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Cobalt Town

BACKROADS BILL: Cycling through Cobalt’s mining legacy – by Bill Steer (Village Report – April 19, 2025)

https://www.villagereport.ca/

In the heart of Northern Ontario lies a town with a story etched into rock. Once a booming silver capital, today Cobalt is drawing attention for its rich heritage—and a new idea to explore it by bike

Cobalt has been a target or source of a number of Back Roads Bill stories. Why? Through AI it said, “Back Roads Bill, through Village Media, often explores Cobalt and its history, particularly focusing on its artistic and environmental connections. He has documented the town’s rich history, including the influence of artists who were drawn to Cobalt and its landscape, as well as the impact of mining on the environment.”

Hmmm… AI knows everything, right? There was a literary review, could this be true? Most recently, there was the story of how artists once looked at the silver town through their creative eyes in Cobalt artists and the environment (check the archive of Back Roads Bill’s work for Village Media at the bottom of this column). and a podcast on the same.

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Temiskaming refinery builder secures funds for construction restart – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – October 29, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials turns to lenders to finance early construction works

Electra Battery Materials has secured US$5 million ($6.9 million) from its own lenders to spend on its unfinished Temiskaming cobalt refinery.

In an Oct. 25 news release, the aspiring mineral processor announced it has a non-binding term sheet from the holders of secured notes issued by the company to raise financing that will be earmarked for “early works and winter preparations” at its refinery project in northeastern Ontario and other corporate purposes.

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Pentagon invests US$20 million in Temiskaming cobalt refinery project – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – August 20, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Electra Battery Materials pockets Defense Department funding to finish refinery construction

Electra Battery Materials has snagged a US$20-million ($27.4 million) grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to finish construction of its cobalt refinery in the Temiskaming area.

It’s a huge endorsement for a small and ambitious Toronto company that most investors and industry watchers would have to undertake a Google search on to find out its particulars. Electra is out to displace China as the world’s dominant player in critical minerals processing.

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US Gives Tiny Canadian Firm Electra $20 Million to Build Cobalt Plant – by Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – August 19, 2024)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Canada’s Electra Battery Materials Corp. has received a $20 million award from the US government to build a cobalt plant close to North America’s automotive heartland.

The funds will support construction of a cobalt sulfate facility in Ontario that will be North America’s only refinery for the material used in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, Electra said Monday in a statement. The $250 million project is about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Toronto at Temiskaming Shores.

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Electra inks cobalt supply agreement for Temiskaming refinery – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 3, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Luxembourg multinational Eurasian Resources Group to provide plant feed from Democratic Republic of Congo starting in 2026

Electra Battery Materials has struck a deal to secure a supply of “ethically sourced” cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to feed its refinery project in Temiskaming.

The Toronto company announced it’s signed a binding letter of intent with Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), considered a global leader in the metal, to ship concentrated cobalt from its Metalkol operation in the African country to Electra’s still-to-be-completed facility in northeastern Ontario

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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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