London, November 3rd (Argus) - Canadian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Tim Hodgson stated on October 31st that as part of the newly established Critical Minerals Production Alliance by the G7, Canada announced 26 new investment and cooperation projects worth 4.6 billion US dollars.
These agreements include some public-private partnerships and form part of the first round of designated strategic projects of the alliance to supply a series of critical minerals including graphite, scandium, samarium and gadolinium.
Canada's sovereign growth fund will invest 17.7 million US dollars for the expansion project of Rio Tinto's factory in Quebec's Sorel-Tracy, which is under construction. Once operational, the facility is expected to produce 9 tons per year of oxidized scandium and will become the only scandium producer in North America.
The cooperation with Rio Tinto includes an agreement where the company will assist the Canadian government in selling and storing scandium.
The Canadian government also signed a 7-year 15,000-ton per year graphite concentrate purchase agreement with Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG). The government will obtain supply from NMG's Matawinie mine in Quebec with a purity of at least 94% at a fixed North American market price for acceptance or payment.
This purchase agreement still depends on NMG signing purchase agreements with the designated allies or entities of the G7 alliance at an annual purchase volume of 150,000 tons.
The Canadian government has conditionally approved an investment of up to 36.3 million US dollars for the processing plant of Ucore Rare Metals Company in Kingston, Ontario, for the extraction of samarium and gadolinium. The G7 stated that the local government of Quebec will advance the regulatory approval process to accelerate project development.
Hodgson also announced that the government will designate some critical minerals crucial to national security under the Defense Production Act, laying the foundation for establishing national reserves.
After China's export control threatened future supply, other member countries of the G7 recently announced plans to reserve critical minerals, including the European Union and the United States.
