Thunder Bay lithium refinery would create 'hundreds' of jobs: Fedeli
Frontier Lithium plans to build facility on Mission Island
A proposed lithium refinery in Thunder Bay, Ont., has taken a big step forward, getting support from both the provincial and federal governments.
Frontier Lithium intends to build the facility on Mission Island. It would convert lithium from the company's PAK mine, located north of Red Lake, into about 20,000 tonnes of lithium salts annually.
"It's obviously been based on many years of investment and hard work here in northern Ontario, and it's a huge vote of confidence that Frontier Lithium brings essential ingredients to the table with regards obviously to the PAK Lithium Project," said Trevor Walker, president and CEO of Frontier Lithium. "It's conditional support, lots of work to get done over the next nine to 12 months here."
Walker said the company has purchased a site on Mission Island — the former location of the Thunder Bay Generating Station — for the refinery.
"It's a very well-connected city," he said of Thunder Bay. "It's really a strategic location in the heart of Canada, has great access to international markets.
"It's an excellent service and supply hub for the north."
In an interview with CBC News, Vic Fedeli, who was Ontario minister of economic development, job creation and trade during the previous term of the Ontario PC government — Premier Doug Ford won re-election on Feb. 27, and his new cabinet will be sworn in on March 19 — said the project is a "very exciting" one.
"Frontier will eventually announce the number of direct employees, but it's in the hundreds," Fedeli said. "Also the indirect jobs are going to be vast, because this is the bottom end of the food chain, if you will.
"Quite a lot of people will be involved," he said. "The lithium needs to be mined, it needs to be transported."
Fedeli said the facility is also key in helping the province navigate a trade war between Canada and the United States.
"Lithium is very sought after," he said. "Ontario is the only jurisdiction in North America that has all of the minerals needed in electric vehicle battery: lithium, nickel, cobalt, basically everything.
"The United States has one nickel mine, and not of the high grade," Fedeli said. "One lithium mine. They don't make lithium hydroxide. This will be North America's very first lithium hydroxide conversion plant."
Walker said the project can not only create hundreds of direct jobs in Thunder Bay, but also many indirect jobs in surrounding communities, including First Nations.
"The conversation has been taking place over last couple of years with regards to Fort William First Nation," he said. "This is about an inclusive project."
Walker said the facility will take two to three years to build, and the company hopes to have the refinery operational in 2030.
He said the PAK deposit has about a 30-year lifespan "as it sits."
"That resource is still what we call open," he said. "It has the ability to continue to grow. This is a multi-generational asset that we see, so we see a life that would go well beyond 50 years of potential here."