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THUNDER BAY — Avalon Advanced Materials’ Kenora-area lithium project hopefully will be a producing mine in a couple of years, company officials say.
The Separation Rapids property north of Kenora is on course for a projected mid-2026 opening, Avalon president Zeeshan Syed said Thursday after the company gave public officials and news media a tour of the Thunder Bay site for a future lithium-hydroxide processing facility.
Syed said the company aims to have the Thunder Bay plant constructed and ready to run by 2028.
A deep drill program began earlier this month at Separation Rapids, he said.
“The kind of production timeline (for the mine) that we have at this point, I would say, is early to mid-2026,” he said, adding that the company has “deliberately staggered the timeline for the Thunder Bay processing facility a bit” so that Avalon would have its own feedstock for the plant.
But the facility will be taking in lithium concentrates from “a range of producers,” not just Avalon mines, he said.
Avalon officials are in discussions with other prospective lithium miners about those producers supplying feedstock to the Thunder Bay plant when it’s up and running, he said.
“It could be a scenario where the Thunder Bay refinery is fed exclusively by other mines — which is our vision, to be honest. It’s a story of lifting all boats, right?”
The Thunder Bay facility and the mine together will employ hundreds of people, he said.
