When Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau advised a gaggle of executives that President Donald Trump wasn’t kidding about annexing Canada, he provided one purpose: crucial minerals.
US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shake fingers throughout a gathering within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, DC, on February 13, 2017. The political circumstances that surrounded the publication of “Ultimatum,” as soon as a best-selling novel that imagined an American effort to annex Canada, might ring acquainted to anybody following current headlines. “Ultimatum,” printed in 1973, is authored by D-Day veteran Richard Rohmer, the honorary lieutenant common of the Canadian Armed Forces, who just lately turned 101. Nonetheless an avid information shopper and author, Rohmer advised AFP that remarks by President-elect Donald Trump implying that Canada may very well be absorbed by the USA shouldn’t be laughed off.(Saul Loeb/AFP)
Canada is wealthy in almost three dozen crucial minerals important to fashionable know-how and produces greater than 60 minerals and metals together with nickel, potash, aluminum and uranium.
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The deposits are strewn throughout the nation, which has a land mass about as huge as all of Europe and second solely to Russia. Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, is wealthy in nickel, chromite and copper. Quebec has lithium, uncommon earth metals and graphite. British Columbia has copper, molybdenum and niobium. The prairie provinces — Saskatchewan and Manitoba — have extremely high-grade uranium and potash. A lot of this materials leads to the US, which was the most important purchaser of Canada’s crucial minerals in 2023.
Since his election in November, Trump repeatedly has stated Canada may keep away from tariffs by changing into the 51st state. His transfer to decrease his preliminary tariffs threats on uncooked supplies in January — calling for 10% on imports as an alternative of 25%, like most different Canadian items — was a nod to the nation’s reliance on its northern neighbor’s sources.
A couple of quarter of US uranium wants are fulfilled by gigantic mines in Saskatchewan, owned by firms like Cameco Corp. Greater than 80% of US potash comes from Canada, together with from Nutrien Ltd. And about 70% of US aluminum is provided by crops in Quebec and British Columbia.
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The US additionally depends on Canada for its army wants. Nickel from northern Ontario is shipped to the US for weapons manufacturing, together with zinc and germanium from Teck Assets Ltd.’s smelter in British Columbia.
Canada has lengthy championed itself because the world’s hub for mineral explorers and builders. It’s dwelling to just about half of all publicly traded mining firms, together with faculties, commerce packages {and professional} associations devoted to geological research, mechanical engineering and mine building.
However regardless of Canada’s mineral abundance, useful resource extraction is slowed by prolonged allowing occasions and numerous regulatory hurdles. It will probably take 5 to 25 years to develop a mine within the nation. And a scarcity of infrastructure in distant but resource-rich areas means some deposits may take a long time to develop.
Canada’s Ring of Hearth — an unlimited, mineral-rich area in northern Ontario replete with nickel, copper and chromite — was found a long time in the past however has no clear timeline for improvement.
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The sluggish tempo has drawn criticism from enterprise leaders and mining executives, who say Canada’s method has slowed efforts to construct a North American provide chain of the supplies wanted for electrical automobiles, wind generators, photo voltaic panels and army weaponry.
In the meantime, China maintains a good grip on key metals all over the world, with possession of main mines in Africa, Asia and South America. It additionally controls the majority of world smelting and refining capability, that means that even Canadian metals producers will usually promote their materials into China for processing.