Northstar Announces Project Economics For Its Calgary Scale Up Facility Based On Front-End Engineering Design
Julia Kennedy
on
April 1, 2022
Highlights
Key Additional Financial Considerations
- $7.6 Million in Potential Annual Revenue Per Facility (1)
- $4.9 Million in Potential Annual Gross Profit Per Facility (65% Gross Margin) (1)
- $4.0 Million in Potential Annual EBITDA (2) Per Facility (52% EBITDA(2) Margin) (1)
- Excludes Any Potential Carbon Credit Revenue or Sustainability “Green” Premium
- Numerous Potential Upside Opportunities Have Been Identified
- Total Hourly Processing Tonnage: 15 tonnes per hour
- Total Daily Processing Tonnage: 150 tonnes per day
- Total Annual Processing Tonnage: 34,200 tonnes per year
- Operational Assumptions:
- 10 hours per day (1 shift)
- 20 days per month (5 days per week)
- 95% operational capacity (maximum)
- 95% yield for liquid asphalt, fiber and aggregate
- Asphalt Shingle Product Composition:
- 25% liquid asphalt
- 25% fiber
- 50% aggregate

- Initial Capex: $11.7 million (based on FEED study)
- Carbon Credit Revenue: Nil
- Conservative Liquid Asphalt Price: As of February 2022, the average market price of the Edmonton “Rack Rate” over the last four years since January 2018 is $715 per tonne. The Company therefore believes that its pricing assumptions are conservative relative to market prices. In addition, the current Company pricing assumptions do not include a potential impact of either locational or quality differential for Northstar’s liquid asphalt.
- Potential ‘Green Premium’ Excluded From Pricing: The Company’s liquid asphalt price does not factor in any potential green premium. The Company believes its liquid asphalt product has the potential to be North America’s lowest carbon footprint asphalt and therefore could potentially command a premium to market prices.
- Operational Upside: The planned scale up facility is assumed to run 10 hours per day and 5 days a week. As a first step, the Company believes an extension of working days will allow facility operation of 24-28 days per month. In addition, on steady state operation of the first scale up facility, the Company will determine the operational potential to extend working hours each day beyond 10 hours of production. Both these elements, in turn, would potentially increase processing tonnage and further enhance project economics.
- Carbon Credit Revenue Excluded from Revenue Model: Carbon credits are not factored into the Company’s revenue model. The Company assumes 0% of carbon credits are sold throughout the life of the project. Given the previously released results of the Company’s independent life cycle assessment for the Empower Pilot Facility, the Company believes that it has the lowest carbon footprint of any asphalt in North America. The Company is currently undertaking a review of the range of potential carbon monetization options for the Company’s facilities.
- Conservative Municipal Landfill Tipping Fee Revenue: The Company’s revenue model assumes that the Company receives only 85% of its feedstock from landfill diversion, with the remaining 15% generating no tipping fee revenue. The model also assumes that the tipping fee pricing it receives will be at a discount to municipal landfill tipping fees and that tipping fees remain flat through term of the economics. Ultimately, the Company believes in time that it may be able to obtain revenue on all feedstock, decrease the discount on tipping fees and that overall tipping fees will be under pressure to increase, especially when diversion alternatives are available for hydrocarbon-based products.
- Conservative Operating Assumptions: The Company’s revenue model factors a facility capacity of 95%, includes a 2-week shutdown period (excluded from the capacity figures) and a 95% yield per product. The performance objectives for each facility will be to improve on availability (capacity) and product yield, with measurement systems included in the recent FEED study design to ensure transparency of that performance.
- Based on anticipated first full operational year.
- Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) is a Non-GAAP financial measure and refers to earnings determined in accordance with IFRS, before depreciation and amortization, interest expense (finance costs) and income tax expense. EBITDA should not be construed as alternatives to net income/loss determined in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). EBITDA does not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. The Company believes that EBITDA is a meaningful financial metric as it measures cash generated from operations which the Company can use to fund working capital requirements, service future interest and principal debt repayments and fund future growth initiatives.
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