Sherritt Refinery Shutdown
Sherritt International Initiates Controlled Shutdown at Fort Saskatchewan Refinery with Plans for Swift Reopening
Sherritt International Corporation has placed its Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta refinery into a controlled shutdown, the company confirmed on June 20, 2026. The facility — which can produce up to 35,000 tonnes of nickel and 3,500 tonnes of cobalt per year — was expected to restart by mid-June after a scheduled maintenance period, but instead moved into a full safety standdown. Sherritt Investor Relations said the move is "preemptive and protective."
Sherritt CEO Leon Binedell said the decision was clear-cut: "A controlled shutdown is the only responsible course of action to ensure we do not risk a catastrophic failure of our containment systems." The company estimates it is losing between $12 million and $15 million in revenue every week the refinery stays offline, according to MarketWatch.
A Maintenance Window That Revealed Deeper Problems
Sherritt launched a planned two-year maintenance turnaround on May 1, 2026, projecting a return to full capacity by mid-June. But on June 10, engineers spotted "technical irregularities" in the refinery's leaching circuit — the core of its hydrometallurgical process, which uses chemicals to extract metals from ore. Management initially said the mid-June restart was still on track, according to the Fort Saskatchewan Record.
That restart never came. On June 15, instead of resuming production, the plant entered a "stabilization phase." By June 18, management called an emergency meeting with Unifor Local 530A, the union representing refinery workers. Three days later, on June 20, Sherritt made the shutdown public. As of June 22, specialist engineers remain on-site assessing the high-pressure acid leach systems, Reuters reported.
Workers Left in the Dark After Broken Restart Promise
Unifor Local 530A says its members feel misled. "Our members were told we were going back to work on the 15th," a union spokesperson said, per Global News. "We need transparency on whether this is a mechanical issue or a long-term structural failure." Roughly 500 direct employees and hundreds of contractors face an uncertain timeline, with local businesses in Alberta's Industrial Heartland already bracing for a drop in consumer spending.
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has inspectors on-site monitoring the controlled venting of process gases to ensure air quality standards are met. Alberta law requires Sherritt to halt operations if there is any risk of an uncontrolled release of hazardous substances like hydrogen sulfide or ammonia. As of June 22, the AER reported zero injuries and zero environmental limit breaches, according to the Alberta Energy Regulator.
Cobalt and Nickel Markets Feel the Pressure
Fort Saskatchewan is one of North America's key sources of high-purity nickel and cobalt — materials critical for EV batteries and aerospace parts. "A prolonged shutdown doesn't just hurt their bottom line; it tightens an already stressed global cobalt market," said Marcus Thorne, commodities analyst at TSX Research, per the Financial Post. Sherritt stock dropped 6% within four hours of the June 20 announcement, TMX Group data showed.
The shutdown also creates a problem thousands of miles away. The refinery processes mixed sulfides shipped from the Moa mine in Cuba, a 50/50 joint venture between Sherritt and Cuba's General Nickel Company. If the refinery cannot accept that feed, the mine may need to stockpile ore or find another refiner — a complicated task given the unique chemistry of Moa ore and decades of U.S. sanctions under the Helms-Burton Act, The Globe and Mail reported.
What Comes Next for Fort Saskatchewan
Sherritt says it is working on plans to resume operations "as soon as possible," but has not given a new restart date. Engineering teams are still assessing whether repairs will take weeks or months. The Alberta Minister of Energy said the province is "ready to assist" but called the situation a corporate operational matter, not a public emergency, per the Edmonton Journal.
The next two weeks are seen as the critical window. If engineers find that damage is limited to the leaching circuit, a faster fix is possible. But if the high-pressure vessels show structural fatigue, the refinery could be offline well into the fall — a outcome that would hit Sherritt's revenue hard and keep pressure on the global critical minerals supply chain, Bloomberg noted.
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