As Ontario braces for U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff order expected next week, it’s ramping up its investment in the critical minerals sector.
It’s funneling more than $7 million through the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund to 17 projects.
“Our natural resources are essential to the execution of the AM CAN Plan,” said Stephen Crawford, associate minister of mines.
“That is another reason why the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund is so important.”
“We’re focusing on nickel, right now because of course, that’s what these announcements are about,” said Mines Minister George Pirie.
“But we’ve got the critical minerals. We’ve got niobium south of James Bay, we have rare earths 20 miles west of Otter Rapids.”
There’s also phosphates, graphite and cesium 20 miles west of Lake Abitibi, Pirie added.
“And cesium is absolutely essential for national defence,” he said.
“There’s no global production of cesium, but it’s stockpiled by the Chinese.”
Accelerating research
The province wants to accelerate research and speed up the development and commercialization of innovative technologies to meet the increasing global demand for critical minerals needed to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles.
Canada Nickel’s NetZero Metals and EV Nickel, which operate in the Timmins area, are two companies on board. Together, they’re receiving $659,000.
“The Government of Ontario has been very supportive of all the work we’ve been doing since the beginning of, like, you know, us developing the Crawford Nickel project,” said Pierre-Philippe Dupont, vice-president of sustainability for Canada Nickel Company.
“And now the extension of this is NetZero Metals, which would be the processing aspect … Basically, it plans to eventually process the concentrate that would come out of the Crawford Nickel project, so I’m very positive and optimistic.”
“We’re going to use this money for doing a continuous scale pilot plant that we’re actually running right now,” said Paul Davis, vice-president of exploration with EV Nickel.
“That will provide us with the information we’ll need to know how much it’s going to cost to run it, and then how much it’s going to cost to build it.”
Pirie said a strong critical minerals industry not only strengthens the EV sector, but the whole economy.
“The work that these two companies do in the field are in fact critical not only to the transformation of the battery economy, but ultimately and especially for national security,” he said.
“Timmins is in the heart of this battle.”
The province said the funding will also create jobs in the mining sector.
More information about the other 15 projects will be announced later.
