For the Year Ended April 30, 2021
The Company's shares are listed for trading on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") under the trading symbol PLAN.
The following management discussion and analysis ("MD&A") is a review of the operations, current financial position and outlook for Progressive Planet Solutions Inc. ("the Company" or "Progressive") and should be read in conjunction with the Company's audited consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes for the year ended April 30, 2021, which were prepared using accounting policies consistent with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board ("IASB") and are filed on the SEDAR website: www.sedar.com .
All dollar figures included herein and in the following discussion and analysis are quoted in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.
This MD&A may contain forward-looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding events or results that may prove to be inaccurate as a result of exploration or other risk factors beyond its control. Actual results may differ materially from the expected results.
Certain information in this MD&A, including all statements that are not historical facts, constitutes forward‐ looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Such forward‐looking information may include, but is not limited to, information which reflect management's expectations regarding the Company's future growth, results of operations (including, without limitation, future production and capital expenditures), performance (both operational and financial) and business prospects (including the timing and development of new deposits and the success of exploration activities) and opportunities. Often, this information includes words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.
In making and providing the forward‐looking information included in this MD&A the Company's assumptions may include among other things: (i) assumptions about the price of metals; (ii) that there are no material delays in the optimisation of operations at the exploration and evaluation assets; (iii) assumptions about operating costs and expenditures; (iv) assumptions about future production and recovery; (v) that there is no unanticipated fluctuation in foreign exchange rates; and (vi) that there is no material deterioration in general economic conditions. Although management believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that the forward‐looking information will prove to be accurate. By its nature, forward‐looking information is based on assumptions and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or results, to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward‐looking information. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include among other things the following: (i) decreases in the price of base metals; (ii) the risk that the Company will continue to have negative operating cash flow; (iii) the risk that additional financing will not be obtained as and when required; (iv) material increases in operating costs; (v) adverse fluctuations in foreign exchange rates; and (vi) environmental risks and changes in environmental legislation.
This MD&A (See "Risks and Uncertainties") and the Company's annual information form contain information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward‐looking information. Although the Company
has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward‐looking information, there may be other factors that cause actual results, performances, achievements or events not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of the factors are beyond the Company's control. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward‐looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward looking information as a result of new information or events after the date of this MD&A except as may be required by law. All forward‐ looking information disclosed in this document is qualified by this cautionary statement.
Progressive Planet Solutions Inc. (the Company or PLAN) was incorporated under the Laws of British Columbia, Canada on November 10, 2006.
PLAN is primarily engaged in developing natural pozzolan properties in BC, Canada. Its three mineral properties are all within a one-hour drive of Kamloops, BC. These properties are named the Z1 Natural Pozzolan Property, the Z2 Natural Pozzolan Quarry, and the Heffley Creek Metals & Pozzolan Property.
On January 2, 2018, PLAN announced that Stephen Harpur had joined its board and accepted the role of President. Details can be found on PLAN's website at www.progressiveplanet.ca/past-releases/
In December 2018, Canada announced regulations to phase-out traditional coal-fired electricity by 2029. As Class F fly ash is only created by coal fired power plants, the generation of fly ash as a by-product of burning coal will cease in Canada by 2030. In the interim, the supply is already diminishing with early shutdowns already occurring. Further early shutdowns were announced in December 2020 by Capital Power announcing the early shutdown of the coal fired Genesee 1 and Genesee 2 in Alberta by 2023.
In addition, PLAN has built a Comminution Plant in Spallumcheen, BC. Comminution is defined by Wikipedia as "the reduction of solid materials from one average particle size to a smaller average particle size, by crushing, grinding, cutting, vibrating, or other processes." This comminution plant was designed to crush natural pozzolan from its Z1 Natural Pozzolan Quarry as well as post-consumer glass and soft rock phosphate soil amendments. This plant recently began crushing ore into fine powders for third party customers under toll processing arrangements. Under these toll processing arrangements, PLAN has no inventory or shipping costs and receives a processing fee for each tonne of finished product produced.
