Avalon Advanced Materials keeps building a business case for its proposed Thunder Bay lithium refinery.
The Toronto company announced Jan. 20 it’s hired Nordmin Engineering to lead a feasibility study to size up what a lithium hydroxide processing plant might look like in the city’s north end.
Nordmin will be huddling with Primero Americas and Krech Ojard & Associates to work on the design of the plant and what infrastructure will be necessary at the site of a former pulp and paper mill, purchased by Avalon purchased in 2023.
The feasibility study comes out in the first half of 2027.
Avalon is one of a handful of lithium players with deposits in northwestern Ontario and aims to build refineries in the Thunder Bay area. All are vying for government funding support.
On its 377-acre Strathcona Avenue property, Avalon wants to construct a “full-service lithium conversion and processing facility” that would accept lithium concentrate from mines across Northern Ontario.
