The Mining Association of Canada | The Canadian Mining Story: Economic Impacts and Drivers for the Global Energy Transition 2023 47 From battery storage to new transmission infrastructure, mineral requirements are expected to grow substantially and Canada fulfills the need for minerals better, with less carbon intensity, than most competing mining jurisdictions. Canada has a clean electricity grid, with 82% of power from renewable or non-emitting sources. As a result, Canadian mineral products are among the lowest carbon intensity in the world. CRITICAL MINERALS Given the increase in demand expected over the next decades for clean energy, governments are attempting to secure reliable sources of the minerals that it requires. As part of this process, they have been assessing the vulnerability of their economies to external supply shocks. While this process was underway before 2020, it was accelerated by the global pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Shortages of key inputs to the economy highlighted the extent of reliance on a small number of countries for critical minerals. Minerals required for manufacturing clean energy technologies are concentrated in a few locations as shown in Figure 4. For lithium, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements, the top three producing nations control over three quarters of annual mine production. Copper concentration is slightly lower, at 44% for the top three producing countries. Canada has known reserves of many of these minerals but may not have any current extraction. For example, the reserves of rare earth elements in Canada are 830,000 tonnes of rare earth oxide equivalent, but mine production was zero in both 2021 and 202239. Figure 4: Percentage of Global Production, Top 3 Countries (2022 estimated), Selected Minerals40 Australia Australia Chile China China China USA Mozambique Madagascar Congo (Kinshasa) Congo (Kinshasa) Indonesia Indonesia Russia Russia Philippines Chile Peru 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Lithium Rare Earths Graphite Cobalt Nickel Copper Percent of Global Production 39 U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2023. Rare Earths. https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/ mcs2022/mcs2022-rare-earths.pdf. 40Based on the USGS’s National Minerals Information Center Mineral Commodity Summaries for each mineral, using estimates for 2022 production. https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/commodity-statistics-and-information.
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