Rock Tech Lithium has been awarded $262,500 from Ontario's Critical Minerals Innovation Fund (CMIF) to test whether a by-product of the province's pulp and paper industry can work as a flotation reagent in lithium processing, the company said in Toronto on July 13, 2026. Rock Tech (TSXV: RCK, OTCQX: RCKTF) will run the trial with Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper and Queen's University.
Flotation reagents are chemicals used to separate lithium-bearing minerals from waste rock during processing. Rock Tech wants to know if crude tall oil, a byproduct pulp mills already produce, can replace reagents the industry now imports or sources through conventional suppliers. Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper would supply the material. Researchers at Queen's University's Critical Minerals Processing Lab, part of its Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining, will run the lab work alongside Rock Tech.
Part of a bigger Ontario plan
The tall-oil trial supports Rock Tech's mine-to-converter strategy in Ontario, which centers on the Georgia Lake Lithium Project and the proposed Red Rock Lithium Converter. It is the company's second CMIF-backed project. The first, an ore-sorting program at Georgia Lake, wrapped up earlier this year and pointed to a preliminary pathway to cut future crushing and concentrator capital costs by up to 50 percent, a figure Rock Tech said still needs further engineering and validation before it can be relied on. That earlier program's results were announced May 19, 2026.
Rock Tech said the tall-oil release includes no new mineral resource or reserve estimates. The technical disclosure was reviewed by Cameron Andrews, the company's general manager for Canada and a qualified person under NI 43-101 rules.
What the partners said
CEO Mirco Wojnarowicz said critical-minerals competitiveness depends on processing and innovation as much as on mining, and that the project could "reduce emissions, strengthen project economics" while opening work for domestic suppliers. Kevin Holland, the MPP for Thunder Bay-Atikokan, said the funding keeps resource-development benefits in Northern Ontario and helps "create new opportunities for local industry." Charlotte Gibson, an assistant professor in Queen's University's mining department, said the award extends an existing collaboration between the school's processing lab and Rock Tech.
Ontario has named domestic critical-minerals supply chains, including those feeding advanced manufacturing and energy storage, a strategic priority, and demand for battery materials keeps growing across North America and Europe. That is why a $262,500 grant matters beyond Ontario: it is a small test of whether local supply in Canada can replace imported processing inputs, a question anyone watching battery-material markets will keep tracking regardless of the dollar figure involved.
