Canada Nickel plants would upgrade Ontario processing

Canada Nickel (TSXV: CNC; US-OTC: CNIKF) says it plans to build two metal processing plants that could cost more than US$1 billion to serve the world’s largest nickel sulphide project it’s developing in northern Ontario.

Studies due this year will have more definitive cost estimates covering the three-stage development of the plants to process nickel and to produce stainless-steel and alloys, Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby said by phone in Toronto. The company, backed by almost $50 million in investments from Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) and Anglo American (LSE: AAL), is now choosing sites near Timmins.

Investments in new plants would substantially boost local infrastructure in a historical nickel mining area that has seen few upgrades in decades. The nickel processing plant, planned for a 2027 start-up along with the giant Crawford project nearby, would be the largest in North America while the stainless-steel factory would be Canada’s biggest, the company said.

"It's an opportunity to capture significant amount of additional value over and above just producing the concentrates at Crawford," Selby told the The Northern Miner. "Most critically, it provides the missing link in the whole mine-to-electric-vehicle strategy."

Canada Nickel aims the plants to be carbon-neutral to address growing demand for environmentally friendly production. How the plants demonstrate zero-carbon nickel production could transform the industry, Toronto-based investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald said in a note on Thursday.