Cobalt’s boomtown blues – by John Sandlos (Canadian Mining Journal – March 7, 2024)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Every mine develops at a different pace. The discovery of a major mineral deposits may create feverish excitement, but an actual mine may remain undeveloped for decades, waiting for a favourable alignment of investors, infrastructure developments, or market conditions.

Some mines develop rather suddenly, however, leading to the “rush” conditions that have been romanticized in popular culture. Mineral rushes may lead to riches for some, but they also can create impossibly difficult conditions for miners and their families, including poor housing, hunger, diseases, and high accident rates in the mines.

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Feds invest $5 million in Temiskaming cobalt processing plant – Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – February 9, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Refinery developer optimistic more government, private funding will arrive to finish construction

Ottawa is weighing into the processing of critical minerals with a $5-million investment in Electra Battery Materials’ cobalt refinery in Temiskaming, the first dedicated plant of its kind in North America.

The funding will go toward a restart of a construction project that was mothballed in 2023 and for other preparatory technical and processing work. In an interview with Northern Ontario Business, Electra CEO Trent Mell called today’s funding announcement “great news, but it is only a first step.”

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Government funding expected soon to complete Temiskaming refinery build – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 3, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials ponders Quebec invite to build refinery in Becancour

Electra Battery Materials fully expects government funding to roll in shortly to finish its incomplete cobalt and nickel refinery expansion in Temiskaming. The Toronto company issued a Dec. 29 news release that it expects government funding “very early in 2024” to resume construction that was brought to a halt last year.

Electra is short US$60 million to finish its refurbishment and expansion of the former Yukon refinery located between the town of Cobalt and Temiskaming Shores.

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The Drift: The ‘picturesque ruins’ of Cobalt make their debut at the McMichael gallery – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – September 21, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Upcoming exhibition will showcase new landscape art from Cobalt’s mining history and how it became a gathering place for women painters

The historic northeastern Ontario mining town of Cobalt will be in the spotlight this fall at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, north of Toronto. The exhibition, which runs at the Kleinburg gallery from Nov. 18 to April 21, will display, for the first time, the wave of art that was produced during the 1920s and 1930s from many leading and up-and-coming artists of the time.

The show, entitled Cobalt: a Mining Town and the Canadian Imagination, will feature pieces by A.Y. Jackson, Franklin Carmichael and Lawren Harris of Group of Seven fame, Bess Harris, Yvonne McKague Housser, Isabel McLaughlin, Dr. Frederick Banting, and earlier visiting artists such as John Wesley Cotton and Lady K.S. Robertson.

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Electra presses ‘pause’ on Temiskaming refinery construction – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 21, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Processing company calls on government and industry to come to the table with funding

Electra Battery Materials will looking to its industry partners and government funders for help in finishing the construction of its Temiskaming cobalt refinery. Trent Mell, CEO of the fledgling Toronto mineral processing company said it’s going to “pause or slow down” the project until there’s a clearer “capital solution” in place to complete the project.

The cost to finish the cobalt sulfate refinery is $161 million. More than $81 million has been spent to date, as Electra posted in its second quarter results in a conference call late last week.

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First Nations group prepared to invest up to $10 million in Temiskaming battery metals recycling venture – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – June 26, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Three Fires Group to take equity stake in Electra Battery Materials

Electra Battery Materials, the developers of a Temiskaming cobalt refinery, have come out with a financing package to finish construction of the plant and kick-start the development of a battery recycling operation.

The Toronto company’s new joint venture Indigenous partner, the Three Fires Group, is tentatively prepared to invest $10 million or half as part of a total $20-million arrangement for this venture, according to an Electra spokesperson.

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Electra Battery Materials on the hunt for financing partner to finish Temiskaming cobalt refinery – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – May 15, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto developer still ‘bullish’ on the electric vehicle market as its battery recycling business picks up steam

Electra Battery Materials is facing a cash crunch to finish the expansion at its Temiskaming cobalt refinery complex.

Construction at the northeastern Ontario plant has stalled and the Toronto company announced May 11 that it has launched a strategic review process to snag a deep-pocketed partner. In the meantime, Electra said it is in cash conservation mode.

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Temiskaming refiner links with Indigenous partner to build a battery recycling supply chain – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – May 4, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials and Three Fires Group are on the hunt to find a southern Ontario site for waste battery shredding plant

Temiskaming refinery operator Electra Battery Materials is partnering with an Indigenous regional economic development group to establish a battery waste shredding plant in southern Ontario.

Electra signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) this week with the Three Fires Group to form a joint venture focused around the recycling of lithium-ion battery waste. The proposed plant would feed black mass material to Electra’s refinery in northeastern Ontario where the valuable minerals would be recovered and sold back into the market.

