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Canada Nickel to leverage trolley assist, IPT carbon capture & storage at Crawford

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Canada Nickel Company has released the results of a bankable feasibility study (BFS) on its wholly-owned Crawford nickel sulphide project in Ontario, Canada that highlights the potential use of trolley-assist trucking and the company’s proprietary carbon capture and storage technology.

The BFS, prepared by Ausenco Engineering Canada, displayed an after-tax NPV (8% discount) of $2.5 billion and an internal rate of return of 17.1%. This is based on a long-term nickel price of $21,000/t, a C$:$US of $0.76 and an oil price of $70/bbl.

Crawford, in Timmins, Ontario, is the world’s second largest nickel reserve, according to Wood Mackenzie. Once in production, it is also expected to become one of Canada’s largest carbon storage facilities and be a net negative contributor of CO2 over the project life.

The study was based off proven and probable reserves of 3.8 Mt contained nickel from 1,700 Mt of ore grading 0.22% Ni, providing annual average nickel production of 38,000 t over a 41-year life, with production of 48,000 t/y of nickel, 800 t/y of cobalt, 13,000 oz of palladium and platinum, 1.6 Mt/y of iron and 76,000 t/y of chrome over 27-year peak period.

Crawford will produce two concentrates with life-of-mine average concentrate grades as follows:

  • Nickel concentrate: 34% Ni, 0.7% Co and 4.1 g/t combined Pd and Pt; and
  • Iron ore concentrate: 55% Fe, 0.3% Ni, 2.6% Cr.

The project’s carbon footprint has been calculated at 4.8 t CO2 per tonne of nickel in concentrate, or 2.3 t CO2 per tonne of nickel equivalent, largely due to the use of an electrically powered mining fleet, including trolley-assist trucks, that are expected to reduce diesel consumption by over 40% compared to diesel powered equipment.

Crawford will mine two separate open pits that contain approximately equal tonnages of ore. Approximately 89% of material mined will be rock, which will be drilled and blasted before being loaded by electrically powered rope shovels or large hydraulic excavators into 290 t trucks equipped with trolley assist. Over 70% of uphill hauls by this fleet will be conducted on trolley, reducing diesel consumption by approximately 1.5 billion litres, while faster speeds will reduce the fleet by 12 units, the company says. The remaining material will be overburden that will not require drilling and blasting and will be loaded and hauled with a mixed fleet of smaller equipment.

The concentrator will process ore using a conventional milling circuit. Unit operations include crushing, SAG and ball mill grinding, desliming, nickel flotation, magnetic separation on the flotation tailings and carbon storage using the company’s proprietary IPT (In-Process Tailings) Carbonation technology.

Crawford, and the company’s other properties in the Timmins Nickel District, are hosted in ultramafic rock, which contain minerals such as brucite that naturally absorb and sequester CO2. Canada Nickel has developed the novel IPT Carbonation process which involves injecting a concentrated source of CO2 into tailings generated by the milling process for a brief period of time. This simple process stores CO2 chemically in the tailings while they are still in the processing circuit, rather than after they have been finally deposited.

This technology is anticipated to allow capture and storage of 1.5 Mt/y of CO2 during the 27-year peak period, the bulk of which will be sold to third parties.

Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel, said: “This BFS is a significant milestone for Crawford and a major step forward in demonstrating the value of our Timmins Nickel District and its potential to anchor a Zero Carbon Industrial Cluster in the Timmins-Cochrane region. Crawford is poised to be a leader in the energy transition through the large-scale production of critical minerals, including nickel and cobalt, and is expected to become the sole North American producer of chromium, while also supporting Canada’s climate objectives through industrial-scale carbon capture and storage.

“I am very proud of our team for accomplishing this milestone in a very short amount of time. Just four years ago, Crawford had only five drill holes. Today, we believe it is a world-class project with tremendous momentum. We are fully focused on pursuing our next milestones of obtaining permits, developing a financing package, and moving towards a production decision by mid-2025, with a goal of first production by the end of 2027.”

