Canada’s assets are on the radar of worldwide automakers and battery cell producers which might be lining up supplies to energy the transition to electrical autos.

However as international buyers descend on mining developments in Ontario, Quebec and past, governments and native miners are taking early strides to make sure that minerals are processed in Canada.

However this “has all the time been a very overseas idea to the normal mining business,” stated Donald Bubar, president of Avalon Superior Supplies Inc. “It was solely ever about: produce it, ship it offshore.”

Sturdy demand for EV battery supplies creates the chance to rethink this mannequin and produce refining jobs to communities which have sometimes been lower out of the worth chain, Bubar stated.

George Pirie, Ontario’s minister of mines, acknowledged that the province’s mining sector has a historical past of favouring raw-material exports over processing.

“That’s definitely the legacy,” he instructed Automotive Information Canada, however the authorities is transferring “aggressively” to vary this.

Pirie pointed to progress securing lithium refining operations for Ontario, and to the provincial backing for Electra Battery Supplies Corp., which is scheduled to open a cobalt refinery in Temiskaming Shores, Ont., in spring.

“We count on the tempo to extend exponentially [for] that sort of exercise in northern Ontario,” he stated.

MINE HERE, REFINE HERE

Avalon is among the many miners pursuing such a undertaking. The corporate is growing a mine north of Kenora, on the western fringe of Ontario. It plans to hold out an preliminary processing step on the mine website to create lithium concentrates from deposits referred to as pegmatites.

Beneath the province’s legacy mining mannequin, they might then have been exported for additional processing abroad earlier than reaching business. Avalon, nevertheless, is growing a refinery 550 kilometres east in Thunder Bay, Ont., to deliver the concentrates as much as battery-grade. The corporate is at present working to accumulate an industrial property within the metropolis to construct the refinery, which might additionally serve different native mining firms growing different deposits close by, Bubar stated.

“Not solely is [Thunder Bay] the transportation hub for northwestern Ontario, however due to its central location related to dozens and dozens and dozens of lithium pegmatites, we will turn into a regional facility to simply accept concentrates from different new producers.”

The battery-grade lithium would then transfer downstream to precursor and cathode energetic supplies vegetation, the place it will be blended with different metals earlier than being built-in into battery cells. Three such vegetation in Ontario and Quebec are underneath method.

Current Ontario laws may very well be used to spur extra early-stage processing tasks akin to Avalon’s. Part 91 of the province’s Mining Act stipulates that firms mining ore in Ontario should deal with and refine the fabric in Canada.

“It’s there to attempt to create extra added worth to the mineral useful resource,” stated Chris Hodgson, president of the Ontario Mining Affiliation.

EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE

However the regulation does go away the door open to exemptions.

Permission to export unprocessed materials is granted on the discretion of the provincial Cupboard, Hodgson stated. Exemptions aren’t unprecedented, however not frequent, he stated, with firms sometimes needing to show why they’re unable to refine inside Canada.

In Quebec, Canada’s different main battery supplies jurisdiction, the provincial mining act “accommodates sure particularities regarding processing,” stated Eric de Montigny, a spokesman for the ministry of pure assets and forests.

“[It] supplies the federal government with the facility to require, on affordable grounds on the time of coming into into the [mining] lease, the maximization of financial advantages in Quebec from the event of mineral assets licensed underneath the lease.”

The province works to safe funding in Quebec throughout the “total mineral course of” underneath these guidelines, de Montigny stated. Quebec additionally launched each important minerals and battery business methods in 2020 with the purpose of growing a footprint in each sectors.

No such processing guidelines exist on the federal stage, stated Anthony Ertl, a Pure Sources Canada spokesman. Ottawa does emphasize processing by monetary backing, nevertheless.

“Federal funding is contingent on demonstrating advantages to Canada and Canadians, which may embody new jobs, anchoring a brand new sector or business, and enabling progressive expertise, along with processing or refining,” Ertl wrote in an electronic mail to Automotive Information Canada.

The federal authorities’s $3.8-billion Essential Minerals Technique, launched in December, acknowledges Canada’s present lack of processing capability for supplies akin to lithium. It recommends Ottawa concentrate on supporting firms actively growing processing vegetation, however doesn’t tackle the prospect of proscribing exports of uncooked assets.

TWO AGREEMENTS, NO REQUIREMENTS

In two latest agreements, processing necessities fell by the wayside.

Memorandums of understanding that Ottawa signed in August with Mercedes-Benz Group and Volkswagen Group contained “no contingencies requiring the creation of processing and/or refining jobs,” Ertl stated.

Since then, Mercedes-Benz has signed a lithium provide deal for its European operations with Vancouver-based Rock Tech Lithium Inc. The corporate is growing a mine in northern Ontario, however its near-term plans are to refine the lithium in Germany.

Rock Tech has restricted capital to work with, stated André Mandel, the corporate’s vice-president of promoting and communications. With the European market monitoring forward of North America on EV adoption, Rock Tech opted to prioritize its refinery on the jap fringe of Germany first.

Long run, Mandel stated, the corporate views one other refinery in Canada as a “superb possibility.” However within the meantime, it’ll discover securing an exemption underneath the Ontario Mining Act that might permit it to ship shipments of Ontario-mined lithium to Germany for remaining processing.

Amongst advanced-stage Canadian lithium developments, Rock Tech, within the close to time period, is an exception in steering away from native refining.

In Quebec, Australia’s Sayona Mining in addition to homegrown Nemaska Lithium Inc. every plan refineries to enhance lithium mines within the province. Snow Lake Lithium in Manitoba additionally seems to construct a Winnipeg plant to refine product from its mine within the central a part of the province.

As with Avalon, Frontier Lithium — one other aspiring producer, based mostly in Val Caron, Ont., simply north of Sudbury — can also be exploring a refinery in Thunder Bay.

As mines and accompanying processing tasks advance, the thrill round important minerals is constructing in northern Ontario, stated Pirie, Ontario’s first minister targeted solely on mining in additional than 50 years. Other than jobs, the chance to be part of decarbonizing the worldwide economic system is making a “renewed sense of objective,”specifically for younger individuals, he stated.

“What we’re doing proper now’s growing the sources of gasoline for the following technology,” Pirie stated. “These fuels aren’t going to be coming from the Center East or anyplace else. They’re going to be coming from our personal yard.”