Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself and your background?
I have always been interested in science and I was fortunate to get my undergraduate degree in geology at Laval University in Québec City. I was very interested in several aspects of geology, and I took part in an academic exchange where I spent a year at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, followed by a short stint in the nickel and copper mines in Sudbury where mineral exploration, development, and mining really became my focus. I started working after my undergraduate degree for exploration projects in the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta. I was inspired by my significant other to return to graduate studies to do my master’s degree in geology at the University of New Brunswick under the supervision of Dr. David Lentz, focused on an unusual gold deposit in the Canadian Appalachians. Dr. Lentz and the group of fellow graduate students were dedicated and had a holistic approach to geological understanding which really sparked a deeper understanding of the importance of geology in mineral exploration.
Since, I have been lucky to work for various companies of different sizes, looking for different commodities in varied geological environments using several different tools applied to projects at different levels of advancement. Through an auspicious set of circumstances, I was a part of a small exploration company that not only discovered several new mineralized uranium lenses, but enabled us to have our deposits recognized as a new mineralized subtype. I was then able to build on these experiences to join the world of corporate development and for a brief but meaningful length of time, work as a mining analyst for an institutional investment fund. I have also been an independent consultant and a standards developer in various interesting projects, notably working with the global experts in hydrogen development at the international ISO-level.
Since 2020, I have been a strategic advisor for the Ministère des Ressources naturelles et Forêts (Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests) of the Government of Québec. I’ve been lucky to have been integrated into a very dynamic team, working to monitor exploration activities throughout the province and helping to describe and promote the various government policies, programmes, and crown corporations that the government has in place to assist mineral promoters in every link of the chain from exploration through development and mining to processing.
Let’s dive into Québec’s critical minerals plans. Can you outline what exactly this entails?
Québec wants to be recognized as a reliable, ethical, and sustainable partner with shared-valued countries to contribute actively to the global green energy and technological transitions worldwide, as well as to wealth creation in a greener economy by the production, transformation, and recycling of quality CSMs. Québec is doing everything that is necessary to create sustainable wealth and position itself in the global economic stage.
To do so, Québec launched a critical minerals action plan, the Québec Plan for the Development of Critical and Strategic Minerals in 2020, the first of its kind released in Canada. The action plan was updated in January 2024, along with an additional six critical minerals taking into account the evolving geopolitical landscape. The plan sets our priorities and covers all aspects, from exploration to recycling. It has sparked great interest internationally at all levels be it commercial with promoters and investors or with government officials.
To help define Québec’s vision for the future of its critical and strategic minerals (CSMs), the four main orientations guide the actions of the Plan, and these orientations, including some of the updated action items are:
1) Explore
- Mapping the CSM potential in Québec: it is important to have a full, in-depth understanding of the potential
- Building geoscientific knowledge and leveraging digital innovations: Understanding and publishing a better understanding of CSMs, to help accelerate the starting point of mineral explorers
- Supporting a national collaborative R&D network for CSMs, from exploration to recycling
- Establish an interdepartmental committee to analyse management tools, such as public health and safety concerns for CMS projects
2) Develop
- Providing financial support for projects in exploration, processing, recycling, artificial intelligence, and R&D, for value chains that create impacts in Québec
- Consolidating infrastructure networks and make them levers for development; for instance, our battery strategy which has led to the development of a battery-component campus in Bécancour
- Implement an integrated vision to consolidate regional economic corridors through the construction of projects related to a transmission network, renewable energy, and telecommunications in the Northern Territory
- Implement a strategy to maintain and strengthen the comparative advantages of Québec’s mines with other provinces and territories
- Driving the Digital Transformation of Mines
- Promote the availability of a skilled workforce in the CSM sector
3) Recycle
- Maximizing CSM upcycling, transformation, and recycling initiatives in Québec from a circular economy perspective
- Updating and optimizing the environmental framework to support the sustainable development of the mining sector (legal, regulatory, and administrative)
- Create the tools needed for the traceability of CSMs
- Assess the feasibility of expanding the scope of the regulations on extended producer responsibility to new products that may contain CSMs
4) Communicate
- Raising public awareness of the importance of CSMs through various initiatives such as public service announcements and a general public outreach campaign
- Encouraging regular communication with local and Indigenous communities to promote the social acceptability of projects and harmonization of land uses
- Promoting Québec internationally as a responsible partner in the supply of CSMs and attracting investments here
How does this differ from what’s happening across Canada? What is unique about the Québec context?
