Canada’s rich natural minerals are an integral part of the global technology strategy and have been coveted by the Chinese Communist Party for years. China has acquired several Canadian mineral resource companies and monopolized the distribution market. As the Chinese Communist threat expands, mining experts are warning the Canadian government that it needs to plan to protect and develop its minerals and not allow the Chinese Communist Party to plunder key resources.
Canada’s Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources has held a series of hearings over the past month on the threatening challenges to the “nationally important minerals and resources supply chain,” inviting dozens of expert witnesses to address the risks to the industry.
Many of the experts cited a new technological era in which strategic products, including electric cars, solar panels, wind turbines, mobile phone components and missiles, are dependent on so-called “rare earths,” a rare group of 17 minerals for which China has dominated the market for the past decade. Robert Fung, chairman of Canadian mining company Torngat Metals, testified before Congress that “it is unacceptable that China today has accumulated about 80 percent of the world’s capacity to process strategic minerals because the Chinese Communist Party is using this position to manipulate prices in order to punish its competitors. “
Canada has large unproven reserves of rare earths and possesses nearly one-third of the world’s most advanced rare earth mining technology. Canada accounts for twenty of the sixty-three advanced rare-earth projects tracked by Technology Metals Research, a U.S. firm specializing in strategic materials.
Natural Resources Canada’s list of Canada’s mineral wealth, which includes rare earths. (Official website of the federal government)
Pierre Gratton, head of the Canadian Mining Association, mentioned that because of problems such as mining costs and marketing channels, Canadian companies are unable to grow at full speed, and many have to be acquired by Chinese companies. “China has been exercising monopoly-like control over the production and distribution of key minerals, which has left the rest of the world with a degree of risk and prevented investors from entering these markets.”
Simon Moores, managing director of battery market analyst firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, warned of elevated global demand for electric vehicles, while by 2030 China will have 67 per cent of the world’s lithium-ion battery production capacity and Europe 18 per cent, in contrast to North America’s productivity of just 12 per cent. He called on Canada to catch up sharply in the global battery race, which can be developed in cooperation with Western allies.
The U.S. and Canada now have an initial consensus to jointly develop key minerals and stabilize the supply chain, and last month the U.S. Department of Commerce held a meeting with miners and battery manufacturers to discuss how to increase production of Canadian electric vehicle materials. Earlier U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to create an electric vehicle supply chain between the two countries. Since Biden’s election, three U.S. mining companies have invested in Canada.
Ottawa is defensive about Chinese state-owned companies buying Canadian mineral companies due to constant warnings from mineral experts. Late last year, Ottawa rejected a proposal by Chinese state-owned Shandong Gold Mining Co. to buy Canada’s TMAC Resources Inc.
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