The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that Avalon Advanced Materials hosted federal Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne at a proposed lithium processing site in Northern Ontario on Thursday, and it hopes to get funding from Ottawa. The Globe's Niall McGee writes that Avalon says it intends to build Ontario's "first domestic supply chain" that will link lithium deposits in the North to the expanding electric battery manufacturing base in the South. Given the company's financials, however, it is not clear how it can raise the money to build its planned lithium refinery in Thunder Bay. The capital cost estimate for the project is $850-million. The company holds only $741,381 in cash and recently disclosed that raising even small amounts of money will not be easy. The company's financial position is so precarious that it recently issued a "going concern" warning over its ability to continue to operate. The visit by Mr. Champagne to the site of Avalon's proposed refinery raises questions about how closely federal politicians are considering the financial conditions of critical minerals companies before adding credibility to them by staging photo ops and inviting local media to publicize such events.