Nord Precious Metals to file for recovery permit by year’s end to clean up Gowganda, Cobalt legacy sites
Nord Precious Metals Mining said it’ll be on the provincial fast-track to snag a recovery permit to process legacy waste tailings in northeastern Ontario.
The silver exploration company is feeling good about its immediate future after a huddle in August with Ministry of Energy and Mines staff to go over an “expedited pathway” towards pocketing a mineral recovery permit. Nord plans to file for one by the fourth quarter of this year.
Nord wants to begin processing mine tailings in 2026 at its facility in Cobalt.
The company, formerly known as Canada Silver Cobalt Works, is exploring in and around some historic silver mines in the Gowganda and Cobalt areas. Nord also owns and operates the former Polymet Labs, which it acquired in 2020, renaming it Temiskaming Testing Labs.
Nord aims to process old mine tailings left on the surface at its Castle Mine property, near Gowganda, and its Beaver Mine site, outside the town of Cobalt.
The area was an historic camp where 108 mines produced 600 million ounces of silver.
The company said in a news release that a permit would position them as a “district-scale processor” with its hub facility in Cobalt.
“The Cobalt-Gowganda Camp contains dozens of orphaned tailings deposits from over a century of mining,” the company said in the release.
Becoming a “waste-to-market” operator, in cleaning up these environmental liabilities, Nord said, makes more sense right now in delivering critical minerals from legacy sites rather than waiting 15 years to put a new mine into production.
Processing these tailings will not only clean up the environment, Nord said, but also generate some upfront cash for the company’s other mining endeavours.
Last year, Nord produced some super high silver-bearing concentrates with the results from one tailings pile showing 786,809 grams per tonne of silver and 79 grams per tonne of gold.
“While others pursue expansion across multiple continents, we’re focused on unlocking value from waste streams in North America’s richest historic silver district,” said Frank Basa, company president-CEO, in a statement.
“The ministry’s guidance on toll processing validates our hub-and-spoke model at the regulatory level. In an era where strategic mineral security requires domestic midstream infrastructure, we’re demonstrating that substantial value exists in our own industrial heritage.”
The concept of mineral recovery permits to allow diggers like Nord to process historic mine waste was introduced back by the province in 2023 through Bill 71, which contained changes to the Mining Act.
As of last week, the Ministry of Energy and Mines has yet to issue a recovery permit.
When the ministry was asked on how many mining, exploration and other organizations are in the application queue, the ministry responded on Sept. 18 that only one application for a permit has been received to date. The ministry didn’t identify the applicant.
The ministry is striving for a review process that will only take five business days. Timelines may “vary depending on the scope and complexity of the proposed project.”
The ministry said a permit application must contain a recovery and remediation plan, plus the written consent to this of every owner of the land that’s not the applicant.
Once the review of the application is complete, the proposal is posted on the Environmental Registry of Ontario for public comment for 30 days and, if applicable, circulated to Indigenous communities for feedback. If no concerns are raised, the review should be considered complete within 30 days.
Nord said it has maintained agreements with three area First Nation groups for years, claiming it has consent and support to operate on the land.
The ministry said its mineral recovery framework is the first of its kind in Canada, which should streamline the permitting process while maintaining “high standards for health, safety, and environmental protection.”