In addition to generating revenue under toll processing, the comminution plant is used to crush glass and blend it with Z1 Natural Pozzolan to supply test materials to various parties which are conducting testing on behalf of PLAN as it develops its first natural pozzolan product which has been named PozGlass SCM.
In 2021, PLAN is seeking to finish independent testing of PozGlass SCM so that it can introduce this product as a competitive substitute for fly ash in concrete as part of an overall strategy of developing cementitious products using natural pozzolans.
PLAN is allocating resources to development intellectual property with respect to sequestering CO2 in PozGlass SCM to further reduce its carbon footprint relative to Portland cement. To accelerate these efforts, PLAN opened a research lab in Calgary and hired a VP of Research and Development, subsequent to the end of the fiscal year.
As a junior mineral exploration company, the Company's core assets include the exploration rights to its mineral properties. In conjunction with developing its Heffley Creek Pozzolan and Metals Property, PLAN discovered nickel and chromium in both soil and bedrock in 2020.
PLAN is beginning to use mined pozzolan from its Z1 Natural Pozzolan Quarry where it has stockpiled approximately 7,000 tonnes of natural pozzolan that has been crushed on site to ¾ inch and ¼ inch aggregate. Approximately 135 tonnes of bagged fines were trucked from Cache Creek to the comminution plant in Spallumcheen in 2020. This material is being consumed for testing of PozGlass SSM as well as in sales for the denaturing of cannabis by a licensed cannabis extraction company.
Z1 Natural Pozzolan Property, British Columbia
On January 23, 2017, the Company announced the signing of an option agreement, subsequently amended, to acquire a 100% interest in the Z1 Zeolite Quarry/Mine located about 3 kms northeast of Cache Creek, BC. Details can be found on PLAN's website at www.progressiveplanet.ca/past-releases/
On January 17, 2018, the Company amended certain terms of the Z1 Zeolite agreement. The mending agreement afforded the Company an additional 12 months to meet the minimum expenditures requirement. Details can be found on PLAN's website at www.progressiveplanet.ca/past-releases/
On June 14, 2018, the Company completed all its option requirements on the Z1 Zeolite Property in Cache Creek, BC, six months ahead of the deadline to complete the minimum expenditures requirement. Details can be found on PLAN's website at www.progressiveplanet.ca/past-releases/
Since completing the acquisition of the Z1, PLAN has conducted various research activities on natural pozzolan from the Z1 including the development of PozGlass SCM to complete with fly ash as a lower carbon footprint substitute for Portland cement. Management determined that the largest market opportunity involved creating a supplementary cementing material (SCM) since the main SCM currently consumed in Canada is fly ash and fly ash is created from burning thermal coal to produce electricity.
In April 2021, PLAN announced the successful completion of Phase One of a Two Phase test program for its PozGlass™ SCM product.
In June 2021, PLAN announced the positive accelerated-cure Resistance to Chloride Ion Penetration (RCP) test results for its PozGlass™ SCM product. The Company is focused on delivering economic and eco-friendly solutions for the cement and concrete industry.
Phase Two testing has commenced and is focused on testing concrete durability, including compressive strength, chloride permeability testing (RCP) and sulphate resistance. Final tests on PozGlass SCM relating to its ability to protect against sulphates will be completed by October 2021.
Z2 Natural Pozzolan Property, British Columbia
On October 3, 2019, the Company entered into a property option agreement to acquire the Z-2 Zeolite Property for the following considerations:
In relation to the acquisition, the Company is also required to issue the following as finder's fees:
The vendor will retain a royalty of $8 per tonne of mineral products produced from the property, subject to a 50% buyback right in consideration of $75,000.
No work was completed on the Z2 Natural Pozzolan Property in 2020 as management's efforts were focused on its two other properties. This work included completing the application to renew the Notice of Work (operating permit) for the Z1 Natural Pozzolan Property and completing exploration for nickel and chromium on the Heffley Creek Pozzolan and Metals Property.
Management remains optimistic regarding Z2's ability to supply natural pozzolan to the cement industry. Testing of the Z2 natural pozzolan for compressive strength showed that this pozzolan had excellent compressive strength.
