Automotive News Canada - July 2023 - 21

* JULY 2023
21
Sudbury prospects for processing
As with other
Ontario cities that
have landed large
investments, Sudbury
is preparing a
massive shovel-ready
industrial site
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
CANADA'S NICKEL CAPITAL
has no intention of being left out
of the country's rapidly developing
electric-vehicle battery supply
chain.
Greater Sudbury, the longtime
mining hub and most populous
city in northern Ontario, is
in talks with global automakers
and battery-material companies
as it preps a large industrial site
to dangle in front of prospective
investors.
Sudbury already has the minerals,
said Mayor Paul Lefebvre.
Now it's going after the processing
plants that will pull the EV
supply chain closer to the mines
and bring jobs to the city.
" We want to be more than just
the extraction piece, " Lefebvre
told Automotive News Canada
on June 1 at the BEV In-Depth:
Mines to Mobility conference.
The city isn't going to be home
to a vehicle assembly or batterycell
manufacturing plant,
By the end of the summer,
Sudbury will have firmed up
a deal to buy a 1,000-acre
(400-hectare) parcel to anchor
its battery-material ambitions,
said Mayor Paul Lefebvre.
PHOTO: CITY OF GREATER SUDBURY
Lefebvre said, but with nine operating
mines and several processing
plants within the city limits,
it can make a compelling case to
become a battery-materials hub.
" The gap that exists on the
anode and the cathode side is
huge, " he said. " The opportunity
is there to really serve that market. "
Sudbury
has ready access to
several battery minerals - most
notably nickel and copper - as
well as cobalt, which is produced
as a byproduct of concentrating
the two other base metals. The
mines, coupled with its metallurgical
talent, give it an inherent
edge when pitching prospective
battery-material investors,
Lefebvre said.
'SERVICES ARE THERE'
And the city is working
through plans to ensure it has
shovel-ready land
for companies looking
to put down
roots. By the end
of the summer,
Lefebvre said,
Sudbury will have
firmed up a deal
to buy a 1,000-acre
(400-hectare) site
to anchor its battery-material
ambitions.
" All
of the services
are there, "
he said. " That's
why what we want
to do is as soon as
it's assigned to us,
de-risk the property
as fast as we
possibly can and
get it turnkey. "
It's the same formula
that other
Ontario cities,
such as Windsor
and St. Thomas,
have employed
to land big-ticket
EV battery supply-chain
investWHY
SUDBURY?
Greater Sudbury is the largest
city by area in Ontario at more
than 3,000 square kilometres.
The population is about
166,000 (2021). According to
Mayor Paul Lefebvre, there are
nine operating mines and several
processing plants within city
limits, which could make a compelling
case for it to become a
battery-materials hub.
Sudbury
large-scale battery-material
plants, with the " dream " projects
being cathode and anode plants
that would supply Volkswagen
Group and Stellantis battery-cell
sites in the southern part of
the province.
Upstream processing
operations,
such as nickel-sulfate
and lithium-hydroxide
production
plants, are
also in the city's
crosshairs.
But Sudbury is
not the only city
staking its claim
as Canada's EV
battery supply
chain takes shape.
Lefebvre pointed
to Bécancour,
Que., as having
an early lead in
the race to lock in
battery-material
investments.
100 KM
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AND GOOGLE MAPS
ments over the past 18 months.
Lefebvre estimates the
Sudbury site could house three
General Motors
and Posco Future
M are currently
building a US
$1 billion (about
Cdn $1.35 billion)
cathode-active
materials plant in
the city, midway
between Montreal
and Quebec City.
A range of other companies
have firm or prospective plans
for plants of their own. One is the
mining giant Vale, which is also
among Sudbury's top employers.
The company has proposed
building a nickel-sulfate refinery
in Bécancour. It hasn't officially
sanctioned the project, but signed
a deal in November to supply
the GM and Posco plant from the
planned refinery.
CLOSE PROXIMITY TO MINES
With Vale's century-old footprint
in Sudbury, Lefebvre said,
the decision had him wondering,
" Why not us? "
Despite missing out on that
plant, he said, Canada's EV
supply chain is big enough for
" more than one Bécancour, " and
Sudbury intends to catch up.
Vale and another local mining
company, Glencore PLC, are
eager to feed the prospective battery
ecosystem, Lefebvre said.
Sudbury is also in close touch
with the provincial and federal
governments, which are actively
courting global players scouting
locations.
So far, battery processing
plants are planned for the southern
part of the province, but mineral
exploration is hundreds of
kilometres north.
As more mines are developed,
Lefebvre expects processing
plants to follow.