The first thing to remember is that with developing a diversified and robust global supply chain for expanded critical and strategic materials, the pie is getting bigger with increased demand worldwide. This said, Québec was the first jurisdiction to publish a critical and strategic mineral plan in 2020, inspired by the fact that Québec has the most diversified mineral potential in Canada, all the minerals and raw materials needed to produce batteries, financial tools at all stages of mining projects, a complete and developed ecosystem with cutting-edge expertise, and a long-standing history in mining.
Québec believes that its unique mining ecosystem places it distinctively and advantageously. For instance, Québec has government-subsidised investment funds which can deploy capital through various instruments, some funds, like SIDEX, are more interested in exploration-stages, some funds like IQ’s Ressource Québec have capital ready to deploy for more advanced projects. IQ also owns SOQUEM, an exploration company with dedicated budgets that can develop projects in partnership with other companies. Québec has research consortiums, like CONSOREM and CRITM, as well as COREM, who is dedicated to development of process technologies.
Moreover, among the achievements of the PQVMCS to date, we find the research network specific to CSMs, launched in February 2023. This network aims to boost industrial research, support companies in carrying out their research projects, and helping them financially, which makes it an inclusive partner of choice. Led by CRITM, the network brings together companies, researchers, and other stakeholders in the mining sector while remaining independent regarding the choice of projects and the researchers who will carry them out.
Our plan has already delivered on certain key promises and developments.
For instance, Québec is:
- Home to the largest known lithium (spodumene) reserve in Canada and almost half of Canadian lithium projects
- The world’s second-largest producer of niobium and the only producer in the northern hemisphere
- Second in Canada for nickel production and third for copper
- Number one producer of graphite in Canada
- First North American producer of high purity scandium oxide
- One of the rare jurisdictions in the world with the potential to produce all the minerals required to manufacture batteries, namely lithium, phosphorus, iron, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese, in addition to many aluminum smelters.
Let’s look at the EV/batteries value chain in Canada. Where do you see the major players emerging?
There are several factors that will be key for the EV battery value chain development in general, Québec will not be different. Some higher-profile factors will be having a prosperous mineral endowment, knowledgeable and skilled workforce, clean and renewable electricity, access to capital, the correct social acceptability contexts, and being a part of markets with high-ESG values. We can expect that major players will emerge where one, but ideally several, of these factors will be met. Luckily, Québec does meet several of these factors.
Québec has the most diversified base of mineral commodities in Canada, the largest province by area, with long-lived mining camps such as Val-d’Or, Chibougamau, Raglan, and Fermont (just to name a few) and a wide base of high-potential exploration projects.
Québec also has a very knowledgeable workforce applied to critical and strategic minerals due to development of niobium, titanium, nickel, copper, zinc. and graphite mines among others, several world-class universities and research consortiums dedicated to critical minerals.
Québec has been able to attract significant processing capacity for EV components such as the GM-POSCO partnership, Ford-EcoPro-SK On partnership, and NMG with the help of dedicated renewable electricity blocks, just to name a few. There is a dynamic mix of institutional and market investors in Québec that can take part and help derisk proposed projects.
Québec has developed several tools and mechanisms to enhance the likelihood of proponents obtaining and maintaining a social licence with stakeholders, such as pre-defined territories that municipalities find would be incompatible with mining activity, an independent public hearing bureau, modern treaties with certain first nations, and the government is an active player in explaining the importance of critical minerals in the public.
