Critical Minerals

The Ontario Critical Minerals strategy was released in 2022 and outlined the province’s five-year roadmap to secure Ontario’s position as a global leader in responsibly sourced critical minerals. Off the back of this announcement, 2022 saw a 41% year-by-year increase in Ontario’s critical mineral production. Meanwhile, critical minerals exploration expenditures in Ontario amounted to C$328 million in 2022 and accounted for 33% of all exploration expenditures in the province.

Ontario has immense potential to be a leading critical minerals producer. In 2022, Ontario was responsible for a third of Canada’s copper production, 45% of its nickel production, and 77% of its Platinum Group Elements (PGE) production, by value.

Nickel

Magna Mining navigated the difficult financing environment for juniors and is fully funded to complete its exploration programs throughout 2024. Upon completing its acquisition of Lonmin Canada in late 2022, Magna Mining added the past-producing Crean Hill property to its portfolio. Magna’s strategy of acquiring brownfield sites like Crean Hill is likely to make the permitting processes smoother. “Both the Crean Hill and Shakespeare projects are already impacted brownfield sites, so that’s a great platform from which to achieve high standards of compliance with ESG objectives,” explained Jason Jessup, CEO of Magna Mining.

In the Timmins Nickel district, Canada Nickel’s Crawford project is claimed to have the second-largest nickel reserve globally. Thanks to the deposit being hosted in ultra-mafic rock, there is potential for Crawford to double as a carbon sequestration project, absorbing CO2 from the air. “Our location in Ontario grants access to low-carbon electricity from the grid, enabling us to produce a 34% nickel concentrate with a minimal carbon footprint. We can store 35 t of CO2 for every ton of nickel produced, resulting in a net negative 30 t CO2 footprint,” said Mark Selby, CEO, Canada Nickel Company.

The nickel sulfides from projects like Crawford are generally easier and less carbon-intensive to process than the laterite ores commonly mined in places like Indonesia, the world’s largest nickel producer. This lends great potential for Ontario to produce class 1 nickel, suitable for battery technologies for Ontario’s budding EV industry. “Car companies prefer their supply chain to be located as close to auto operations as possible. Ontario is one of the few places in the world where we mine metals and produce cars, allowing us to be a part of an integrated supply chain,” continued Selby.

Ontario’s players have been collaborating, sharing their resources and expertise, and leveraging economies of scale. Noble Mineral Exploration (Noble) has been collaborating with Spruce Ridge Resources and Canada Nickel on various projects, and has identified new collaborative projects to work on: “We have identified satellite projects associated with Canada Nickel's operations, and the project we have optioned to them has the potential to generate accretive value for both Noble and Canada Nickel,” said Vance White, Noble’s president and CEO.

Building a local EV supply chain

With increasing geopolitical tensions and pressure to decarbonize, critical mineral producers will be competing on more than just price. “Lithium can be sourced in many jurisdictions overseas. However, this can come with the risk of political uprisings and other uncontrollable risks,” explained Allan Frame, president and CEO, Beyond Lithium.

Offtakers are increasingly considering ESG credentials and seeking to source from stable, safe jurisdictions like Canada. “As EVs become more popular, companies are working to produce ‘passports’ for their batteries, allowing insight into where the nickel was sourced,” explained Russell Bradford, managing director, Aston Minerals.

Digital battery passports (DBPs) are emerging as a digital technology that provides stakeholders with data in support of the sustainable management of batteries, with the EU mandating that every new battery of more than 2 kWh must have its own passport by 2027. “Battery manufacturers do not want their nickel originating from a supplier with poor ESG credentials,” Bradford continued.

Ontario’s juniors are confident in their jurisdiction’s reputation as a socially and environmentally conscious mining destination. “Although there is potential supply coming online from Asia that could impact nickel prices, I think that the high-grade, low-carbon intensity nickel that we will be producing here in Sudbury will always have a place in the global supply chain,” said Jason Jessup of Magna Mining.