Toronto-listed Talon Metals Corp plans to use UK software company Circulor’s mineral tracing product to demonstrate the provenance, production standards and CO2 intensity of output from its proposed Tamarack nickel and copper mine in Minnesota, USA.
Talon aims to produce more than 100,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate, plus 70,000tpa copper, cobalt and iron, from a US$300 million-plus project. It wants to complete a final feasibility study next year and start construction in 2027 for 2028 production.
Tesla has signed up for 75,000tpa of nickel over six years and Talon is working on resource expansion under a joint venture with Rio Tinto.
It secured $20.6 million in US Department of Defense grant money for nickel exploration and is looking to land a $114.8 million US Department of Energy grant for a proposed battery minerals processing facility in North Dakota.
“Deploying Circulor’s technology fulfils Talon’s commitment to produce nickel and other critical minerals at the highest possible standards for labour rights, environmental protection and indigenous participation in clean energy projects,” Talon CEO Henri van Rooyen said.
“Using Circulor’s technology will ensure that our customers and in turn their customers have a verifiable record that the nickel in their battery was produced at high standards in the United States.”
Adequate traceability and certification are also expected to position Talon to meet the European Union’s Battery Regulation, Ecodesign for Sustainable Production Regulation, and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Talon chief external affairs officer Todd Malan said traceability of newly mined minerals was a step towards future metal recycling provenance verification.
“The critical minerals we can responsibly extract from the ground in Minnesota and process in North Dakota are infinitely recyclable,” Malan said.
“Mining these elements today in a responsible manner is a contribution to future generations’ ability to have a more circular system that relies on recycling.
“There are not enough critical minerals in use today to achieve the scale of our ambitions in the clean energy transition. Tracing minerals produced today will ensure that their provenance, production standards and CO2 intensity can be traced all the way to the recycling stage and then accounted for in many future uses.
“The Circulor solution digitally tracks the material itself through extraction, processing, and manufacturing processes, all the way to cell, pack and vehicle production. This digital chain of custody can also incorporate independent standards like IRMA [Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance] or Nickel Mark so that downstream recipients differentiate the material itself by third-party audit results.
“We have already started the process for self-assessment under IRMA’s IRMA Ready standard for junior mining projects that are not yet in production.
“Tracing technology that validates an independent assessment of mineral production will be a vital tool for battery manufacturers and automakers to eliminate reputational risk in their mineral sourcing.
“Tracing also provides the granular, audit-level data, attributed to the material or product itself to comply with government requirements such as the US Clean Vehicle Tax Credit and the EU Battery Regulation.”
Circulor has raised circa-US$45 million via private equity funding from groups that include Volvo Cars Technology Fund, SYSTEMIQ Capital, Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures, Future Positive Capital, BHP Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and 24Haymarket.
Talon is working with various groups to maximise metal recovery and value from both primary and waste material produced in Minnesota.
The United States Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory is working on tailings and sulphide iron extraction and purification to produce inputs for domestically sourced lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.
Talon says Colorado start-up Travertine Technologies could help economically transform tailings and development rock into various marketable by-products with a commercial-scale version of its Travertine process. It is shooting for higher nickel recovery from tailings from use of the Travertine process combined with a bioleaching process development the MIRARCO arm of Canada’s Laurentian University.
Talon is also working with Columbia University with US Department of Energy funding to develop novel approaches to refining Tamarack’s nickel concentrate.
“[Our] goal is to achieve the highest battery energy storage per mined tonne by utilising both the nickel and the iron contained in the ore to produce nickel-based and iron-based batteries,” the company says.