Guest Post by Dr. Derek Wilton, PGeo.
Dr. Derek Wilton, PGeo. is an Honorary Research Professor, Earth Science, Memorial University, and Part-time Faculty Researcher College of the North Atlantic.
These are certainly fraught times. As bluesman Jimmy Rogers sang at the start of the last Cold War, “World’s in a tangle”. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic caused disastrous effects to human health and the global economy.
Aside from the ravages of the illness itself, Covid exposed glaring weaknesses in global supply chains, not only in finished goods, but also in primary mineral commodities. Before Covid-19, and progressing unrelentingly through the pandemic, human-induced climate change has been causing serious, cascading, calamities. And locally of course, as this Blog has been delineating all too well, the provincial economy is in a mess with little but dark clouds on the horizon.
Prior to Covid-19, concern about the supply of natural resources and how that relates to the economy, and ultimately national security, led major industrial nations to designate some strategically important commodities as “Critical Minerals” (CM). The designation as “minerals” is actually a marketing stratagem, as they are really referring to chemical elements that comprise minerals.
For example, copper is on the Canada CM list, but it is actually produced from a wide variety of minerals including chalcopyrite (most common in Canada), bornite, chalcocite, etc. Each country and the EU have defined their own list of CM’s; Canada and Japan have 31, the US 50, Australia 17, and the EU 30. This reflects the relative importance and availability of that commodity to a particular country. For instance, the US CM list includes beryllium which Canada does not designate as being that important to the Canadian economy.
These nations are working together to ensure some measure of supply security for all these CMs. Recent events have given rise to even greater concerns about supply as Russia is the world’s largest producer of palladium, second largest of cobalt and third largest of nickel; all of which are key CMs.
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| Dr. Derek Wilton, PGeo. (Photo Credit: Gazette Memorial University) |
The CMs include odd-sounding commodities such as dysprosium, praseodymium, and thulium (all Rare Earth Elements), germanium, gallium, and scandium; all elements that many of us only remember from the Periodic Table in chem class. CM’s do not include such stalwarts as iron and gold, as their supplies are deemed to be sufficient.
CMs may also
be the “bright light” at the end of our existential tunnel. Due in part to concern about climate change,
there has been a revolution in the development of “green” technologies, mainly
dependent on CM, that may offer a pathway to a sustainable future. According to
Nadal Nassar, a world-leading CM expert with the United States Geological
Survey, CM can empower the development of “faster, lighter, smaller,
stronger, hotter, and better” technologies.
These new technologies will be paramount to a modern society’s success
and environmental survival.
In
contrast to classic mineral resources, such as iron, etc., CMs are vastly more
difficult to find, process, and produce. Many, in fact, were once considered
obscure curiosities, mainly derived, if at all, as by-products from the
production of other commodities. They are typically found in smaller deposits,
often with unique production requirements. Coupled with the difficulty in finding
new CM deposits, modern societies demand that any development must be
undertaken as efficiently and cleanly (low-carbon) with minimal environmental
impacts, zero (or as close as possible) waste, and as close to total recovery as
possible. “Life of Mine” from exploration to final reclamation must be planned
based on best environmental, legal, social, and business practices.
NL is in a comparatively unique situation vis-à-vis CM in that its geological endowment is rich in CM, it has a competent research and development sector anchored by MUN and CNA, and it has strong environmental and worker protections (so-called “ethical” environment). NL has a continental scale geology comprising the eastern edge of the Canadian Shield, the northeastern terminus of the Appalachian Mountain Belt, and the offshore sedimentary basins.
Most of Canada’s 31 CM exist in some form in the province. Labrador hosts significant REE resources at Port Hope Simpson (Search Minerals), Letitia Lake, and Strange Lake; the latter two requiring significant research before production can be considered (my group are still defining how the minerals therein react to weathering, crushing, erosion, etc.). The Vale Voisey’s Bay mine is a significant producer of nickel, copper, and cobalt. Lithium has recently been discovered in SW Newfoundland (Benton Resources/Sokoman Minerals).
If NL
develops its CM resources intelligently, it can aid the move into a
carbon-neutral world with significant financial reward. Development
of CM could be a foundation for innovation and economic diversification, the education
and training of Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP), and the development and
application of new technologies that would have global applications.
To take advantage of its CM endowment, NL will need to foster collaboration and engagement between its post-secondary institutions (MUN and CNA), both level of governments, industry, and the general public. A partnership must be developed amongst all provincial stakeholders to develop a strategy for the sustainable development of CM resources.
This is no time for institutional and intellectual “silos”; the provincial
economy can’t afford them and time can’t be wasted on turf wars. We’re all in
this together, only we can make CM a
critical component of the future NL economy.
