{"id":16198,"date":"2025-11-28T08:12:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T08:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roydadnaft.ir\/English\/?p=16198"},"modified":"2025-11-28T08:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T08:12:44","slug":"canada-remains-globally-irrelevant-as-a-critical-minerals-refiner-despite-vast-reserves-and-new-billion-dollar-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roydadnaft.ir\/English\/16198\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada Remains \u201cGlobally Irrelevant\u201d as a Critical Minerals Refiner Despite Vast Reserves and New Billion-Dollar Push"},"content":{"rendered":"

RoydadNaft – <\/a><\/span>\u00a0Prime Minister Mark Carney returned this week from the United Arab Emirates touting a $70-billion investment package across energy, AI, logistics and mining, while teasing a separate $1-billion initiative to expand Canada\u2019s critical minerals refining capacity. Yet industry data and government figures paint a starkly different picture: Canada is still decades away from even modest relevance in the global refining race dominated by China.<\/p>\n

According to the International Energy Agency, China controls an average 70% of refining for 19 of the 20 most strategic minerals, rising to 91% for rare earths, 96% for refined graphite, 78% for cobalt and 70% for lithium in 2024. Canada, despite ranking among the top-10 miners of cobalt, graphite, lithium and nickel, accounts for only about 5% of global mine supply of each and has virtually no downstream refining footprint for the energy-transition metals that matter most.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s only operating rare-earth mine \u2014 Nechalacho in the Northwest Territories \u2014 is Australian-owned, with ore shipped to Saskatchewan for initial processing and then to Norway for final separation. Canada\u2019s first rare-earth refinery, opened in Saskatchewan in 2024 at a cost of CAD$74 million, is projected to produce a maximum 400 tonnes per year of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) metal \u2014 less than 0.5% of China\u2019s 2024 output of 83,697 tonnes.<\/p>\n

Of Canada\u2019s 32 existing critical-mineral processing plants, just eight are owned by Canadian-domiciled companies; the remaining 24 belong to parent firms in the United States, Europe, Brazil \u2014 and in one high-profile case, China (the Tanco lithium-cesium-tantalum mine in Manitoba is 100% Chinese-owned).<\/p>\n

Ottawa has tried to jump-start the sector. In October it unveiled the first tranche of G7-aligned critical minerals projects, including offtake guarantees for Quebec\u2019s Nouveau Monde graphite mine and up to $500 million in potential financing for Norwegian firm Vianode\u2019s synthetic-graphite plant in Ontario. Yet analysts note that meeting even domestic demand by 2040 would require roughly $30 billion in new capital \u2014 far beyond current commitments.<\/p>\n

Canada sits on some of the world\u2019s largest known rare-earth resources (over 14 million tonnes of contained oxides) and ranks third globally in reserves behind China and Brazil, but it has no integrated \u201cmine-to-magnet\u201d supply chain. More than 63% of its critical minerals exports \u2014 mostly raw concentrates \u2014 go straight to the United States for processing.<\/p>\n

Until Ottawa builds substantial domestic refining infrastructure, experts warn, Canada will remain a resource-rich but processing-poor supplier \u2014 and effectively irrelevant in the global critical minerals refining landscape that China continues to dominate.<\/p>\n

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