Feeling left out: northern Ontario junior miners want more critical minerals funding

Junior mining exploration companies in northern Ontario are feeling a little left out of government funding aimed at growing electric vehicle battery production.

The federal and provincial governments recently announced they are investing billions of dollars in subsidies to attract and build electric vehicle battery plants in Ontario.

Ottawa is giving the Volkswagen St. Thomas, Ont. plant up to $13 billion in subsidies over the next decade alone.

That's about three times more money than what is being spent on the federal critical mineral strategy, which commits to spending $3.8 billion over the next eight years.

"I think they need to look at it from both angles," said Harry Barr, CEO of New Age Metals.

"Our end of it is obviously more risky than maybe building a battery plant, but they're going to have to help us a little bit more if they want an end product."

New Age Metals owns palladium properties in Temiscaming, Ont. and has one of the largest undeveloped primary palladium projects in North America.

Ontario has invested $35 million in its junior exploration program since 2021 to support companies like New Age Mining.

However, Barr said his company has had to rely on its own funding contributions to develop its projects, because it hasn't been able to access provincial funding so far.

"We've applied for and literally on the day it opens two years in a row and we haven't got anything because the funds were gone."

Barr said people have heard a lot about the government investments being made to attract EV battery plants, but said more of those funds need to extend to the critical mineral sector as well.

"We would hope that there'd be more and more available." he said.

"We're not just a company saying we're going to go out and drill a few holes and hope to find a deposit. We actually have a deposit and we'd like some help you know in various ways on it going forward."

Less reliance on China

Rachel Ziemba is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank based in Washington, D.C.

She said there is an increasing recognition of how important critical mineral supply chains are for the energy transition, from oil-fuelled vehicles to electric vehicles.

"There's been a recognition that there needs to be more investment," she said. 

"This is also coming at a time when countries like the U.S and, to some extent, countries like Canada are very much focused on trying to reduce the reliance and dominance on China in that supply chain."

Ziemba said Canada has recently stepped up its funding to attract and build electric vehicle battery plants to keep up with the U.S and Europe.

"There is money being sort of thrown at this point to make sure that Canada can also be part of the EV supply chain," she said.

She adds that in the government's haste to invest, critical mineral projects can get left behind.

"The problem is that so much money is going to these battery plants, and much less money and time and policy I think is being spent on the raw materials and the partially processed materials that will actually be used in those plants."

Ziemba says she worries that if not enough funding is contributed to the critical mineral sector, it will take longer to produce the materials needed for any EV battery plants. 

She says in that case, Canada may have to continue relying on minerals imported from other countries.