Building Canada's Emerging Rare Earth Elements and Chromite Industry Through Technological Innovation

In recent years, the steady, reliable, and secure supply of critical metals has become
increasingly important to major industrialized economies that seek to sustain their
industrial base and develop advanced technologies, such as clean energy. In light of
this, Canada, with its significant critical metal reserves, has an opportunity to supply
some of the global demand for critical metals. However, to transition from promising
mineral deposits to marketable products, investment in fundamental R&D and expertise
is needed to address the complex technological challenges around the production,
separation and processing of critical metals, and to better understand the global market
for these key commodities. For many small and medium enterprises, investing in R&D is
extremely challenging with their limited resources; federal investment in R&D would
catalyze the development and growth of new businesses and high-value jobs. As a
result, the Government of Canada is investing $23 million over six years to accelerate
the production of rare earth elements (REE) and chromite/ferrochrome. This industryled
program delivered by CanmetMINING, Natural Resources Canada has the goal to
equip these emerging Canadian industries with the technological innovation needed to
reach production.