Canada Nickel launches ESIA at Crawford Project, Ontario
Canada Nickel Company Inc. [CNC-TSXV; CNIKF-OTCQB] said Thursday April 8 that it has launched an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) at its 100%-owned Crawford nickel-cobalt sulphide project in northern Ontario.
“Canada Nickel is rapidly advancing the development of the Crawford mine to deliver NetZero Nickel and Cobalt products in a sustainable, environmentally responsible way,” said Canada Nickel Chair and CEO Mark Selby.
“We will be announcing results from our preliminary economic analysis (PEA) shortly and expect the feasibility study to be completed by year-end, therefore we want to begin this critical ESIA work as quickly as possible,” Selby said.
“Initiating environmental data acquisition and our social engagement process at this early stage sends a clear signal of the importance that the company places in reducing its environmental footprint and building lasting and meaningful relationships with all project stakeholders,” he added.
The company has hired Transfer Environmental Society (TES), a consulting firm specializing in community engagement, to support the company in designing and implementing a rigorous community consultation process.
On Thursday, Canada Nickel shares rose 2.2% or $0.07 to $3.27 in light trading The shares are trading in a 52-week range of $4.54 and 42 cents.
Canada Nickel is launching the ESIA after recently entering into a non-binding MOU with Glencore Canada Corp. to examine the potential use of Glencore’s Kidd concentrator and metallurgical site in Timmins, Ont., for the treatment and processing of material mined from the Crawford nickel-cobalt sulphide project.
Crawford is located 40 km north of Glencore’s operations in the Timmins-Cochrane area of northern Ontario.
“The opportunity to utilize the excess capacity and existing infrastructure at the Kidd met site provides the potential to allow a faster, simpler, smaller-scale start-up of Crawford at a vastly lower capital cost while the company continues to permit and develop a much-larger-scale project currently being contemplated,” Selby said recently.
He said the nickel market is increasingly driven by demand for nickel from the electric vehicle (EV) market which will require new nickel projects to be built over the coming decade.
Canada Nickel is exploring a number of key technologies in a bid to establish Crawford as a zero-carbon footprint operation. They include the utilization of rope shovels and trolley trucks which utilize electricity rather than diesel fuel as a power source wherever possible.