Canada Nickel progresses carbon capture and storage test work for Crawford

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Canada Nickel Company Inc says the latest test work on material from its Crawford project, in Ontario, Canada, supports the incorporation of carbon capture and storage into the develoment.

The company has devised an In-Process Tailings (IPT) Carbonation process, which, it says, is a novel method for accelerated carbon capture and storage that it believes has transformative potential.

The latest test work conducted at Kingston Process Metallurgy (KPM) confirmed that existing process streams can be used for IPT Carbonation, which the company believes should allow it to be timely and cost effectively engineered and incorporated into the project flowsheet.

Crawford is hosted in ultramafic rock, which naturally absorbs and sequesters CO2, according to the company, with the potential to actively capture and sequester carbon being a key consideration in Canada Nickel’s acquisition of the 42 sq.km of target ultramafic rocks in the Timmins area.

Canada Nickel has developed an active process that uses tailings as generated in the milling process and injects a concentrated source of CO2 for a brief period of time. This process, IPT Carbonation, fixes CO2 geologically while the tailings are still in the processing circuit, rather than after they have been finally deposited.

The company believes that, given its relative simplicity, this process could be scaled up with availability of concentrated (rather than atmospheric) sources of CO2, with the CO2 potentially delivered by downstream processing of Crawford concentrates, a wide range of industrial processing activities, green hydrogen production, or carbon capture facilities.

Canada Nickel said: “The process demonstrates the potential to produce NetZero Nickel™ and NetZero Cobalt™ for the electric vehicle industry, NetZero Iron™ and chromium for the stainless steel industry and generate substantial carbon credits during the process. The company believes that the need for a concentrated source of CO2 for this process and the substantial CO2 capture and storage capacity potential of its ultramafic land position could form the basis for an entire Zero Carbon Industrial Cluster in the Timmins-Cochrane region.”

The latest results from further lab-scale testing at KPM confirmed that a blend of tailings expected to be produced by Crawford and thickened to an expected operating tailings density could be successfully carbonated with the IPT Carbonation process, the company said. This is a significant result to demonstrate the process at higher solids densities as the pulp density and the tailings residence time will be a key driver of the process capital and operating costs, it explained.

The testing also attempted to understand what ultimate carbon capture potential is possible and the test resulted in 37 t of CO2 captured per tonne of nickel – 34 t of that amount was captured within 25 hours. The 37 t figure is believed to represent a potential maximum and there is no certainty that such amount could be achieved in commercial operation, the company said.

As a result of these results, the integrated feasibility study for the project is expected to be delivered in the June quarter of 2023. This delay, the company says, has no impact on the overall timeline to production, with Canada Nickel continuing to target receipt of permits by mid-2025 with construction to follow.

Mark Selby, Chair and CEO of Canada Nickel, said: “We believe the Crawford project has the potential to be a case study in how critical minerals are developed in Ontario and Canada. Crawford is poised to support the energy transition through the large-scale production of critical minerals, including nickel and cobalt, and to become the sole North American producer of chromium, while also supporting the country’s climate objectives through large-scale carbon capture and storage.”

The company believes the successful incorporation of IPT Carbonation could also potentially allow a portion of its project capital expenditures to become eligible for the carbon capture and storage refundable investment tax credits of 37.5% to 60% from 2022-30 and 18.75% to 30% from 2031-40 announced in the 2022 federal budget documents in Canada.

Selby added: “We look forward to continuing our positive momentum in 2023 as we complete this integrated feasibility study for Crawford, continue to successfully advance the Crawford permitting process, work with our recently appointed financial advisors to advance its overall financing package and aggressively advance our recently acquired Texmont property with its potential for near-term production. We are also excited by our successful tests of the regional exploration potential at Reid, Deloro, Sothman and Reaume which, as they are hosted in the same mineralisation as Crawford, offer the same potential for integrated carbon capture and storage – setting the stage for a Zero Carbon Industrial Cluster in the Timmins-Cochrane region.”