Ontario has announced the recipients of the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund, which is supporting research for extraction and processing technologies to build critical minerals supply chains.

Launched in November, the C$5-million forms part of Ontario’s Critical Minerals Strategy, which also earmarked C$24-million for the Ontario Junior Exploration Programme, of which C$12-million will be a critical minerals funding stream.

The recipients of money from the innovation fund include:

• C$500 000 to Frontier Lithium to help develop innovative lithium processing techniques and establish lithium mining and mineral processing in Ontario for use in battery and electric vehicle manufacturing supply chains.
• C$500 000 to Vale Canada to develop bioleaching techniques for reprocessing tailings to extract nickel and cobalt from mine waste and to help increase battery metals supply.
• C$500 000 to Ring of Fire Metals to test the feasibility of repurposing and storing all tailings materials underground in the form of backfill in mine workings.
• C$500 000 to EV Nickel to demonstrate that bioleach extraction and recovery of battery metals such as nickel and cobalt is a lower cost, low carbon footprint process with less environmental impacts.
• C$475 000 to Carbonix – an Indigenous-owned company – to help refine the process for converting mining waste, petroleum coke and other byproducts into high-energy-density graphite for use in battery anode and cathode supply chains.

“The critical minerals sector continues to play a key role in Ontario’s end-to-end supply chain,” said Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Minister Vic Fedeli, who announced the funding at the yearly Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention, in Toronto.

“Through the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund, we’re connecting the critical minerals of the north with the manufacturing might of the south, increasing our competitive advantage and ensuring Ontario remains a global leader in the mining sector.”