Canada Nickel reports that its preliminary economic assessment (PEA) confirms what it calls robust economics of the Crawford nickel-cobalt project in Timmins, Ontario.

Canada Nickel says it is immediately advancing the project to a feasibility study, which is expected to be completed by mid-2022, Kallanish reports.

The PEA, prepared by Ausenco Engineering Canada, says the project will produce $1.2 billion after-tax NPV and 16% after-tax IRR. The project would produce 1.9 billion pounds of nickel over 25 years or 842,000 t of nickel. Net cash costs would be just over $1/pound. It would produce a free cash flow of $274 million/y. Capital costs would be $1.2 billion and operating costs will be $8.45/t over the life of the mine

The average nickel production is expected to be 75m lbs (34,000 tonnes) with peak period annual average of 93m lbs (42,000 t). There would also be significant iron and chrome by-products with 21m t of iron and 1.5m t of chrome, respectively, the report says. The mine project would produce $24 billion using long-term price assumptions, it says. The project would include an open-pit mine and plant to process about 120,000 t/day. It would be built in three phases. The operation would be powered by zero-emissions electricity.

The Crawford project would produce three products: a high-grade concentrate with 35% nickel, a standard grade concentrate with 12% nickel and a magnetite concentrate with 48% iron and 3% chromium.

“We are focused on delivering the next generation of nickel and are pleased that this PEA demonstrates the robust economics of our flagship Crawford project,” says chairman and ceo Mark Selby in a statement. The company would become one of the largest nickel sulphide operations globally and produce nickel for electric vehicle batteries, he says.

Ontario-based Canada Nickel is expecting to begin production from the Crawford mine by the middle of the decade.

Canada Nickel is beginning work on its Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for its Crawford project. It is working with Golder, Wood Canada Ltd and TES to collect the environmental data required for the ESIA.

The company is operating three drill rigs at Crawford to explore existing targets and begin drilling new targets identified through an airborne geophysics program. The Crawford nickel-cobalt project is located in the heart of the prolific Timmins-Cochrane mining camp, an area with 100 years of mining.