Pittsburgh—Canada Nickel has entered into an agreement with Glencore Canada to examine the potential of using Glencore's Kidd concentrator and metallurgical site in Ontario for the treatment and processing of nickel and cobalt concentrates, both companies said Jan. 11.
Canada Nickel plans to execute a detailed study at the Kidd facility to determine the feasibility of upgrading its excess capacity or utilizing its existing infrastructure in the region to mill and process nickel-cobalt concentrates, according to a statement.
The Kidd concentrator currently processes metal ore to produce copper and zinc concentrates. The concentrates would be supplied from Canada Nickel's Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide project in Ontario.
"The opportunity to utilize the excess capacity and existing infrastructure at the Kidd site provides the potential to allow a faster, simpler, smaller-scale startup of Crawford at a vastly lower capital cost while the company continues to permit and develop the much larger scale project currently being contemplated," Canada Nickel CEO Mark Selby said.
This study is expected to be completed by the end of March as part of the non-exclusive, non-binding memorandum of understanding between Canada Nickel and Glencore. The companies will continue good faith negotiations toward a binding agreement depending on the outcome of the study.
Technical studies have found Crawford to contain measured and indicated resources of 657 million mt grading at 0.26% nickel and 0.013% cobalt, according to an initial mineral resource estimate updated by Canada Nickel in October.
Kidd produced 67,600 mt of zinc-in-concentrate and 33,500 mt of copper-in-concentrate in 2019.
Canada Nickel plans to market output from Crawford to battery metal and stainless-steel consumers.
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