Inexperienced Know-how Metals exams lithium pattern in South Korea to develop a product for the electrical car market
THUNDER BAY — An aspiring Australian lithium producer in northwestern Ontario is eyeing a brand new web site in Thunder Bay to put a refinery.
Inexperienced Know-how Metals is scoping out a brownfield on the town’s waterfront to guage its suitability to host a lithium chemical conversion plant.
The Perth-headquartered has shifted focus away from the previous Cascades Paper plant property within the metropolis’s north finish to the Midcontinent Terminal property on Maureen Road within the centre of the town, close to a grouping of grain elevators.
In a Feb. 5 information launch, Inexperienced Tech mentioned it signed a letter of intent with the property proprietor, a numbered firm, to have unique entry to the positioning to carry out its due diligence over the following 12 months.
Inexperienced Tech is an bold firm that’s amongst a pack of 4 rising lithium gamers within the area with a objective of turning into Ontario’s first lithium miner and processor.
The corporate holds two superior stage lithium deposits within the northwest that it needs to place into manufacturing.
Its Seymour Venture is close to Armstrong on the prime finish of Lake Nipigon. The Root Venture is northeast of Sioux Lookout. Each deposits would feed the Thunder Bay plant.
The lithium hydroxide conversion facility takes lithium focus, processed on the mine web site, and converts it right into a battery-grade lithium hydroxide product that electrical car producers are searching for.
Midcontinent Terminal is billed as an 81-hectare (200 acres) transloading house with marine and freeway entry, a rail spur working onto the property, municipal water, pure gasoline and energy connections.
It’s an historic industrial property in Thunder Bay, first utilized by Canadian Nationwide Railway as a coal dock within the 1800s earlier than it turned a big forest merchandise milling operation run by Northern Wooden Preservers and later Northern Sawmills.
With that in thoughts, Inexperienced Tech needs to do a geotechnical investigation over the following 12 months and look at the positioning for any environmental contaminants of concern earlier than formalizing any settlement with the proprietor and beginning the federal government allowing course of.
To assist with the refinery’s growth, Inexperienced Tech has struck up a strategic association with EcoPro Innovation, a South Korean-based international battery know-how big, that it needs to deliver aboard as a three way partnership partnership sooner or later.
A one-tonne bulk pattern, extracted from the Seymour Venture, is being examined at EcoPro’s Pohang facility in South Korea with the intention of manufacturing a lithium hydroxide product by the center of this 12 months.
Inexperienced Tech additionally mentioned a pre-feasibility research will shed extra gentle on what this refinery will seem like when that report comes out later this 12 months.
If every little thing goes to plan, the corporate expects to make an funding choice on a refinery on the finish of 2026 and begin development by late 2028 or 2029 ought to allow and social approvals be in hand.
Inexperienced Tech’s mine and refinery technique has resonated with the federal authorities.
A present of help got here from Ottawa by means of a letter of intent for as much as $100 million in federal funding. On the provincial aspect, “active discussions” are underway with Make investments Ontario and the Strategic Innovation Fund to help the refinery and the Seymour Venture.
Some undertaking backing might come from the South Korean authorities and different lenders.
On a current journey to Seoul, Inexperienced Tech administration met with the Korea Export-Import Financial institution (KEXIM), a government-run export credit score company, for discussions on undertaking financing that might contain industrial financial institution lenders. KEXIM helped EcoPro with the same undertaking in Hungary.
The South Korean authorities additionally involves the desk with a funding pool of US$29 billion by means of its Framework Act on Provide Chain Stabilization for Financial Safety. It offers loans to finance mega initiatives and foster financial cooperation with different international locations.
In a press release, Cameron Henry, Inexperienced Tech’s managing director, mentioned collaborating in a strategic partnership with EcoPro has “catalysed progress on the Thunder Bay lithium conversion facility, with several critical workstreams advancing rapidly.”
“We have identified a preferred site for the conversion facility in Thunder Bay and are currently conducting detailed due diligence. Simultaneously, significant technological advancements in the facility’s engineering have been made, leveraging EcoPro’s proven expertise and experience.”
Whereas 2024 was a lacklustre 12 months for international electrical car and lithium demand, Henry mentioned they’re assured on the long-term demand for the mineral commodity.
“The work completed and ongoing reflects our commitment to driving Ontario’s lithium supply chain development.”
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