Mining company says Timmins could supplant Sudbury as global nickel capital
Deposits being explored in the Timmins area could become major source of high-quality nickel for the electric car battery market.
That's the word from officials with Canada Nickel, which is working on developing its Crawford deposit. It's also excited about another find, the Reid Property, located 16 kilometres southwest of Crawford, or 37 kilometres northwest of Timmins.
Mark Selby, Canada Nickel CEO and director, told a news conference this week that deposits in the area have the potential to become one of the largest sources of nickel for EV batteries in the world.
"We're really talking about building one of the world's largest nickel sulfide districts, you know, potentially larger than Sudbury," Selby said Tuesday.
"(We're) in a point in time where the market is desperate for large-scale, scalable low-carbon sources of nickel to be able to have a nickel for the electric vehicles that everybody would like to produce over the next few months."
That's important as demand for electric cars – and nickel – increases, putting the squeeze on supply. He said nickel production at Vale in Ontario and Manitoba has plummeted in the last 15 years as viable ore deposits become harder to find.
"Production at Inco Sudbury, has, you know, fallen dramatically since the Vale took it over in 2007," Selby said.
"Production at Thompson (Manitoba mine) is 75 per cent lower than where it was in 2007."
While production globally is stagnant, he said demand is about to sharply increase.
"Nickel is about to go through one of its supercycles, as we get this large new source of demand from the electric vehicle market," he said.
The deposits contain low-carbon nickel that customers are demanding, as opposed to nickel from China or Indonesia. And with agreements in place with First Nations in the area, they are well-positioned to supply the EV market.
"The auto industry is not going to depend on Chinese-controlled supply," Selby said.
"Given the fact that the adoption rate of electric vehicles is well ahead of what most people had expectations-wise just a few years ago, we really do need to double (global nickel) supply."
And the tailings from the extracted nickel actually absorbs carbon, he said. Within a year, he said it forms into a substance that absorbs carbon.
"That rock reaches out to the atmosphere, grabs a CO2 molecule and permanently sequesters that carbon in a mineral called magnesite," Selby said.
"We think this is a very, very big breakthrough in terms of being able to capture carbon globally."
Longer-term, he expects Canada Nickel will attract interest from major mining companies, making the comparison with Noront Resources, recently bought by Wyloo Metals.
"We had a massive bidding war for Noront earlier this year," Selby said.
"We're obviously one of those new deposits that are out there and we expect to get some pretty significant interest from the majors as we move forward."
See Selby's full presentation here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
First court appearance for boy and girl charged in death of Halifax 16-year-old
A girl and a boy, both 14 years old, made their first appearance today in a Halifax courtroom, where they each face a second-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of a 16-year-old high school student.