directions
- Mineralogy is predominantly nepheline, albite, K-feldspar and analcime — enriched in aluminum, sodium, and potassium with relatively low iron content, dominated by magnetite and biotite
- Preliminary metallurgical work concluded the alumina and alkali content is comparable to commercial nepheline deposits, with beneficiation results meeting industrial specifications
- Atlas is targeting a high-purity (low-iron) nepheline concentrate using magnetic separation
surface outcrop strike length
outcrop width
from tidewater, on a paved road