Critical minerals demand will boost Canadian mining

Significance

Although low commodity prices deterred investment in recent years, this is changing as the market rallies. The creation of a regional electric vehicle (EV) supply chain straddling the Canada-US border has the potential to transform the Canadian mining sector while loosening China’s grip on the minerals used in high-performance batteries.

Impacts

• Canada is the world’s eighth-largest cobalt producer and has significant copper, graphite and rare earth deposits.
• Fortune Minerals, which is developing a cobalt mine in Northwest Territories, has held funding talks with the US Export/Import Bank.
• First Cobalt is building North America’s only cobalt refinery to give battery makers an alternative source to the DRC.
• Several of the country’s mines are using cutting-edge technologies to reduce their carbon emissions.