CRITICAL MINERALS
Precious metals, base metals & now EV metals
The Abitibi Greenstone belt has it all
By Kevin Vincent
A global movement that has seen the escalation of political pressure to reduce the greenhouse gases and fossil fuel consumption has sparked an intense worldwide race to identify minerals that can feed a growing appetite for electric vehicles. Zeinab Azadbakht, the Regional Resident Geologist for the Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie District of the Ontario Geological Survey Resident Geologist Program, is leading efforts to supply comprehensive data that will serve the exploration industry in the Abitibi. In Ontario, Mines Minister Greg Rickford released a Critical Minerals Strategy earlier this year that outlines the government’s plan to make Ontario a global leader. “There is no universal definition for critical metals, but in a general sense, the critical minerals are the minerals that have a specific industrial, technological or strategic use,” said Azadbakht. “And for these elements or minerals, there are few viable substitutions. They have a wide variety of usage from the battery industry to hydrogen fuel cells, and electronics.” Canada and Ontario have released a list of critical minerals at the PDAC in March. There’s an 80% overlap between the two lists. But Ontario has a few specifics to itself namely: barite, beryllium, phosphate, selenium, and zirconium. Page 20
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From here to 2028, Azadbakht says the global demand for cobalt, nickel, lithium, and graphite, is huge. “The largest of it belongs to lithium and graphite. “We do have mineral development potential in Ontario, but we do not have current mineral production in the province, so it might be a good time to start investing and exploring these two types of minerals in Ontario.” Azadbakht says the main sources for lithium are lithium-brines, pegmatites, and hydrothermallyaltered clays. The total production last year was about 82,000 tons and the main producers were Australia, Chile, and China. About 71% of the global production of lithium went to the battery industry and 14% went to ceramic and glasses, based on which mineral you are extracting the lithium from. The price of lithium has fluctuated over the past few years. It was high in 2017, declined and then right in the middle of 2020 when countries and jurisdictions started releasing their critical mineral strategies, the demand started to expand. Thanks largely to the battery industry, the price started to jump and it’s sitting at about $90,000 per ton of lithium carbonate at the moment. “The main sources that we extract nickel from are laterite, massive sulfide deposits, and mafic-ultramafic intrusions,” said Azadbakht at the recent Mining The Abitibi Virtual Conference sponsored by Canadian Trade-Ex. “Last year global production was about 2,500,000 tons, and the main production came from Indonesia, Philippines, and Russia. About 65% of the global production went to the stainless steel industry and less than 23% then to rechargeable batteries.” The price of nickel is about $18,000 per ton at the moment. Cobalt is mainly sourced as a byproduct of copper and nickel mining. Last year’s production was Cont`d on Pg. 22