It is management's intention to keep this property in good standing with the long-term goal of completing a successful Notice of Work for the Z-2 so that natural pozzolan from this property can be used to supply the cement industry as the supply of Class F fly ash continues to diminish in Canada.
Heffley Creek Metals and Pozzolan Property, British Columbia
On February 24, 2020, the Company entered into an option agreement to acquired 100% interest in Heffley Creek Natural Pozzolan Property in Heffley Creek, BC, for the following consideration:
The vendor will retain a royalty of $8 per tonne of industrial mineral products produced from the property, subject to a 75% buyback right in consideration of $150,000. The vendor will also retain a 3% NSR subject to a 50% buyback right in consideration of $1,500,000.
PLAN optioned this property after conducting surface sampling which confirmed the presence of alumino- silicates (natural pozzolans), magnesium, and anomalous gold and silver. Five rock samples were taken and one soil sample. PLAN's original interest in the property was for its potential as a further source of natural pozzolans near Kamloops, BC. When surface sampling was done to confirm the presence of natural pozzolans, it revealed the presence of anomalous gold and silver in the soil (0.28 g/tonne gold and 1.6 g/tonne silver). PLAN thus requested the precious metal rights to the property in addition to the industrial mineral rights originally sought. The vendor agreed to option the precious metals rights.
The field exploration program was led by Dwayne Melrose, a director of PLAN and a professional geologist. When PLAN optioned Heffley Creek, the owner of the mineral claims believed there was potential for gold on the property. Since PLAN was required to spend $275,000 on exploration on the property to earn a 100% interest, it commenced soil and hard rock sampling during the 2020 field exploration season and submitted these samples for precious metals assays.
In July 2020, PLAN received its first assays back from its soil and hard rock sampling and discovered that many of these samples had elevated nickel content.
In early August 2020, PLAN announced that the nickel in soil anomaly was over 500 meters long and by mid- August, PLAN announced that it had confirmed the presence of nickel in bedrock at Heffley Creek.
In late October 2020, PLAN announced that it has expanded the nickel in bedrock to a strike length of 800 meters and also confirmed anomalous chromium in bedrock with a strike length of 800 meters.
The field exploration program ended in November 2020 with the onset of snowfall in the area. PLAN subsequently completed the expenditure of the flow through funds it raised in December 2019 by conducting further detailed assaying on over two hundred rock samples collected during the field season. In addition, work was completed by ALS Metallurgy on rock lithologies to better understand the geological environment at Heffley Creek.
Management intends to apply to drill this property in 2021, subject to receiving the necessary drill permits.
Through April 30, 2021, PLAN has spent over $500,000 on building a comminution plant and equipment. This plant was designed to produce fine powders from natural pozzolan mined from the Z1 Natural Pozzolan Quarry as well as being able to pulverize post-consumer glass down to a fine powder. PLAN is developing a supplementary cementing material, PozGlass SCM, which is a combination of Z1 Natural Pozzolan and finely ground post-consumer glass.
The comminution plant consists of a jaw crusher, a hammer mill, a ball mill, and an air classifier which separates particles by their weight. Ancillary equipment includes conveyors, fans, dust collection systems, etc.
As a general rule of thumb, natural pozzolans are more reactive as a component of cement when the particles are smaller. Cement industry users expect particles to be less than 45 microns and the American Society of Tests and Measures (ASTM) developed standard specifications for ground glass pozzolan in 2020. These standards are identified as ASTM C1866/C1866M-20. These specific standards require that 95% of the ground glass pozzolan is smaller than 45 microns.
In the Fall of 2019, a regional toll processing comminution plant in southern Alberta closed. PLAN purchased some of its equipment and filled a market gap to produce fine powders with the commissioning of its comminution plant in Spallumcheen, BC in late August 2020. PLAN invoiced its first customer for comminution toll processing in October 2020.
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Progressive Planet Solutions Inc. published this content on 02 August 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 02 August 2022 21:31:12 UTC.