Canada Nickel announces successful completion of carbon storage pilot plant

TORONTO — Canada Nickel Company Inc., has successfully completed its carbon storage pilot plant, demonstrating the value of its novel carbon storage process, In-Process Tailings (IPT) Carbonation.

The company processed over 7 tonnes of tailings and confirmed the engineering design parameters for IPT Carbonation for incorporation in the Integrated Feasibility Study (IFS) expected to be released on October 12. The pilot plant also was utilized to successfully apply the IPT Carbonation process to material from a third party’s project, demonstrating the potential to commercialize the process for other projects including the Company’s regional nickel properties in the Timmins Nickel District.

A study by a leading strategy house confirms that the Canada Nickel Crawford project could reasonably expect in excess of C$25 per tonne of CO2 in storage fees from its IPT Carbonation process based on publicly known storage fees and given communicated carbon price & policy status. The study also confirmed the potential requirement for more than 20 million tonnes of annual storage capacity of CO2, given communicated carbon price & CCUS ITC status, from a population of approximately 150 potential emitters, with approximately 50 emitters concentrated in four distinct clusters in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto and Sarnia.

“Our successful pilot plant results, coupled with this study, confirm the significant value potential of the Company’s IPT Carbonation process. The potential demand for more than 20 million tonnes annually of CO2 storage is well in excess of the 1 million tonne capacity for Crawford, which supports our Company’s belief that our Timmins Nickel District can anchor a Zero Carbon Industrial Cluster in the Timmins-Cochrane region,” said Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel.

“The work also supports our belief that the Crawford project can qualify a portion of its capital expenditures to take advantage of the Carbon Capture and Storage refundable tax credits announced by the federal government in its 2022 budget. We look forward to the release of our Feasibility Study on October 12th, which we expect to support our belief that Crawford is poised to be a leader in the energy transition through the large-scale production of critical minerals, including nickel and cobalt, and to become the sole North American producer of chromium, while also supporting Canada’s climate objectives through large scale carbon capture and storage.”