Innovation, Science and Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne on Thursday announced a further C$15-million investment in innovative mining solutions to equip the mining sector to be a major player in the new green economy.

Twenty-four pitches submitted in the second call for proposals from the Mining Innovation Commercialisation Accelerator (MICA) network will be allocated the funding.

Applications came in from across Canada with projects spanning the four technical themes of MICA: Increasing mine production capacity, at a lower cost; reducing mining energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions; implementing smart, autonomous mining systems; and reducing environmental risk and long-term liabilities.

MICA's funding will allow the recipients to create new tools that will, for example, reduce the carbon emissions in the potash sector or expand the use of autonomous driving for underground mining.

With this second call for proposals, MICA will attract more than C$100-million in private investment and create and retain over 400 highly skilled jobs for Canadians.

“As the demand for essential minerals grows, our mining industry will continue to play a vital role in this green transition, thanks in part to groundbreaking projects like those presented today. They will not only enable us to take full advantage of our domestic mineral resources but also position Canada as a world leader in the production of minerals essential to new technologies and renewable energies,” said Champagne.

The MICA net has six main partners across Canada: the Bradshaw Research Institute for Minerals and Mining (British Columbia), InnoTech Alberta (Alberta), Saskatchewan Polytechnic (Saskatchewan), MaRS (Ontario), Groupe MISA (Quebec) and the College of the North Atlantic (Newfoundland and Labrador).

"With this announcement, we further solidify our commitment to establishing MICA as a small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) network for innovation in mining. We are extremely proud of the pan-Canadian approach to both our network and our successful applicants. Ensuring we support SMEs across this great country not only supports our economy but also plays a critical role in the green transition. Many SME innovators have already developed the solutions needed to achieve this—what they lack is the investment required to commercialize solutions and companies willing to implement them. The funding announced today provides the investment necessary to help achieve results, and by utilizing the MICA Network, we help introduce their products to the companies that need them,” said MICA Network president and CEO Douglas Morrison.