Canada Nickel’s flagship asset is the Crawford Nickel Sulphide Project which sits about 40 km north of Timmins, Ontario, in the Abitibi greenstone belt. It also holds a string of satellite nickel properties in the same district. In this interview, CEO Mark Selby talked about the permitting progress Crawford has made this year and the financing puzzle that still has to come together before construction can start.
TL;DR
Their flagship project Crawford recently got its federal impact assessment approval on July 31, 2026, which CEO Selby called the “big yes/no permit.” He also added that provincial permits are expected to be wrapped up by around October 2027, with a construction decision targeted for mid-2027 and equipment on site by the end of 2027, leading to first production roughly two years later. The company just closed a roughly C$21 million private placement, but Selby was upfront that this money only covers detailed engineering and long lead equipment orders through year end, not a construction decision. He called getting the remaining financing pieces (government money and strategic investors) in place the single biggest unknown right now.
What have they done for shareholders lately?
The federal decision statement approving Crawford came through at the end of July, and the project has also been fast-tracked federally through Canada’s Major Projects Office and provincially under Ontario’s One Project One Process framework. Front-end engineering design was finished in 2025 and updated again in early 2026, and detailed engineering has now started with Ausenco. On the technical side, the company resequenced the mine plan to process the East zone ahead of the Main zone after additional metallurgical testwork showed it is more consistently serpentinized and easier to recover nickel from, which Selby said modestly improves early cash flow and cuts the amount of overburden that has to be moved early on. The company also closed a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of about C$21 million.
How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?
That C$21 million raise is earmarked for detailed engineering and placing orders for long lead equipment such as large transformers and switchgear in the fourth quarter of this year; Selby said it will not get the company to a construction decision on its own. Monthly cash burn for salaries across management and the roughly half dozen core project staff runs around C$1 million. Total project capital cost is now pegged at about US$2.5 billion, up 5% from the US$1.9 billion 2023 feasibility study estimate, a figure that includes a US$200 million cost overrun allowance. The targeted financing mix is roughly 60% debt and 40% equity: around US$1.5 billion in project debt including letters of intent for about US$500 million from Export Development Canada and a further roughly C$500 million from another Canadian agency, plus export credit agency debt still being discussed; on the equity side, about C$600 million is expected from refundable investment tax credits, up to US$100 million from Samsung SDI’s offtake option, and the remaining roughly US$300 million is being pursued through government programs and strategic investors, with Scotiabank and Deutsche Bank advising on selling a minority project stake or arranging structured offtake financing. Selby said this plan is not meant to require a large dilutive public equity raise.
Upcoming catalysts
Technical and operational: remaining provincial and federal permitting conditions targeted for completion by around October 2027; long lead equipment orders and a ramp-up of detailed engineering with Ausenco planned for the fourth quarter of this year; a construction decision targeted for late Q2 or early Q3 2027; and shovels in the ground targeted for Q4 2027, with first production about two years after that.
Corporate: Indigenous benefit agreements with three core communities, described as 80 to 90% complete, targeted for close by year end or early next year; finalization of the binding Samsung SDI offtake agreement (covering up to 30% of life-of-mine nickel output), targeted for early next year; and additional financing tranches from government agencies and strategic investors expected through the rest of 2026 and into 2027.
Risks
CEO Mark Selby said the main risk is financing timing rather than geology or engineering, since government agencies and strategic investors move on their own schedules and strategic interest tends to track the nickel price. The company’s bridge loan facility runs to November 2026, and Selby confirmed the just-closed raise does not cover the capital needed to reach a construction decision, so further financing events, likely including additional dilutive raises, should be expected in the near term. Outstanding provincial and federal permitting conditions still need to be satisfied even with the main approval in hand, and the Indigenous benefit agreements, while described as nearly done, are not yet finalized. As with any pre-revenue developer, the whole plan also depends on nickel prices staying supportive enough to keep strategic and government financing partners engaged.
Canada Nickel CEO Interview
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