The federal government has given Canada Nickel Co. Inc. CNC-X the go-ahead to build a new nickel mine in northern Ontario as part of its efforts to build major resource projects, two sources told The Globe and Mail.

Crawford is on both Ottawa’s major projects list, and Ontario’s “One Project, One Process” regulatory initiative.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Major Projects Office was launched last year with the objective of identifying certain natural resource projects for regulatory fast-tracking, as well as helping to facilitate hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

The approval of the mine will be formally announced by Ottawa on Friday, the sources said.

The Globe is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly.