en.Wedoany.com Reported - Canada Nickel Company's Crawford Nickel-Cobalt Sulphide Project in the Timmins region of Ontario has officially entered the impact assessment phase, initiated by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC), with the goal of obtaining a federal permitting decision by summer 2026. Concurrently, the company has signed two agreements with Hydro One to commence detailed engineering design for grid connection to the Porcupine substation and to procure long-lead equipment, including 230kV circuit breakers.
Crawford is Canada Nickel's wholly-owned flagship project, located 42 kilometers southeast of Timmins. The Timmins Nickel District, where the project is situated, hosts over 20 ultramafic targets with a geophysical footprint of 42 square kilometers. Eight resource estimates have been published, with a total district resource of 10.1 million tonnes of measured and indicated nickel and 12.5 million tonnes of inferred nickel. Crawford's own footprint of 1.6 square kilometers represents only a small portion of the district. Company management positions the project as an anchor for a zero-carbon industrial cluster within the Timmins Nickel District.
The commencement of the impact assessment phase signifies the project's transition from impact statement submission into the formal federal review process. The IAAC will now prepare a draft impact assessment report and potential conditions, which will undergo public comment before being submitted for a ministerial decision. Prior to construction start, the ministerial decision on federal permits, a final construction agreement with Hydro One, and a $2.5 billion financing package (including $1 billion in equity and $1.5 billion in debt) must still be secured. The company targets the start of construction by the end of 2026, with first production by the end of 2028.
The engineering agreement with Hydro One represents preliminary work for associated grid infrastructure. Upon completion of the design, a final construction agreement must be signed to authorize substation construction. The company also disclosed its carbon sequestration pathway: process tailings carbonation testing indicates the potential to sequester 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ annually, with the NetCarb alliance pathway potentially increasing this to 10-15 million tonnes. Downstream subsidiary NetZero Metals plans to develop nickel processing and stainless steel facilities, pending financing and permitting conditions.
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