The Canadian Government is stumping up additional funding of over C$16 million ($17.6 million) to help commercialise new critical mineral discoveries in Saskatchewan.
With the International Energy Agency predicting a doubling in demand for critical minerals by 2030, the federal government sees an “enormous economic opportunity for Saskatchewan and for Canada to seize”.
The Canadian Government has identified 34 critical minerals, and 27 of those can be found in Saskatchewan.
The funding will support the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC), which processes and commercialises value-added products using rare earth elements.
SRC President Mike Crabtree says the funding will enable the SRC to process a wider range of rare earth minerals.
“SRC’s rare earth processing facility will soon be operational, making the province a domestic rare earth technology hub and an essential part of Canada’s critical minerals supply chain,” he says.
Prairies Economic Development Canada and Natural Resources Canada previously injected C$13.5 million in funding into the SRC to enable the establishment of its rare earth processing facility and develop new rare earth mineral processing technologies.
Federal Minister Responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada Dan Vandal says SRC’s rare earth processing facility plays an important role in the government’s plan to establish a domestic rare earth supply chain that grows Canada’s economy and creates jobs.
The new funding includes C$15.96 million from Prairies Economic Development Canada to enable SRC to acquire bastnaesite from Canadian sources and create new domestic capacity for bastnaesite processing.
SRC will process bastnaesite ore acquired from Vital Metals’ (ASX:VML) Nechalacho Rare Earth Project in Northwest Territories to produce a mixed rare earth product.
The mixed rare earth product will be further processed using SRC’s solvent extraction and metal smelting technology to produce rare earth metals.
Minister Responsible for SRC Jeremy Harrison says the acquisition of bastnaesite from the Northwest Territories secures the necessary resources for SRC to produce additional rare earth metals.
“This will ensure critical mineral security for Canada’s allies and partners while preventing these strategic critical minerals from being sent to overseas jurisdictions that threaten our national security,” he says.
The rare earth metals produced from SRC’s recent purchase of bastnaesite alone could be used to power 62,500 electric vehicles.
SRC will also collaborate with a local educational institution to develop and deliver a training program for Indigenous students to operate bastnaesite processing equipment.
The remaining funding of $209,330, which comes from Natural Resources Canada under the Critical Minerals Geoscience Data Initiative, will be used to create a publicly available database of mineral characteristics.
The aim of the database is to expand the understanding of critical mineral deposits in Canada and reduce mining waste.
The Saskatchewan Government says this will help make better predictions about the types of deposits that can be identified by sensor-based sorting, reducing the costs of developing critical mineral deposits into mines and the energy consumption and waste associated.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Vital Metals and Stock
