Canada Nickel announces successful completion of Carbon Storage Pilot Plant

Canada Nickel Company Inc. has successfully completed its carbon storage pilot plant, demonstrating the value of its novel carbon storage process, In-Process Tailings (“IPT”) Carbonation.

The Company processed more than 7 tonnes of tailings and confirmed the engineering design parameters for IPT Carbonation for incorporation in the Integrated Feasibility Study (“IFS”) expected to be released on October 12, 2023. The pilot plant also was utilized to successfully apply the IPT Carbonation process to material from a third party’s project, demonstrating the potential to commercialize the process for other projects including the Company’s regional nickel properties in the Timmins Nickel District.

In addition, a study by a leading strategy house confirms that the Canada Nickel Crawford project could reasonably expect in excess of C$25 per tonne of CO2 in storage fees from its IPT Carbonation process based on publicly known storage fees and given communicated carbon price & policy status. The study also confirmed the potential requirement for more than 20 million tonnes of annual storage capacity of CO2, given communicated carbon price & CCUS ITC status, from a population of approximately 150 potential emitters, with approximately 50 emitters concentrated in four distinct clusters in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto and Sarnia.

Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel, said, “Our successful pilot plant results, coupled with this study, confirm the significant value potential of the Company’s IPT Carbonation process. The potential demand for more than 20 million tonnes annually of CO2 storage is well in excess of the 1 million tonne capacity for Crawford, which supports our Company’s belief that our Timmins Nickel District can anchor a Zero Carbon Industrial Cluster in the Timmins-Cochrane region. The work also supports our belief that the Crawford project can qualify a portion of its capital expenditures to take advantage of the Carbon Capture and Storage refundable tax credits announced by the federal government in its 2022 budget. We look forward to the release of our Feasibility Study on October 12th, which we expect to support our belief that Crawford is poised to be a leader in the energy transition through the large-scale production of critical minerals, including nickel and cobalt, and to become the sole North American producer of chromium, while also supporting Canada’s climate objectives through large scale carbon capture and storage.”

Mr. Selby continued, “As we rapidly advance Crawford towards production, the Company continues to build its team to ensure we can maximize the value from our project. I am very pleased that Adam Schatzker, has agreed to join the team as Vice-President Corporate Development focused on unlocking the value of our IPT Carbonation process and the potential for a Zero Carbon Industrial Cluster in the Timmins-Cochrane region. The Company continues to target receipt of permits by mid-2025 with construction to follow. Permitting remains on-track and good progress is being made through the second stage of the federal permitting process.”

IPT Carbonation Process

Canada Nickel’s Crawford Project is hosted in ultramafic rock, which naturally absorbs and sequesters CO2. Canada Nickel has developed the novel IPT Carbonation process which involves injecting a concentrated source of CO2 into tailings generated by the milling process for a brief period of time. This simple process captures CO2 geologically in the tailings while they are still in the processing circuit, rather than after they have been finally deposited.

Carbon Capture, Utilization Storage and Tax Credit

The Company believes that the successful incorporation of IPT Carbonation could potentially allow a portion of the Company’s project capital expenditures to become eligible for the carbon capture and storage refundable investment tax credits of 37.5% to 60% for years 2022-2030 and 18.75% to 30% for years 2031-2040, as announced in the 2022 federal budget. The interest received from multiple large multinational companies pursuing carbon storage solutions further supports the Company’s belief that the mineral sequestration utilized by the Company may be considered an effective carbon storage approach that would meet Environment and Climate Change Canada requirements.

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