roll back is coming Don Bubar's Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. (AVL) lost two cents to 27 cents on 2.58 million shares. Mr. Bubar, president and CEO, is cheering word that Sustainalytics has rated the company's handling of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in the "top 5 per cent of 150 industry companies analyzed globally." Mr. Bubar and his crew were "pleased to be formally recognized as a leader in ESG performance," adding that this will be an asset in attracting capital and customers for developing Avalon's projects.
Avalon can use all the help it can get in that regard. Its Nechalacho rare earth project in the Northwest Territories has been stalled for eight years since a feasibility study pegged its capital cost at $1.6-billion. A preliminary economic assessment of its Separation Rapids lithium project near Kenora, completed in 2018, put its capital cost at just under $80-million, while a three-year-old dream sheet for the East Kemptville tin project in Nova Scotia proposed a $32-million mine.