Mine developer Frontier Lithium and two northwestern Ontario First Nations are setting the ground rules to advance the company’s PAK open-pit lithium project in northwestern Ontario.
Using Anishinninew law as a guide, the Sudbury company said in a Jan. 15 news release that it has signed two process agreements with Deer Lake and Sandy Lake First Nations.
Frontier said it’s been building relationships with these communities since the exploration stage in 2016. These agreements will provide some structure to regularly share information, with a commitment to being transparent throughout the technical and permitting stages to steer its flagship PAK toward production.
Frontier’s PAK project, 175 kilometres north of Red Lake, is a remotely located mine project that’s poised to be the first of its kind in Ontario. A permanent road has not yet been extended to the site and the company has not made a construction decision. But it’s the first mine project in Ontario government’s queue for new mine projects review and permitting fast-track process, through the much-touted One Project, One Process (1P1P) framework
The company spelled out the project’s positives in a study released last November. PAK has an estimated 31-year mine life, producing 200,000 tonnes a year of spodumene concentrate. It will be a $943-million build. The concentrate will be processed at a proposed refinery in Thunder Bay.
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