Canada Nickel gives progress update to Timmins business community

Canada Nickel's Crawford project received federal-provincial fast-track status last year. CEO Mark Selby told the Timmins Chamber of Commerce what that means.

The Timmins Chamber of Commerce hosted a State of Mining luncheon recently and received an update from Canada Nickel’s chief executive officer.

Mark Selby told the audience that being designated as a nation-building project by the federal government has been a major boost.

“Investors, potential customers, potential partners around the world, you know, see that endorsement,” Selby said.

“They just took another big step forward. And then on the permitting side, you know, having effectively that ‘concierge service,’ you know, best way to describe it is, you know, we’re well down the permitting path with both the feds and the governor and the province.”

The company hopes to begin construction by the end of this year, once all permits are in place. Selby said tensions in the Middle East make projects like Crawford even more important.

“The only way you can have a material is if you’re able to source it locally, so it’s great news for Timmins, because we’re sitting on what is now the world’s largest nickel sulfide district,” he said.

‘Major game changer’

Selby’s update was well received by The Bucket Shop – a manufacturer and repair facility in Timmins.

“Major game changer, I mean for anybody within the region, right,” said Paul Woodward, vice-president of The Bucket Shop.

“At The Bucket Shop, we built for expansion, we built for growth, we built for these kinds of projects -- and we built them ahead of time.”

Mattagami First Nation Chief Jennifer Constant described Selby as one of the “nice ones” in the mining industry.

“Mark understands the relationship that is necessary and the need to build on that,” said Constant.

“They’ve come to us early, they’ve had discussions with us, they’ve proposed different things that, you know, different funding opportunities for our First Nation to be able to ... better equip us in our talks with them.”

Selby said the company’s also pushing forward with its carbon capture efforts and is working with the University of Texas and the Department of Energy.