Canada Nickel, NetCarb work on zero-carbon cluster

Executive Summary

• Canada Nickel Company Inc. and NetCarb have advanced their strategic partnership to develop a zero-carbon industrial cluster in Northeastern Ontario, leveraging NetCarb’s proprietary carbon sequestration technology on tailings from the Crawford nickel project.
• The collaboration focuses on three key byproduct areas: blue-green hydrogen (and derivatives like ammonia and urea), magnesium-based products (MgO), and enhanced carbon removal using local biomass.
• NetCarb’s technology is estimated to sequester up to 10 times more CO2 than Canada Nickel’s proprietary IPT carbonation process, while generating significant quantities of hydrogen and magnesium from tailings.

Key Details

• Partnership Scope: The collaboration aims to unlock value from Crawford tailings and other Timmins district projects by capturing and storing CO2 while producing valuable byproducts.
• Technology Comparison: NetCarb’s process targets complete carbonation of serpentine minerals (vs. IPT’s focus on brucite) and is estimated to sequester up to 10x the CO2 of Canada Nickel’s IPT carbonation.
• Byproduct Potential per Tonne of Tailings:
  • CO2 Storage: ~300 kg per tonne.
  • Hydrogen: ~55 kg per tonne (used to produce ~310 kg ammonia or ~545 kg urea).
  • Magnesium Oxide (MgO): ~270 kg per tonne (carbon-neutral/low-carbon).
• Product Applications:
  • Blue-Green Hydrogen: Produced via steam methane reforming (SMR) with CO2 sequestered in tailings; potential use as zero-emission fuel for natural gas pipelines.
  • Ammonia/Urea: Key ingredients for nitrogen-based fertilizers and explosives; urea is currently a net import to Eastern Canada.
  • Magnesium Oxide (MgO): Highly reactive with CO2; potential use as a distributed CO2 scrubbing agent transported via provincial road/rail networks.
• Biomass Integration: Utilization of local forestry and agricultural waste to produce biofuels/energy, potentially achieving net carbon-negative operations and megatonne-scale annual carbon removal.
• Development Timeline:
  • 2025: Submission of funding proposals to granting agencies.
  • 2026: Completion of lab-scale work on targeted processes.
  • 2027: Pilot-scale demonstrations for successfully developed processes.
  • Future: Advancement toward full commercialization and identification of strategic partners.
• Strategic Goal: Position the Timmins nickel district as a leading decarbonization hub in Eastern Canada and support regional self-sufficiency in fertilizers and magnesium.

Notable Quotes

• Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel: "This next phase of collaboration with NetCarb is a pivotal step forward in our strategic partnership... We will rapidly assess the technical and economic viability of each opportunity, leveraging available government funding to take each opportunity through each stage from lab scale to pilot scale to full feasibility."
• Dr. Luke Keeney, CEO of NetCarb: "NetCarb's enhanced carbon sequestration technology could significantly extend the value of Canada Nickel's tailings, positioning the Timmins nickel district as a leading decarbonization hub in Eastern Canada and unlocking new industries and economic opportunities for the region."