Canada Nickel Company CEO Mark Selby has been focused on nickel — which he has described as the highest-value base metal — since 2001, when he joined the former Canadian mining giant Inco Ltd. Photo by FILE PHOTO/THE DAILY PRESS

Canada Nickel Co. Inc. chief executive Mark Selby on Thursday afternoon was supposed to be in South Korea or Japan to meet executives.

Instead, he was about an eight-hour drive north of his home in Toronto’s West End, getting ready to board a helicopter near Timmins, Ont., with Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson so they could tour the site of his proposed nickel mine.

The visit marked the culmination of nearly 20 years of Selby’s efforts to build a new nickel mine in Canada, a goal he still hasn’t achieved, but is growing ever closer to now

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