Thunder Bay mine developer Clean Air Metals is expressing an interest in developing a business arrangement with Impala Canada on its soon-to-be-idled processing mill at Lac des Iles (LDI) mine.
The upcoming cessation of operations at LDI at the end of May 2026 by Impala Canada presents “a potential new opportunity” for Clean Air to take advantage of some existing processing capacity in the area, the company said in delivering an update on its Thunder Bay North palladium-platinum project.
Clean Air delved into its strategy for its mine project, situated 40 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, with the release of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on Oct. 9.
The PEA forecasts an 11-year mine life, with two years of pre-production tacked on over a 24-month construction period.
In an interview, Clean Air Metals president-CEO Mike Garbutt said it makes “total sense” for its mined material to be processed at LDI. The mine and mill complex is only 65 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay North and is road accessible.
In a news release this month, Clean Air boldly floated the idea of acquiring the entire LDI complex, but the company has not revealed any financing plan to do that.
Garbutt confirmed they have made an outreach to Impala about a possible business transaction.
“There are currently no discussions ongoing, or planned,” he said.
LDI is Impala Canada’s only asset in Canada.
LDI is also familiar ground for Clean Air chair Jim Gallagher. He was the former CEO of North American Palladium (a previous owner of the mine) brought in during 2015 to reboot the mine after the company emerged from CCAA protection, prior to its sale to Impala Platinum in 2019.
In responding to Northern Ontario Business, Impala is shutting down any talk about LDI entering into a toll-milling arrangement with an outside company.
“Expressions of interest in the Lac des Iles complex are not uncommon. Over the years, companies have approached us regarding the asset itself, tolling arrangements, and various partnership models,” replied Emily Robb, Impala Canada’s communications director.
“To date, none have progressed into substantive discussions or negotiations.”
Impala declined to confirm if Clean Air Metals had reached out to them and CEO Tim Hill on an exploration discussion basis on possible use of the LDI mill.
Robb replied it’s not company practice to discuss queries to its business.
Furthermore, Robb said, LDI “has not been put up for sale.”
In its closure announcement last July, Impala blamed slumping palladium prices for their decision to cease operations in mid-2026.
The price of palladium is on track for its best year since 2017. The spot price for palladium is up 56 per cent so far this year, with its sister metal, platinum, up 76 per cent.
With the metal price now on the upswing, Impala isn’t giving any indication if operations will continue at LDI past next May.
Robb called the uptick in the spot price “encouraging” after a long period of low pricing.
“However, any changes to our business plan would require careful consideration multiple factors, including price forecasts, required capital investment, and operating costs.”
Robb said Impala will “continue to monitor the evolving landscape closely” in driving their business decisions.
“When designing our operating and post-operations plans, we take a broad view, always focused on delivering the best outcomes for our employees, shareholders, and the local communities.”
At last count, there remains plenty of platinum group elements still in the ground at Lac des Iles.
According to Implats' 2025 annual report, LDI contained a mineral reserve of 270,000 ounces of platinum group elements, along with a mineral resource estimate of 5.99 million ounces of platinum and 5.11 million ounces of palladium in the measured, indicated and inferred categories.
Garbutt said setting up a toll-milling arrangement with Impala, instead of building their own mill infrastructure, would save them a lot of money from the outset, though Garbutt said they haven’t yet costed out the price tag of a mill and tailings facility.
“But we believe it’s enough to potentially create a very interesting business case.”
Clean Air Metals has not yet made a construction decision at Thunder Bay North, but they are eager to put it on a fast-track to production.
Clear Air Metals is portraying Thunder Bay North as a high-grade underground platinum and palladium mine that would be cheap to put into production at $89.5 million.
The project contains two separate deposits — dubbed Current and Escape — running parallel to each other and about two and half kilometres apart.
Deep exploration continues at Escape, but the resource calculation for the two-deposit project shows a 14.9-million tonne platinum and palladium in the indicated resources category, grading 2.66 grams per tonne with copper and nickel in the mix.
The PEA said it offers a quick, two-and-a-half-year payback for the company and its shareholders.
Since there’s high-grade material close to the surface, the plan is to drive a ramp underground at Current that would continue over to Escape.
Given that the federal and provincial governments are placing an emphasis on expediting approvals on critical minerals mining, Garbutt said the company wants to move quickly toward a production decision.
He said there remains a lot of moving parts before the project is greenlit, but their environmental baseline program is well advanced.
“There’s a lot of work do to do,” said Garbutt. “We want to move as fast as possible.”