TIMMINS - An injection of provincial cash is helping a large nickel project in Timmins develop its innovative processing facility.
Today, Minister of Mines George Pirie was at Northern College to announce a new round of funding in the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund (CMIF), which was launched in Timmins in 2022. At the time it was slated to be a two-year funding stream, however, the province pledged to back it for another three years in 2024.
Seventeen projects are receiving over $7 million in today's round of funding, though only two specific projects were listed: $495,740 for NetZero Metals for its low carbon, low-cost nickel processing facility, and $223,552 to EV Nickel Inc. for its bioleaching process project and its final design for a Timmins pilot plant to produce high-grade clean nickel.
NetZero Metals is the processing side of Canada Nickel, which is working towards a zero-emission open-pit mine 40 kilometres north of Timmins at its flagship Crawford Project.
Primarily used to make stainless steel, the demand for nickel is growing with the push for electric vehicles.
Canada Nickel is looking to have two processing plants for the Crawford project.
Coal is typically used as a reducing agent to process nickel, said Pierre-Philippe Dupont, Canada Nickel vice president of sustainability.
"What ... we will do is replace the coal (with) biochar. So we're going to test that as part of this ... pilot plant process. This is what the funding will support," he said.
The Crawford project is moving ahead at "the speed of light," said Dupont. It's currently in the federal impact assessment process, and they hope to be in production by the end of 2027.
The company, said Dupont, is in talks with numerous partners for where the processing plants will be located. Ideally, they're looking for a location to house both of the required processing facilities.
Given the current political climate south of the border, Timmins MPP and Minister of Mines George Pirie said now is an appropriate time for the announcement.
Next week, after U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump is sworn into office, he said a 25 per cent tariff will likely be imposed on Canada.
"That will change dramatically the economies of not only Ontario, but certainly Canada. The part of the country that's going to be affected most will be Ontario," he said.
"So this is a very appropriate time of investing in these companies, these local companies, to advance the recovery and processing of nickel.""
