Chances are, you’re reading this on your smart phone, lap top or other device; all of which require precious and critical minerals.
Cobalt, for example, is a hard, silver-grey metal commonly found in combined form with nickel and copper and is also one of 34 metals that make up Canada’s critical minerals list. Long-time New Democratic Party Member of Parliament Charlie Angus, in his 2022 book Cobalt, writes that “the world is desperate for cobalt. It drives the proliferation of digital and clean technologies.”
Copper, another one of the 34 and one of the most versatile and essential metals in our lives, is used in everything from e-bikes to solar panels. Production will need to increase by more than 12 million tonnes over the next decade to meet global demand and Canada’s electrification targets.
And while both cobalt and copper are found in abundance in the Yukon, where does the world get a lot of these critical minerals and metals? The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The DRC accounts for approximately 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt production while Canada contributes less than one per cent to global demand.
And copper? The DRC is the world’s third largest producer of copper. Canada ranked 12th providing only 2.2 per cent to the world’s increasing needs. Sadly, according to Natural Resources Canada, from 2014 to 2023, copper production in Canada declined 22.3 per cent. A trend that if not reversed will severely and negatively impact our country’s aspirations towards living, working and recreating more "greenly."
The inconvenient truth, which we ironically read about while using our aforementioned devices, is that the DRC is infamous for allowing state-run mining ventures and small operations to produce with minimal regard for environmental protection, social justice or human rights in the pursuit of critical minerals and metals.
In Canada, and right here at home in the Yukon, standards, regulations and laws enacted within a proud and hard-fought culture of public and media scrutiny not only put us light years ahead of most jurisdictions in the world — they are also among the most stringent in the world.
So, unless we all agree to put down our devices and decide to live a life without technology, can we not agree that we want — and need — critical minerals and that they should come from Canada and the Yukon?
As a senior mining executive with a project in the Yukon spoke to at this January’s Association of Mineral Exploration (AME) B.C. Roundup conference, “in today’s modern society, the need for responsible progress and the preservation of our environment must co-exist. Yet despite the urgency of the need for critical and forward-facing minerals, we increasingly find that needless bureaucratic delays to assessing and permitting project proposals have become a significant roadblock to responsible development.”
Such roadblocks do not allow the Yukon exploration and mineral development industry — and the dedicated Yukoners who make up our industry — to contribute to the world’s growing demand for cobalt and copper in this example, or provide other critical minerals and metals found here such as zinc, nickel and tungsten, to name only a few.
Nor do they allow us to contribute to our country’s increasing need for greater economic certainty and autonomy.
If we as Yukoners can work together as residents, governments and businesses and remove barriers to responsible and ethical development, we can talk about the outcomes we all need and want and that our industry can deliver while benefitting our local communities in the process.
Before it’s yours, it’s mined.
Sincerely,
Jonas J. Smith
Yukon Chamber of Mines executive director on behalf of the Yukon Chamber of Mines board of directors