Finally, Québec is fortunately also endowed with road, rail, and ports that give access to the continental EV constructor markets such as Ontario and the US Midwest manufacturing hubs.
Where are the critical gaps?
Québec, just like all shared-value partners, has to be vigilant and agile with respect to the geopolitical landscape. Québec is aware of the importance of certain minerals that may be more important to other jurisdictions. It is important that we remain in close collaboration with our partners to identify the gaps in the value chains. This can also be done by being vigilant about secondary minerals that may be extracted by reprocessing tailings or adding another processing stream, such as Rio Tinto’s scandium oxide processing plan in Sorel-Tracy.
In the case of battery components, as of today, China still controls the value chains of most battery related CSMs. North American value chains are still to be built. With the announced and potential projects in Québec, our jurisdiction could become a key player for North American supplies at each stage of the value chain, from exploration and mining to battery manufacturing. Québec has a role to play in maximizing the chances of success of these projects, both from the financial, workforce, and research and development aspects. Having a well-funded research consortium is one of the mechanisms that Québec has put in place to ensure that it remains in the top-tier of battery component suppliers. lt will be important as well to be vigilant in the components of battery chemistry which may vary depending on region, use, and new applications.
The place of recycling is also currently underestimated: there is currently little battery material that has reached its end-of-life and needs to be recycled. However, by incorporating the concepts of recycling into the development of our critical and strategic mineral plan, Québec has been addressing pre-emptively some of these upcoming issues and reducing the requirement of new primary material to be coming on stream.
Looking at funding, where are the biggest opportunities and challenges emerging?
In general, one can easily see how reasons such as the volatility of mineral investment cycles in various commodities can be an impediment to direct government investments throughout the market economy. However, long-term strategies by certain foreign governments as well as the global pandemic have refocused certain priorities. The development of CSMs sectors is no longer only dependent on market conditions but now responds to the imperatives of securing supplies and reindustrialization. With this in mind, the desire to develop robust battery sectors in the northeast of North America and in Europe offers opportunities for Québec. Attracting investments for projects aimed at supplying these sectors of activity as well as the implementation of new financing models that take these new realities into account are among the issues being experienced and on which Québec remains proactive.
Like our partners, Québec also recognizes that certain trends are consumer-driven and regulations for certain energy transition requirements have a global consensus. The spectrum of approaches is quite wide, such as the IRA in the US and CRMA in Europe. Furthermore, being able to value the ESG-components and track the material sources will likely also become an important topic to level the playing field. This aspect is not superfluous, this is consumer-driven: we believe people may not accept purchasing materials sourced from areas or companies with unacceptable practices and consumers will prefer alternatives.
Québec has taken the approach that by building an extensive knowledge base, expertise, and shareholder tools, it will find itself amenable to ESG investments in most circumstances. It has also joined in with the Global Battery Alliance to become a certifiable and enviable source of low-carbon footprint minerals for future development.
What should investors and those involved in the battery metals space be on the lookout for from Québec in the coming years?
As mentioned earlier, Québec renewed its action plan for critical minerals in January 2024, and adapted our list of critical minerals accordingly.
For instance, we recognize that not all EV battery compositions will be the same in all global markets: batteries for compact European cars will generally not be the same as for large north American work vehicles, or smaller Asian battery-powered scooters. Factors such as charger network density, weather, and available urban commuter options are all going to influence which structure is developed.
Investors should be aware that Québec is and will continue to be a reliable, ethical, responsible, and sustainable partner for the supply of critical and strategic materials. They should be aware that investing into a projects’ social licence is a fantastic way of ensuring long-term stability in Québec, and Québec will collaborate with these promoters. Although until now the development of the battery sector has been around the NMC type cathode, it should be remembered that Québec also has the potential to develop a value chain for the LFP type battery. Opportunities could emerge for the CSMs required by this sector in the coming years.
Finally, the development of economic sectors other than batteries and involving CSMs could also bring opportunities in the future. We can think in particular of value chains associated to hydrogen and renewable energies (solar, wind).
