{"id":444005,"date":"2026-01-30T23:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/444005\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T23:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:40:15","slug":"saskatchewan-aluminum-deposit-a-possible-game-changer-for-supply-chain-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/444005\/","title":{"rendered":"Saskatchewan aluminum deposit a \u2018possible game changer\u2019 for supply chain: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

An aluminum deposit in east central Saskatchewan contains so much of the critical mineral that it\u2019s a \u201cpossible game changer\u201d for North American supply chains.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Canadian Energy Metals Corp. (CEM) made that comment in a news release Thursday when it announced the results of its Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) of the mine.<\/p>\n

The deposit, dubbed the Thor Project by CEM, is a discovery of possible global significance, the organization said.\u200d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis PEA confirms that the Thor Project is a possible game changer for North America\u2019s aluminum supply chain,\u201d said Christopher Hopkins, president and chief executive officer of CEM, in the release.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our world, anything that moves products, transmits power or stores energy uses aluminum. We have established a world-leading, secure source of alumina right here in Saskatchewan. Our next focus is to engineer a demonstration facility while moving Thor towards commercialization.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The PEA mineral resource estimate includes a measured and indicated resource of 49.5 billion tonnes, containing 6.8 billion tonnes of alumina, with an inferred resource of 86.6 billion tonnes.<\/p>\n

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CEM\u2019s PEA financial model contemplates a surface mining and processing operation with an average throughput of 16.5 million tonnes per year of ore feed, supporting alumina production of 1.8 million tonnes per year over a 25-year project life.<\/p>\n

\u200dEconomic assumptions include initial capital expenditures of US$6.3 billion and operating costs of US$1.6 billion. The modelled internal rate of return (IRR) is 72 per cent (after-tax) and the net present value of cash flows is US$72.3 billion (discounted at 10 per cent after-tax).<\/p>\n

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\u200d\u201cBased on current projections and assumptions more fully described in the PEA, if developed and commercialized, the Thor Project has the potential to create an entirely new processing and value-added industry for Saskatchewan and North America,\u201d the release reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe construction and operations could support high-paying jobs, royalty and tax revenues, and spur regional economic growth for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe told reporters Thursday the province is becoming a \u201cglobal player\u201d in alumina deposits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see you have a resource find of this quantity and quality and the geology of it in the space that it\u2019s in, it becomes even more attractive for our province and again the world,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019d say we most certainly as a province are on track to achieve that target of expanding the number of minerals that are available in Saskatchewan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An aluminum deposit in east central Saskatchewan contains so much of the critical mineral that it\u2019s a \u201cpossible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,8411,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-444005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-critical-minerals","12":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}