TORONTO — The federal government has approved construction of Canada Nickel Co.’s Crawford nickel mine in northeastern Ontario, two sources told the Globe and Mail.The formal announcement is expected Friday. Both the company and the office of Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson declined to comment Thursday.Crawford, located about 40 kilometres north of Timmins, is projected to become the largest nickel mine in the Western world once built. It is expected to create roughly 3,000 jobs during construction and about 1,000 permanent positions once operating.The project sits on both Ottawa’s major projects list and Ontario’s “One Project, One Process” regulatory stream. It is also the first mining project to receive approval under the federal Impact Assessment Act since the law was enacted in 2019.Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Major Projects Office, launched last year, is tasked with identifying resource projects for regulatory fast-tracking and helping secure hundreds of millions of dollars in funding..While the federal decision clears a major regulatory hurdle, Canada Nickel still faces significant remaining steps. These include finalizing a multibillion-dollar financing package and making a formal construction decision. The project’s capital cost is estimated at US$2.5 billion.Analyst Pierre Vaillancourt of Haywood Securities said in a recent note that a favourable federal decision “would clear a major hurdle” and help advance the financing.Global nickel prices have recovered this year after earlier oversupply pressure, largely from Indonesia. The metal traded around US$17,275 a tonne on Friday after reaching a high near US$19,600 earlier in the year.The approval marks a notable development for critical minerals development in northern Ontario at a time when governments are seeking to secure domestic supply chains.
