Building on the near C$3.8-billion commitment on critical minerals in the 2022 Budget, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson on Tuesday released a discussion paper to inform Canada’s critical minerals strategy.

The paper, which was launched at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference in Toronto, seeks to solicit views on government’s approach to achieving the core objectives of a critical minerals strategy, which will be published in late 2022.

The consultation period is from June 14 to September 15.

Wilkinson said that Canada viewed the development of the critical minerals value chain as a “generational opportunity” for the country.

Citing a forecast by the World Bank, he noted that a 500% increase is required, by 2050, in production of minerals like cobalt to feed the clean energy transition to batteries. For minerals such as lithium and graphite, demand could increase by as much as 4 000%.

“With this increased demand comes the risk that, without sufficient supply, critical minerals could become the bottleneck, rather than an enabler, in the energy transition,” said Wilkinson, noting that geopolitical uncertainty had magnified the precariousness of existing sources of minerals and metals.

“Governments around the world have begun to assess their vulnerability to supply shocks for commodities they cannot sufficiently source inside their own borders but on which their economies depend,” he said.

Also launched at the PDAC conference was the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan (CMMP) Action Plan 2021.

Developed by federal, provincial and territorial governments in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and in collaboration with industry, the innovation community and other stakeholders, the CMMP plan is a pan-Canadian strategy aimed at improving the competitiveness of the entire minerals and metals sector and positioning Canada to respond to opportunities.

The action plan includes concrete steps to operationalise the CMMP. One aspect is the Pan-Canadian Geoscience Strategy, which was signed off in December.