Going deeper will mean mining longer in Sudbury, Ont.

To extend its Sudbury, Ont., mining operations to 2040, Glencore plans to go very deep underground.

The mining giant expects its $1.3-billion Onaping Depth project to be fully operational by 2025. 

The new mine is being built around 2,500 metres below the former Craig Mine, which shut down in 2009.

Peter Xavier, vice-president of the company's Sudbury operations, said without Onaping Depth, they would eventually run out of feed material, or ore, from the Sudbury area for their smelter.

Extending a mine's life

"As our mines are coming towards end of life, the metal production they're producing as the grades drop is less," he said.

"You know it's the same amount of work to get that tonne of ore. There's just less metal in it."

Xavier said Onaping Depth is considered a high-grade deposit by Sudbury standards. 

"If you take a tonne of ore, two per cent of it is nickel," he said.

Getting to those higher grade deposits means going very deep underground. And that's possible thanks to new technologies.

Xavier said the fleet of vehicles operating in the mine will be fully electric. When Glencore made the decision to go fully electric in 2018 they had to hope the market would catch up with those ambitions, he added.

"Now the markets developed and we put in a purchase order and will start next year (2023) having that equipment come in," Xavier said.

Electric vehicles will mean no diesel fumes underground, which will reduce ventilation costs for the mine, and make it more financially feasible to go deep underground.

The nickel Glencore will mine is also a key component of the batteries that power electric vehicles, and will gain importance as the world transitions to more electrification.

The province unveiled its Critical Minerals Strategy in 2022, with a goal to connect northern Ontario's mining sector to automotive manufacturing in the south. 

"Global conflict has exacerbated these supply vulnerabilities and Ontario must step up to meet the soaring demand for critical minerals," said Greg Rickford, Ontario's Minister of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry when the strategy was unveiled last March.

For Xavier, the reasons to go deeper underground are simple.

"If you ask why we produce the metals we produce, it's because society needs them," he said. "So we're quite proud of providing that service and we see a good market demand for the products we produce."