The US and Canada are ramping up their respective spends to strengthen critical minerals supply chains and infrastructure.
US President Joe Biden has committed a further US$10 million ($14.8 million) under his “Investing in America” agenda for two projects aimed at lowering costs and reducing the environmental impact of the production of rare earths and other critical minerals.
Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the selected projects are aimed at helping meet the growing demand for critical minerals in the US, and reducing the country’s reliance on foreign supply chains.
Rare earths and other critical minerals are used in several US-manufactured clean energy technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cells.
The US currently imports more than 80% of its rare earths.
However, rare earths are abundant in the nation’s domestic coal, coal wastes, and coal by-products, which comprise more than 227 billion tonnes of coal reserves, over 3.6 billion tonnes of waste coal, and about 1.8 billion tonnes of coal ash.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm says the goal is to reduce US dependence on foreign supply chains by reimagining the use of coal waste and byproducts as a domestic source of the critical minerals needed for clean energy technologies.
The University of Utah is receiving funding to produce individually separated high-purity rare earth oxides, rare earth salts, rare earth metals, and critical minerals and materials from abundant, low-grade coal byproducts using mineral and chemical separation technologies.
Meanwhile, the California Institute of Technology plans to integrate both traditional and innovative rare earth separation methods to obtain individual rare earth elements in a highly pure form while simultaneously generating critical minerals and materials.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management has committed around $151 million since January 2021 for projects that support critical minerals and materials exploration, resource identification, production, and processing in traditional mining and fossil fuel-producing communities across the country.
Separately, the Canadian and British Columbian governments are injecting C$195 million ($211.6 million) into critical minerals infrastructure in northwest British Columbia.
The funding will go towards upgrading key highway infrastructure in the province’s northwest, needed to support critical minerals development in the region, improve community access and safety, and create mining jobs.
The federal government will commit C$75 million, with the remaining C$120 million coming from the British Columbian Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.
The funding is part of the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund to support the development and operation of several copper, molybdenum, zinc, nickel and cobalt projects in British Columbia’s famous “Golden Triangle” region.
It will provide a series of improvements for highways integral to advancing critical minerals development in the region.
The Golden Triangle hosts about 75% of Canada’s known copper reserves.
Expanded and improved highways have the potential to create up to an estimated 3,000 jobs, C$20 billion in capital investments and over C$450 million in annual mineral taxes, as well as substantial local First Nations revenue-sharing and economic opportunities for First Nations.
Mining Association of British Columbia President Michael Goehring says highway infrastructure improvements will advance the development of the province’s critical minerals potential by facilitating investment in this vitally important mining region.
“Planned improvements will enable safe goods and services movement and industry growth which, in turn, will create jobs and contract opportunities through BC including urban centres like Surrey and Vancouver where $1.4 billion in goods and services were purchased by the mining industry from 1,125 companies in 2022,” he says.
Mining giant Newmont (NYSE:NEM) welcomed the planned investment, with North American Managing Director Bernard Wessels saying it will ensure the safety of road users from local communities and for the nearly 3,000 workers at the company’s Brucejack and Red Chris mines.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Newmont
