Freighters have been moving coal, iron and other raw materials across the Great Lakes for centuries, but as the battery supply chain takes root, Trevor Walker envisions a new kind of cargo crisscrossing the continent’s storied inland shipping lanes.“The game plan is to produce enough chemicals to support roughly half a million electric vehicles a year,” Walker told Automotive News Canada at the BEV In-Depth: Mines to Mobility conference, held May 31 to June 1 in Sudbury, Ont.
“What’s critical is we have the anchor resource and the critical mass to support a plant,” Walker said, pointing to the high-grade deposits Frontier is developing and the opportunity to expand into parts of its property where exploration is still under way.Capital has been hard to come by in the mining sector for more than a decade, Walker said, but the battery-materials boom and demand from cell manufacturers in Canada and the United States mean Frontier is coming to market at the right time.
Sudbury-based Frontier is in active discussions with automakers as well as battery-cell and materials companies as it works through the early permitting process at its mine. The company has had particularly encouraging engagement with global companies building plants in Ontario, Walker said. Frontier hit its latest milestone May 31, releasing a pre-feasibility study for its mine and processing plant, which are expected to be active for 24 years. The report expects the initial phase of that project will cost $608 million to build, with future expansion bringing total capital costs to nearly $1.5 billion.