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ONTARIO 👷‍♂️ Canada Announces Over $4 million to Support Critical Minerals Value Chains and Create Good Jobs in Ontario 👩‍🏭

Thursday, 15 February 2024 10:23.AM

Canada is well positioned to be a leader in the responsible, inclusive and sustainable production of critical minerals. These minerals play a key role in powering the green and digital economy, and demand for them is projected to increase significantly. That is why Canada is seizing this opportunity by making smart investments in critical minerals value chains to support the development and deployment of clean energy and technology.

Mark Gerretsen, Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, announced a $4.2-million investment to Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (Ucore). This investment will help scale up and demonstrate the commercial efficacy of Ucore's pending patent and Canadian-developed rare earth element separation technology platform under rigorously simulated commercial conditions.

Funded through the Critical Minerals Research, Development and Demonstration (CMRDD) program, Ucore's project will support Canada in increasing its metals that are essential to the development of electric vehicle motors. This is a critical step in the development of a domestic electric vehicle value chain.

Instead of shipping Canada's concentrates overseas for foreign separation, Ucore's project will support Canada's direct participation in the growing market of heavy and light rare earth elements. This funding will also provide employment opportunities for skilled trades and professional occupations, including Indigenous communities.

Importantly, the investment supports the development of Canadian expertise and deploys a new, more sustainable technology to the benefit of other domestic companies. In addition to electric vehicles, rare earth elements are also required for wind turbines and a variety of electronics.

Canada is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building a cleaner and more prosperous economy. Creating domestic processing streams and developing expertise in the critical minerals space will create good jobs, build more competitive value chains and ensure investment and economic growth in communities across Canada.

"Critical minerals like rare earth elements are an integral part of many clean technologies and energy sources. Demand for these resources will only grow. That is why we are taking action to build resilient and secure supply chains that provide the materials we need and the good jobs Canadian workers deserve right here in Canada. Investments like today's help to support these goals and will help us to build a prosperous and sustainable low-carbon economy that works for everyone."
- The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

Quick Facts

• Budget 2021 provided $47.7 million to NRCan for the Critical Minerals Research Development and Demonstration (CMRDD) program to support the development of Canadian critical minerals value chains.
• The CMRDD aims to advance the commercial readiness of emerging mineral processing unit operations or technologies that will support the development of zero-emission-vehicle value chains in Canada by providing raw material inputs for use in batteries and permanent magnets.
• Through this project, Ucore will produce high-purity samples of rare earth elements (neodymium and praseodymium) and small batch samples of rare earth oxides to meet potential consumer needs.
• The project will attain high-purity samples over a six-month period of processing approximately 13 to 15 tonnes of total rare earth oxides in Ucore's facility in Kingston, Ontario.

SOURCE: Natural Resources Canada

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