Talon Metals Corp.

Talon plans to use Circulor's solution to trace its nickel from its Minnesota mine to recycling.

Talon plans to use Circulor's solution to trace the responsibly produced nickel and other critical minerals it mines and processes in the U.S.

Poor worker safety, environmental impacts, and human rights violations at Chinese-run nickel mines and refineries in Indonesia have been the subject of a great deal of negative media attention, driving battery manufacturers and electric vehicle makers to seek out stronger assurances of environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance and alternative supply.

Talon Metals Corp., which is developing a mine in Minnesota that will provide American battery and automakers with a domestic alternative to Indonesia for nickel and other energy metals, plans to use Circulor's award-winning technology to trace the metals it will produce to the high standards of both the United States and European Union.

"The Circulor solution digitally tracks the material itself through extraction, processing, and manufacturing processes, all the way to cell, pack, and vehicle production," said Todd Malan, the chief external affairs officer and head of climate strategy at Talon.

Differentiating and tracing minerals produced at high standards for worker safety and environmental protection will allow battery makers and EV manufacturers to ensure their mineral sourcing aligns with ESG commitments in North America and Europe.

This includes mineral sourcing policy that has been detailed in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivizes green and domestic sourcing, and a host of legislation coming out of the European Commission's Circular Economy Action Plan, including EU Battery Regulation focused on sustainability and waste management, Ecodesign for Sustainable Production Regulation for improving circularity and sustainability, and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism regulation that puts a price on carbon emissions from certain imported goods.

Talon plans to use Circulor's traceability solution – which includes provenance, production standards, and embedded CO2 intensity – to maintain fully traceable mineral production throughout supply chains from the mine to recycling.

This will enable Talon to trace the nickel and copper concentrates produced at a future mine at its Tamarack project in Minnesota, as well as by-products such as iron compounds, cobalt, gold, and platinum group metals recovered at its coming mineral processing facility in North Dakota.

"Deploying Circulor's technology fulfills Talon's commitment to produce nickel and other critical minerals at the highest possible standards for labor rights, environmental protection and indigenous participation in clean energy projects," said Talon Metals CEO Henri van Rooyen. "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."

The digital chain of custody offered by Ciruclor's solution can incorporate independent standards such as those outlined by the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), which offers an independent socially and environmentally responsible mining assessment, and Nickel Mark, which assesses operations against 32 ESG standards.

"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," said Malan. "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's unique solution ensures traceability through complex critical mineral supply chains, especially for EV battery and defense-related manufacturing.

"The critical minerals we can responsibly extract from the ground in Minnesota and process in North Dakota are infinitely recyclable. 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," Malan added. "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."

"We applaud Talon for their unwavering commitment to high standards in mineral production, and we're pleased to work with Talon in providing transparency so that Talon's customers know that the products they receive are sustainable, responsible, and American made," said Circulor CEO Douglas Johnson-Poensgen. "It's only by coupling responsible, sustainable production in the upstream with material traceability that we ensure the energy transition protects our fellow people and our planet."