Ring of Fire mine developer Wyloo said it remains committed to siting a nickel processing in plant in Sudbury in the wake of the province’s recent launch of its $500-million Critical Minerals Processing Fund.
The Australian miner reaffirmed in an email to Northern Ontario Business that Sudbury remains its preferred host city to process nickel mined and transported south from its proposed Eagle’s Nest mine in the James Bay region.
The Perth-headquartered company created excitement in the Nickel City last year by signing a memorandum of understanding with the City of Greater Sudbury and two area First Nations toward securing a parcel of land for a battery materials processing facility.
The estimated price tag of such a processing plant, more than a year ago, ranged between 800 million to $900 million. A location within the city has not yet been disclosed.
In remarks attributed to Wyloo CEO Luca Giacovazzi, the company welcomed the launch of the fund, but said its current focus is on the controllables.
Construction timelines on a Sudbury plant are contingent on other mine-related infrastructure components and Indigenous support coming together.
“Our immediate priority remains on advancing the Eagle’s Nest Project in partnership with First Nation communities,” said Giacovazzi.
“We are also committed to supporting Ontario’s critical minerals ecosystem through a proposed downstream facility in Sudbury, but this will only move forward once Eagle’s Nest is built, fully supported by the communities involved and connected with the necessary infrastructure into the Ring of Fire.”
The possibility of expanding Sudbury's nickel processing capacity is one that Mayor Paul Lefebvre has been keen to promote.
For the first time since high-grade nickel was discovered at McFaulds Lake in Ontario’s Far North in 2007, things are finally looking up on the development front.
The Ford government pushed through its red tape-cutting Bill 5 (Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act) last summer, despite howls of protest from Indigenous political and environmental groups, which sets the stage to expedite mining, infrastructure and energy projects through the bureaucracy.
The kicker is the signing of two landmark Community Partnership Agreements this fall between the Ontario government and Webequie and Marten Falls First Nations, a green flag that road construction of a north-south access road network will commence in mid-2026.
In his statement, Giacovazzi said the processing fund demonstrates the province’s leadership and commitment toward building a domestic minerals supply chain.
“We applaud the province’s bold vision and are evaluating how our projects might align with this initiative as Ontario positions itself as a global powerhouse in critical minerals.”
Wyloo did not confirm the timing of the filing of its application to access these funds through Invest Ontario, the Crown agency designated to review processing plant applications.
Those businesses looking for details to determine if their project was eligible for funding are being directed to the agency’s website.
Last week, provincial Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli somewhat vaguely described Invest Ontario’s due diligence process as depending on the “breadth and depth of the (applying) company.” He did not elaborate if there was a funding cap per project, saying only that each application being “assessed on their merit and own value.”
The $500-million funding pool will be dispensed over three years. Fedeli said if company proponents apply early, their applications can be process in “as few as four months.”
Also chiming in, in support of the Critical Minerals Processing Fund (CMPF), was Rock Tech Lithium, an aspiring German-Canadian mine builder and processor with a lithium deposit north of Red Rock and big plans for a lithium conversion plant on the community’s brownfield waterfront.
The company has broken ground to start construction of its first lithium refinery in Germany. Rock Tech has not yet started construction to build a mine nor refinery in northwestern Ontario.
"We applaud the Government of Ontario for taking bold action to support critical minerals development," said Rock Tech CEO Mirco Wojnarowicz in a statement.
"With the CMPF now approved, Ontario is sending a clear signal that it intends to lead in battery materials. Our converter in Red Rock, built on the engineering and experience behind our EU CRMA (European Union Critical Raw Materials Act) Strategic Project in Germany, is exceptionally well positioned to help deliver the processing capacity the province needs to compete globally."