The Canadian government has included rare earth elements (REEs) in a list of six critical minerals that it is prioritising in its recently released Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy.
Of Canada’s 31 critical minerals, the chosen six are being initially prioritised for their distinct potential to spur Canadian economic growth and their necessity as inputs for priority supply chains. These six minerals are lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements.
These minerals have been assessed to present the greatest opportunity to fuel domestic manufacturing and will be the initial focus of federal investments, with many other minerals presenting notable prospects for the future.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s minister of natural resources, says the nation is in the extremely fortunate position of possessing significant amounts of many of the world’s most critical minerals. Canada also conveniently has a work force, businesses, and communities familiar with the exploration, extraction, processing, manufacturing, and recycling of those minerals.
He says the nation is a world leader in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards with respect to mining, with Canadian industry advancing important initiatives such as the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) programme.
“We are also home to almost half of the world’s publicly listed mining and mineral exploration companies, with a presence in more than 100 countries and a combined market capitalization of C$520B,” the minister said. “The Critical Minerals Strategy is the roadmap to seizing a generational opportunity. A roadmap to creating significant wealth and sustainable jobs in every region of this country and a roadmap to making Canada a clean energy and technology supplier of choice in a net-zero world.”
Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy is backed by up to C$3.8B in federal support, announced in Budget 2022. The proposed funding covers the whole critical minerals supply chain, from geoscience and exploration to mineral processing, manufacturing, and recycling applications, including support for research, development, and technological deployment.
PM Takes Close Up Look at Maiden REE Production
The importance of rare earth elements was further highlighted when Canadian Prime Minister (PM) Justin Trudeau recently visited the nation’s first, and only, rare earths producing facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in central Canada.
The Vital Metals (ASX: VML) operation is Canada’s first – and North America’s second – commercial rare earths development, with mining commencing at the Nechalacho Project in 2021.
The Canadian government recently spent C$5M to help establish the facility’s processing and production.
Vital Metals used the funds to install equipment and start processing bastnaesite concentrate to produce mixed rare earth carbonate at its new plant in Saskatoon. This investment is an interest-free repayable contribution under the Jobs and Growth Fund, designed to help create jobs and position local economies for long-term growth.
The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) also received C$2.5M in interest-free repayable funding under the Western Diversification Programme, to purchase equipment needed to establish a rare earth processing facility that produces mixed rare earth carbonite by processing monazite ore.
The recent tour provided PM Trudeau with the opportunity to learn how the whole process works — and to ensure that it’s done efficiently, in partnership with Indigenous peoples.
“The world wants clean technology, and Canada has the resources, the expertise, and the skilled workers to meet that demand. By developing and processing our critical minerals here in Canada – the first step in the clean technology supply chain – we can create good middle-class jobs, all while keeping our air clean for generations to come,” the PM stated.
The Vital Metals operations crushes and sorts ore at the Nechalacho mine in the Northwest Territories, before sending the ore to the Saskatoon rare earths extraction plant.
Defense Metals
Defense Metals Corp. (TSXV: DEFN) is hoping to join Vital Metals as a Canadian REE producer and recently commissioned a hydrometallurgical pilot plant related to its Wicheeda rare earths project in British Columbia.
“We are excited to enter this important milestone of building and running the hydrometallurgical pilot plant,” said Defense Metals CEO, Craig Taylor. “Pilot operations will be done in two segments and should be completed by the end of April. A successful pilot plant programme will be essential for the completion of the engineering design and economics of the planned pre-feasibility study.”
“Following the successful completion of laboratory flotation and acid bake tests from December 2021 to date, Defense Metals is now ready to build a hydrometallurgical pilot plant,” he added. “It is important to note that the independent Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) was based on a different hydrometallurgy flowsheet, the gangue-leach – caustic-crack process.”
“However,” said Craig. “After numerous laboratory tests, the company decided to pursue piloting of the less complex acid bake process, which has, in initial test-work, yielded better recovery rates, is an industry standard, and has the potential for improved economics.”
The objective of the pilot plant is to demonstrate at a larger scale, and with continuous operation, the processing of Wicheeda flotation concentrate to produce rare earths using the acid bake flowsheet, to help confirm the quality of the project, and to gather data required for the pre-feasibility study.
The pilot plant will be configured to produce a high-purity rare earth precipitate suitable as feed for a separation plant. Samples produced from the plant will also be shared with potential end-users for product development and qualification.
Methodology
The plant is being built at SGS Lakefield, Ontario and will run in two segments for approximately two weeks. The feed for the plant will total approximately 600kg of mineral concentrate that was generated from a flotation pilot plant operated on a bulk sample from the Wicheeda deposit.
The Wicheeda REE Property
Defense Metals 100% owned, 4,262ha (~10,532-acre) Wicheeda REE property is located approximately 80km northeast of the city of Prince George, British Columbia: population 77,000.
The 2021 PEA technical report outlined a robust after-tax net present value (NPV@8%) of C$517M and an 18% IRR. This PEA contemplated an open pit mining operation with a 1.75:1 (waste: mill feed) strip ratio providing a mill with 1.8Mtpa producing an average of 25,423t REO annually over a 16 year mine life. A Phase 1 initial pit strip ratio of 0.63:1 would yield rapid access to higher grade surface mineralization in year one, and payback of C$440M initial capital within five years.