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Kuya Silver out to revive historic Cobalt mining camp – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – January 24, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto company discovering new silver veins near old mine workings

The historic Cobalt silver mining camp could see a revival from Kuya Silver. The Toronto company has tapped into a “significant” silver vein within shouting distance of a group of former mines that date back to the silver rush days from the turn of the last century.

At a site on its Silver Kings Project, dubbed North Drummond, the company said it has drilled into a new mineralized zone left untouched and largely unexplored by the mining companies. It will be the focus of Kuya’s 2023 exploration program.

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Toronto silver company consolidates ground near Cobalt – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – January 4, 2023)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Kuya Silver finalizing acquisition deal with Electra Battery Materials of historic silver mine properties

A Toronto silver exploration company is sewing up ownership in a large property package of more than 16,000 hectares in the Temiskaming area that was once a historic mining camp.

Kuya Silver sees very high-grade silver potential, close to the surface, at the Silver Kings Project, located south of the town of Cobalt. In a Jan. 4 news release, Kuya announced that it has amended a previous cash-and-share agreement, signed in February 2021, with Electra Battery Materials.

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Temiskaming plant ready to process silver – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – September 14, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Canada Silver Cobalt Works finishes commissioning of its facility

Canada Silver Cobalt Works announced that its Temiskaming Testing Labs (TTL) in the town of Cobalt is fully operational and ready for processing mineralized material into silver dore bars.

The B.C.-based company is billing the rebuilt mineral processing facility as a zero discharge plant. Upgrades have been made to the second crushing circuit within the 20,000-square-foot building. A new gravity plant was also installed.

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The Drift: Temiskaming cobalt, nickel refinery will be an $800M venture – by Staff (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – September 9, 2022)

https://www.sudburyminingsolutions.com/

Facility will produce enough battery-grade material to support manufacturing of 250,000 electric cars a year

The price tag to build a Temiskaming battery materials industrial park will be in the neighbourhood of $720 million to $850 million.

Electra Battery Materials announced the results of a scoping study this week that crunched the economic numbers of the proposed development situated between the town of Cobalt and Temiskaming Shores. The property hosts the former Yukon refinery, which is being upgraded and expanded.

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Inflation doesn’t halt company’s hopes for its Temiskaming cobalt refinery – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 15, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials aims for spring 2023 plant startup

Inflation and supply chain issues are pumping up the price tag for Electra Battery Materials to bring a Temiskaming refinery back to life. It will delay the plant’s startup, originally scheduled for December, moving the commissioning to the spring of 2023.

Toronto-based Electra is feeling the domino effect of the industry-wide price and supply-chain pinch, especially coming out of Asia. The original capital budget of US$67 million to refurbish and expand the former Yukon refinery is now looking more in the range of US$76 million to US$80 million.

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How the “demon metal” gave Canadian mining a bad name – by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – June 2, 2022)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

The word cobalt came from kobold, a variant of the German word kobalos, a satyr and shape-shifter of Greek mythology who mocked the work of humans. By the Middle Ages, miners in the dark depths reported that touching the metal burned their fingertips, a sure sign that demons were watching them. And so the “demon metal” it became.

Cobalt – with a capital C – is synonymous with the silver rush of over a hundred years ago in northern Ontario. The town of Cobalt got its start when silver was discovered in 1903, and that mining rush outshone any gold rush in the previous 200 years.

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Northern Ontario’s mining memorials tell a tale of hard-fought labour protections – by Bill Steer (Bay Today – January 19, 2022)

 

https://www.baytoday.ca/

Back Roads Bill Steer is the founder and remains the GM of the Canadian Ecology Centre. He teaches part-time at Nipissing University (Schulich School of Education) and Canadore College. His features can be found across Village Media’s Northern Ontario sites.

With the help of the region’s scholars, Back Roads Bill recounts the struggles and horrific working conditions endured by early miners and the reason we should all remember them

It is part of a history lesson we know little about, so perhaps we need a little schooling. Envision hard rock miners, once toiling far underground in dark, cramped and dangerous conditions; it was arduous and risky work.

They emerged tired and dirty at the end of their shifts, walking back to small wood-sided homes and their immigrant families. Mining, along with forestry, created what was then called ‘New Ontario,’ — what we know as Northern Ontario.

Indigenous mining in the north began after the last period of glaciations, people of the Plano culture moved into the area and began quarrying quartzite at Sheguiandah on Manitoulin Island. Mining is an important economic activity in Northern Ontario. It has been since the first copper mines at Bruce Mines in 1846 and Silver Islet in 1868.

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