The former Smurfit Stone mill property in Thunder Bay is the chosen site of a proposed lithium conversion chemical plant, possibly the first of its type in Canada.
Avalon Advanced Materials, owner of a lithium deposit near Kenora, announced that 965 Strathcona Ave. is the property the Toronto company has acquired for the refinery, first proposed in 2020.
Located off Shipyard Road in the city’s north end, the site has existing road, rail and deep-water port access as well as all the utilities needed to support a lithium hydroxide processing plant, the company said in a June 19 news release.
Avalon plans to mine lithium from its Separation Rapids Project, north of Kenora, and transport the material to the northwestern Ontario city for conversion into a battery-grade material for the North American electric vehicle battery manufacturing sector.
The company said late last month that a Thunder Bay refinery operation would begin operation in late 2027.
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