" The closer you can have all of
it together, it just makes sense, "
Lefebvre said. - ANC
Lithium miner thinks its ship will set sail
Frontier eyes Lake
Superior as its base to
get processed EV material
to the auto industry
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
FREIGHTERS HAVE BEEN MOVING
coal, iron and other raw materials across
the Great Lakes for centuries, but as the
battery supply chain takes root, Trevor
Walker envisions a new kind of cargo crisscrossing
the continent's storied inland
shipping lanes.
WATER IN MIND
Frontier Lithium's commercial-scale processing
plant will be on the northwestern end of Lake
Superior. The company is considering site
options ranging as far south as Duluth, Minn.,
although Thunder Bay is " very high on the list
for candidates " within Canada.
Red Lake
MANITOBA
Dryden
Kenora
In five years' time, the president of
Frontier Lithium Inc. aims to be shipping
Ontario lithium, processed on the northwestern
shore of Lake Superior, to the
industrial heartlands of Canada and the
United States.
" The game plan is to produce enough
chemicals to support roughly half a million
electric vehicles a year, " Walker
told Automotive News Canada at the BEV
In-Depth: Mines to Mobility conference,
held May 31 to June 1 in Sudbury, Ont.
The mining company is developing two
adjacent lithium deposits about 100 kilometres
north of Red Lake, an established
gold-mining region about 500 kilometres
northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont. Frontier
looks to produce spodumene concentrate
on-site before shipping the lithium-rich
ore to the shores of Lake Superior, where
it will process it into battery-grade lithium
hydroxide.
" What's critical is we have the anchor
resource and the critical mass to support
a plant, " Walker said, pointing to the highgrade
deposits Frontier is developing and
the opportunity to expand into parts of its
property where exploration is still under
way.
GOOD TIMING FOR MINING
Thunder Bay
Lake Superior
Duluth
Capital has been hard to come by in
the mining sector for more than a decade,
Walker said, but the battery-materials
boom and demand from cell manufacturers
in Canada and the United States mean
Frontier is coming to market at the right
time.
100 KM
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" The province and OEMs would love
to see [lithium] chemicals from Ontario
in 2027, worst case [in] 2028, " he said.
" That's really the trajectory we're working
toward. "
Sudbury-based Frontier is in active disWalker:
" We have
the anchor resource
and the critical
mass to support a
[processing] plant. "
PHOTO: CITY OF
GREATER SUDBURY
challenge. Electrical infrastructure is a
mere four kilometres away from the site,
thanks to the $1.8-billion Wataynikaneyap
Power project currently under construction.
For material shipments, an all-season
road extends to just north of Red
Lake, and Walker has begun leaning on
the province to extend the route the necessary
100 kilometres to link up with the
proposed mine.
PILOT PROCESSING PLANT
cussions with automakers as well as battery-cell
and materials companies as it
works through the early permitting process
at its mine. The company has had
particularly encouraging engagement
with global companies building plants in
Ontario, Walker said.
The hope is to keep the supply chain
short, he said, supporting downstream
companies active within the province and
keeping the wealth " as close to home as
possible. "
Frontier hit its latest milestone May
31, releasing a pre-feasibility study for
its mine and processing plant, which are
expected to be active for 24 years. The
report expects the initial phase of that
project will cost $608 million to build, with
future expansion bringing total capital
costs to nearly $1.5 billion.
Along with financing, obstacles still
stand in the company's path, including
permitting and accessibility. But Walker
is pushing to have the mine and processing
plant feeding North America's growing
demand for lithium no later than 2028.
Infrastructure is less of an obstacle for
Frontier than at many prospective mines
in northern Ontario, but it remains a
As Frontier advances work in the field,
it is also fine-tuning plans for a lithium-hydroxide
plant that will process the mined
material into a battery-grade product. It
plans to open a demonstration-scale plant
on the outskirts of Sudbury next year.
The pilot site will be about one-five-hundredth
the size of its planned commercial-scale
lithium-hydroxide plant, Walker
said. Proving out the process is " not a
requirement, " as the company is relying
on well-established production methods,
he said. But Frontier wants to begin training
staff in a real-world environment and
be certain that no technological surprises
arise.
" Ontario has never produced lithium
chemicals, so we've got to get this right, "
Walker said.
While Frontier's demo plant is booked
for Nairn Centre, west of Sudbury, the
company's commercial-scale lithium processing
plant will be on the northwestern
end of Lake Superior. A site has not been
chosen, Walker said, but the company is
considering options as far south as Duluth,
Minn. Within Canada, Thunder Bay is
" very high on the list for candidates, " he
said, being a port city with a pulp and
paper history. That means access to a pool
of workers with some transferable chemical-plant
skills. - ANC
Automotive News Canada - July 2023

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