Canada’s federal government has pledged funding of up to C$120m for Frontier Lithium’s “first of a kind” lithium refinery project in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Canada’s Minister for Energy and Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, announced the conditional support from the Strategic Innovation Fund at PDAC 2025 in Toronto.
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Ontario’s state government is also considering supporting the facility with up to C$120m of additional funding.
“This proposed investment is not only a testament to our province’s reputation as a reliable and prosperous partner in supplying and producing critical minerals [but] it also reaffirms that our mining sector is at the heart of our plan to protect Ontario,” said Vic Fedeli, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.
Frontier Lithium’s proposed refinery would have the capacity to produce 20,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of lithium salts from the PAK lithium project, supporting battery production for around 500,000 electric vehicles per year.
The PAK lithium project is a joint venture between Frontier Lithium (92.5%) and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp (7.5%).
Frontier Lithium CEO Trevor Walker called the deal a “significant milestone” and welcomed the support for upstream critical minerals processing in Ontario.
George Pirie, Ontario’s Minister of Mines, added that the province needs to do “even more to expand critical mineral development and processing” to protect the economy in the face of US President Trump’s recently imposed tariffs.
The US imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian exports and 10% on Canadian energy from 4 March. In response, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced 25% tariffs “on $30bn worth of goods immediately and tariffs on the remaining $125bn on American products in 21 days’ time”.
At PDAC, Wilkinson also announced that the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund is open for its second round of applications.
“Successful projects will focus particularly on critical minerals that will support applications in Canada and around the world, across key sectors including energy, semiconductors and defence,” Wilkinson said.
The call for proposals will provide up to C$500m in funding to projects that are in preconstruction and ‘shovel ready’.
